Pizzeria Flegrea is part of the history of Torino: opened back in 1976, it was the first Neapolitan pizzeria in town. The original ownership was uninterrupted until 2016 when, the restaurant in Corso Massimo D’Azeglio 114 took a short regenerating break until it was reborn two years later: it kept the name, but behind the "renewed" Flegrea this time are business partners and friends Enrique Jiménez González and Gianluca Poggio. The offer is also unchanged: pizza, pizza and even more Neapolitan pizza. Everyone is free to give it its unquestionable interpretation, yet at Flegrea Neapolitan pizza is above all very easy to digest and of the highest quality.
Both
Enrique and
Gianluca, it needs to be mentioned, had nothing to do with this world. They were more familiar with artisanal beers (they're partners of the
Soralamà brewery) and restaurant industry (together they run a brasserie in Valle di Susa, a tapas bar and many more businesses including a new restaurant in Porta Nuova -
Guarini – where they also sell draught vermouth). So they immediately decided to count on an expert,
Luigi Acciaio (now the pizzaiolo at
La Flegrea is
Marco Venere) to give the style the two friends were looking for: all the process of creative fermentation begins with a strong premise: their pizzas must be very easy to digest, matching the dough with highly selected ingredients.
Hence the decision: making no use of white flour, and relying only to a blend of semi or whole wheat flours from
Petra, using long leavening and high hydration: «When clients leave the pizzeria with great satisfaction -
Enrique says – we ask them to let us know how they slept, because we want our clients to sleep not only satisfied but also well!».
Moreover, as beer producers,
Enrique and
Gianluca consider cereals as living raw materials that change from one season to the next, and recommend the adoption of suitable adaptations to the process: handing this very delicate task to an expert and paying attention to the flour makes the work easier and facilitates the best results.
And what about the ingredients for the toppings at Flegrea? Mountain oregano, tomatoes from Campania (Piennolo, San Marzano, red and yellow date tomatoes), fior di latte, anchovies (from Cetara rather than the Sea of Cantabria), prosciutto... «In this case - Enrique confesses – I choose Iberico. Is it better than Italian prosciutto crudo? Who can say. For sure it's different, meatier, we like to match it with buffalo milk mozzarella on our focaccia Italia-Spagna».
