Rossopomodoro

With the recommendations of both a Neapolitan and a Sardinian, a group of us girls from work headed to Rossopomodoro near Covent Garden for dinner a couple Friday nights ago. This Italian chain has received quite a slating from the blogging world but it seems it’s all their dishes, apart from their pizzas, that disappoint. So, sticking with the pizzas must be the thing to do.

I bullied poor Mirna into sharing both a red pizza and a white one with me; unsurprisingly, the latter is made without tomato sauce but this can be added if you miss it. It was a long wait for the pizzas but I think it was worth it (and hey, the place was packed and we were a large group).

Our pizza rosso was La Verace (£10.20) with tomato sauce, DOP buffalo mozzarella, DOP extra virgin olive oil from Sorrento and fresh basil. I’m sure it’s difficult to find a more carbon-unfriendly pizza with all its ingredients flown in from Italy but you know what? I didn’t care as it was delicious with its great tomato base and dollops of fresh melty mozzarella. The base was both thin in the middle and thick (in a puffy way) out towards the edges and had a good chew and flavour. Excellent.

For our pizza bianco, I chose the Carmelo (£9.30) with Provola cheese, Neapolitan sausage, friarielli (Neapolitan wild turnip tops) and fresh basil. (Ah, those turnip tops! We had the same amount on our pizza as there was on that plate at Polpo.) I loved that combination of bitter greens with savoury meat and the herbal bite of basil. What would have made it better would have been some sweet tomato… I missed it! I need to get used to white pizzas, I think.

Even though we were all pretty stuffed (and the two of us were doubly so as we controlled pre-dinner hunger pangs with a char siu bun snack), I split a Mandorlotto (£5) – Almond flavoured ice cream with Nutella, whipped cream and chocolate brittle – with another colleague. Our waiter confirmed that all their gelati were made with buffalo milk – is this the norm in Italy? If you don’t like the flavour of bitter almonds, you won’t like this. I thought the gelato was alright though a bit icy and there was no sign of chocolate brittle unless they meant cocoa powder. But Nutella with ice cream – why haven’t I thought of this before?! What a fabulous combo that I will definitely recreate at home. Still, just an ok dessert from Rossopomodoro. I’m definitely going back but it’ll be just for those pizzas.

Rossopomodoro
50-52 Monmouth St
London WC2H 9EP

There are two other branches: one on Fulham Road and the other in Notting Hill.

I’m heading off out of the country soon and so I’ll be away from the blog for a while. New posts in about a fortnight!