Pizza Gusto

Imagine you're in Italy, it's a cold winter's night, and all you want is a warm, delicious wood-fired pizza. Well, that's exactly what Pizza Gusto felt like. It was an extremely small pizza shop that felt like it was somewhere in the middle of Italy. I walked into the outside seating area and noticed the prominent wooden scheme. All of the tables and benches were made out of a dark-coloured wood. I opened the small glass door inside and immediately noticed the hundreds if not thousands of pizza boxes all stacked neatly on shelves that encased the left side of the small shop. These boxes looked simple but amazing. They had the amazing colours of the Italian flag on them (red, white and green) and looked minimalistic yet incredible. When I went to the counter, I could see directly into the kitchen. There was a huuuuuge pizza oven that could probably fit a dozen individual pizzas inside. It was made out of stone, was around 3 meters in length and width and look incredible. There were huge amounts of firewood stacked underneath the oven, they all looked dry and ready to use. Looking into the pizza oven and I could see huge flames all around the side. They had an amazing spectrum of colours that ranged from yellow to orange to red. 

 

Pizza Gusto mainly sells pizza, and the hardest decision was figuring out what pizza to get. I felt like getting something simple but unique. I was torn between the "Patate" which has finely sliced potatoes and rosemary, and the "Verde" which has pesto and rocket. In the end, I decided on getting the "Verde", mainly because if done well, pesto on pizza can be absolutely incredible. They had starters and sides on the menu but I decided not to get any because I was dining alone and wouldn't have been able to eat everything all by myself. These sides included two different types of salad, Bianca, chips and more. They also had a single pasta dish which changes every week. They had two different versions of a calzone, which in case you're unsure of what a calzone is, it's sort of like a pizza encased in dough. On the right side of the wall, there was a large chalkboard that had the specials menu. I'm not sure how often it changed but all of the dishes on the specials menu looked amazing.

 

When I ordered the "Verde" pizza, I only had to wait five minutes. I should've known that the wait was going to be so quick because of the woodfire pizza oven. If you don't know, woodfire pizza ovens cook pizza incredibly fast because they can reach temperatures of up to 400 degrees Celsius. The pizza goes into this blasting heat which often causes the outer edge/crust to puff up and receive some small amounts of delicious char. Another thing that's better in a woodfire pizza oven rather than a gas oven is the overall freshness of the pizza. Due to the short amount of time a pizza spends in a woodfire pizza oven, it always comes out fresh. But when it spends time in a gas oven that can take 10-20 minutes to fully cook the pizza, some ingredients can come out all dried up or even burnt. If you ever want to maximise your pizza experience, I would highly recommend you find somewhere like Pizza Gusto that uses a woodfire oven. 

 

From using further research, I discovered that bocconcini is a small version of mozzarella. Bocconcini means "small mouthfuls" which now that I think about it, makes perfect sense considering that bocconcini are very small balls that have a similar shape to mozzarella (just in a smaller proportion). I liked how Pizza Gusto used both mozzarella and bocconcini in their pizzas. If you pay really close attention to the "Verde" pizza in the "Short Reviews" section, you'll notice that there are some small patches of white cheese among the other melted cheese that is slightly yellow. The white patches are bocconcini and although it doesn't bring much flavour,  it can add some super stretchy bits of cheese to the pizza. Both bocconcini and mozzarella come from Italian buffalo's milk. Depending on the animal's diet, the cheese can either be bright white (like the bocconcini) or a light yellow (like the mozzarella). It's amazing how what the animal eats can affect the overall colour of the cheese. The use of bocconcini and mozzarella shows that Pizza Gusto pays close attention to how their pizzas look, taste and texture(s) they give out. If any of this information is incorrect please contact me on Instagram and I will fix it. 

 

In my personal opinion, pizza is one of those dishes that too many people get wrong. I'm not talking about people who argue about whether or not pineapple belongs on pizza, I'm talking about people who think that fast-food pizza is the best out there. I'm not saying fast-food pizza is bad, I'm just saying that it is almost always the most basic you can get. But, there is a difference between simple and basic. Basic (in pizza terms) means the standard meat lovers and Hawaiian. Whereas simple has a much larger range, like how Pizza Gusto has the "Patate" and "Verde". Sure, those pizzas only have five or so ingredients, but that's what makes them amazing. Simple yet delicious. 

 

I went through a whole range of emotions when visiting Pizza Gusto. From thinking that I'm in Italy, to being pleasantly warmed up by the stretchy cheese. Pizza Gusto does pizza right. They make some pizzas for people who like seafood, some for vegetarians, some for those who like meat and for everyone in between. If you're in the area and you like pizza you must give Pizza Gusto a try. Sure, it might be cold sitting outside, but that's where the whole experience comes from. Letting the hot, fresh pizza warm your hands up, tasting your first, perfect bite into the pizza and before you know it, the pizza has been finished and you feel fed. 

 

Thank you for reading.