La Pizza

4 Stagioni

          Pizza was one of the main foods I was most excited to sink my teeth into here in Florence. Everywhere you look there are signs advertising pizza and I didn’t want to just get some cheap, touristy pizza that was all thrills and no real, Italian flavor. Therefore, I hesitated until I was absolutely sure I would be one hundred percent satisfied. Well, it was worth the wait. The other night I went to a local Osteria known for their pizza and their seafood. As we walked in, the aroma hit. It is the best feeling when you can walk into a restaurant and know right away what you want to order because you can smell it. As we walked to our table, we passed numerous locals enjoying the most scrumptious looking pastas, pizzas, and seafood dishes the one could imagine and even though I knew I was going to get pizza, I was certain it was going to be a difficult decision. By the time we ordered, all of us were so upset because instead of thinking about what we did order, all we could think of was everything we didn’t. Our pizzas arrived scalding hot and paper thin. Northern Italy is famous for its paper-thin crust. The thinness allows the entire pizza to be cooked very quickly in an extremely hot, wood-burning oven so that the dough is crunchy, slightly burnt, the cheese is melted, and the toppings are hot, yet still fresh. MERAVIGLIOSO! I ordered the Quattro stagioni (4 seasons), which consisted of pretty much everything a person could imagine: prosciutto, olive, pepperone (peppers), carcioffi (artichokes), pomodori (tomatoes), potate, and mushrooms all over a bed of fontina cheese. From the moment the hot, salty, flavors hit my tongue and dripped down my chin I was sold. However, I did not have the best pizza at the table. The best pizza by far was my friend Hallie’s frutti di mare pizza (fruit of the sea). When it arrived my jaw dropped to the floor. It was basically the bottom of the ocean spread out on top of a pizza. Whole mussels and clams in their shells, fresh squid, scallops, and an entire prawn all on top of a beautiful marinara salsa. It was salty, fresh, and tasted like the ocean. It was quintessential good tuscan cooking. I am sure there is better pizza in Florence, but even so, it was the best pizza experience I have ever had. 

Frutti di Mare (sorry about the quality)

A prawn...on a pizza!