Pizza Hunting

Back in January I shared about my search for Napoletano style pizza in San Diego. I found the awesome Pizzeria Bruno and thoroughly enjoyed their Margherita Pizza with Buffalo Mozzarella. Since then I've been keeping my eyes open for other similar establishments, and though I've had a good many pizzas since January I hadn't found another pizzeria worth sharing with you until this past Friday.

A couple of months ago I took a chance and purchased a Facebook Deal for Osteria Origano.  The menu sounded good and the location was a part of town where I knew good restaurants abound.  My hubbie and I finally got around to using our certificate this past Friday evening and it was amazing!

Our server was from Catania (a city near where we lived in Sicily) and the pizza chef was also Sicilian.  We spoke a bit of Italian with our server and reminisced about the wonderful food in Sicily and we got the inside scoop on the best pizzas at Origano. I chose to enjoy a simple pizza topped with Buffalo Mozzarella and Prosciutto and it was simply wonderful!

I can't wait to go back! I feel like I discovered a little piece of my Sicilian "home" here in San Diego. If you'd like to check out Osteria Origano for yourself (and I highly recommend that you do) you can find them at:

Osteria Origano
3650 5th avenue, #103
San Diego Ca 92103
619-295-9590

The hunt is on!

Ever since my visit to Napoli I've been obsessed with Margherita Pizza. Not just a plain ol' cheese pizza, but one with delightfully simple sauce, scrumptious crust, and mozzarella di buffala. A few leaves of fresh basil don't hurt, either. Pizza in Sicily was always delicious, but the pizza in Naples blew my mind!

Now that we are back in the States good pizza, or rather good Italian pizza, is hard to come by.  I decided to make it my personal goal to find the best Italian pizza in San Diego, and started today with Pizzeria Bruno - highly recommended by my hair stylist.

Yummies @ Pizzeria Bruno

In Italy pizza is probably the most economical meal you can buy.  I don't think I ever paid more than 10 euro for a pizza and that was in the city center of Rome where everything is overpriced.  In Sicily pizza usually cost us around 6 euro per pie, and in Naples the best Margherita pizza I had cost me a whopping 3 euro!  I was in for another dose of culture shock when I looked at the menu in Pizzeria Bruno - a Margherita pizza with mozzarella di buffala cost $17!!  I guess I shouldn't have been suprised - mozzarella di buffala is expensive here, but wow...

Anyhow, enough about the prices, because it was totally worth it!  My pizza was outstanding!  The sauce, made with San Marzano tomatoes was perfectly simple and delicious, the crust had just the right combination crisp and soft that can only come from a wood oven, and the mozzarella was to die for!  Pizzeria Bruno is definitely a repeat!

After pizza I had to try a cannolo.  I had high hopes after my fantastic pizza. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite what I expected. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't authentic either. On one end of the cannolo there were chocolate chips, the other pistachios - salted pistachios.  Strange.  The ricotta tasted more like lightly sweetened whipped cream, but it did have the texture of ricotta, except more fluffy. It wasn't the dense, sweet treat that I became accustomed to in Sicily. Still, it was tasty - just not as expected.

Overall Pizzeria Bruno exceeded my expectations.  I went hoping for a Napoletano style Pizza Margharita and that is exactly what I found. It isn't Naples, but Pizzeria Bruno will keep me satisfied until I can visit Italy again.

Visit Pizzeria Bruno at:

4207 Park Blvd
San Diego, CA 92103
619-260-1311

 Buon appetito!