The best you can buy from Gabriele Bonci with 50 euros

2023 Author: Cody Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-24 11:20

Sliced pizza. If there is someone who has given prestige and dignity to this type of pizza until a few years ago hastily considered a banal "bakery" pizza placed only half a step above plain bread, that someone is Gabriele Bonci.

No one would have dared to think that the humble pizza by the slice could never compete with the "real" pizza, the Neapolitan one, its consumption was associated with the idea of a quick whim, street food suitable more than anything else to appease hunger pangs sudden.

Not to the authentic pleasure of enjoying a good pizza.

But after the opening of "Pizzarium" in Rome, nothing was the same as before.

Since Bonci began baking rich slices in his restaurant in 2003, pizza by the slice has met with unstoppable success, and Pizzarium has become a destination for enthusiasts from all over Italy.

In fact, Bonci's pizza by the slice is not just bread dough variously seasoned: high, soft, entirely produced with organic flours, it is a pizza whose dough is left to mature in the fridge for almost 24 hours, during which time not only it is enriched with the aromas and flavors that only a long rest can give, but it is also aromatic and digestible, with a well-celled interior and a soft but fragrant texture at the same time.

The rich fillings, with ingredients selected by Bonci himself, help to make each slice a real delicacy that has nothing to envy to the classic Neapolitan.

Precisely for this reason Dissapore awarded Gabriele Bonci and his Pizzarium the title of best pizza chef in Italy.

But not only: Bonci has also opened, again in Rome, in the Prati district, another place, entirely dedicated to bread, leavened products and biscuits, "Il Panificio", a true temple of bread in all its forms: unleavened bread, unleavened bread, “pane nostrum”, (ie with Tumminia wheat flour).

And also the classic "white pizza", then assorted delicacies such as croissants, pies, biscuits and plum-cakes, all baked since it has now become a reference point for the capital's leavened products.

Well, to test these products, but also to follow up on the rumor that Bonci's products are overpriced, Dissapore is back in both the Roman pizza maker's stores, both Pizzarium and Panificio, to see firsthand what you can bring. at home on a budget of 50 euros.

THE BAKERY

What strikes you, first of all, in the Bonci Bakery, is the aroma. The scent of vanilla, citrus, butter that pervades the whole place.

In fact, one of the secrets of Bonci's desserts that we can find in the Bakery, is given precisely by an aroma that he himself prepares, a sort of butter-based puree flavored with vanilla, orange and bergamot berries, which gives his preparations a unmistakable aroma and flavor.

Also thanks to the excellent butter, coming from the mythical Roman temple "Beppe and his cheeses" (among other things, considered by Dissapore among the 15 best shops for cheese nerds).

This particular aroma is what makes the bakery's croissants special, here called “croissants”: a delicacy that you will take home for 1.20 euros per piece.

1. ITALIAN CORNETTO

1.20 per piece

And it is precisely by savoring these "croissants" that you will realize that butter, good butter, really makes the difference, and whoever says that margarine gives the same flavor without containing the harmful saturated fats of butter, either does not understand or lie knowing you are lying: the aroma of butter will impress itself, delighting you, in the depths of your senses, your taste buds and your nostrils, and your palate will not notice the slightest trace of grease.

In addition, the abundance of butter and eggs gives a particular fragrance and texture, resulting in croissants that melt in the mouth, delicate and light. Unmissable.

And in fact, we take home four of them - you never know - for a cost of € 4.80.

2. Tart of sour cherries

4.50 euros per piece

A fragrant and fragrant shortcrust pastry, made with only spelled flour, rich in excellent quality butter and covered with a generous layer of sour cherry jam - small cherries with a pleasantly sour taste - makes these tarts a real delight, which will certainly not make you regret those of various industrial mills. Also for the size, considerably larger.

The refined white sugar is also completely absent, in favor of more raw and aromatic sugars.

3. ENKIR'S PLUMCAKE

6 euros per piece

We could not miss a product based on enkir flour, or small spelled, or monococcus, a low gluten content cereal considered among the oldest and already cultivated 10,000 years ago in the Middle East.

Naturally resistant to pathogens and parasites, it is the organic cereal by definition, as it does not require synthetic chemistry for cultivation, and is also associated with a high nutritional value, given by its 18% of proteins and antioxidants.

Its preciousness is given by the difficulty of harvesting and processing, being the ear much smaller than the common one and with a much lower yield than other cereals.

Flour that gives this golden-yellow plum cake - coloring given by the particular enkir flour - a very pleasant and captivating taste.

Its weight, just under half a kilo, makes it a pleasure to indulge in for various breakfasts or snacks.

4. SPELLED BREAD

7 euros per piece

Ten euros per kilo are not many if you consider the type of flour - exclusively spelled from the best organic crops - but also the yeast used, sourdough made from spelled flour only, Bonci assures us, "so as not to make fun of customers, some of which may even be intolerant to soft wheat ".

It is not for nothing that Bonci uses seven different natural yeasts in his laboratory, each destined for a specific type of bread.

Natural yeasts that give a particular and compact consistency to this bread, which will satisfy you without having to fill it with industrial doses and which remains fragrant for almost a week.

With the same spelled flour and relative yeast, delicious croissants are also produced.

5. FOCACCIA

16 euros per kilo

Aromatic and tasty, due to the rosemary.

Soft, due to the mixture with potatoes.

And pleasantly light.

Is there anything else to add?

Furthermore, with 8 euros (the equivalent of half a kilo) we can take a lot home with us.

But after this tour of the world of leavened products - sweet and savory - branded Bonci, we move to his other realm, the "real" one: Pizzarium, the temple of pan pizza in all its tasty forms.

6. PIZZA

From 20 to 45 euros per kilo

The late morning, just before the opening, is the highlight in which the work reaches feverish rhythms in the Pizzarium laboratory, with a Bonci busy giving orders and instructions to his brigade to arrive, at the time of opening, with all the pizzas cooked and neatly displayed.

Orders that the busy members of the brigade execute with extraordinary skill and speed, and with the same elbow grease.

You may hear Bonci asking "can you bone a chicken leg?" while skillfully sautéing an old cow cut, which strictly rare ends up in slices one centimeter thick on the pizza, next to paccatella cherry tomatoes.

Strengthened by our fifteen-minute advantage over our customers, already waiting anxiously in front of the lowered shutters, we choose five slices of pizza capable of summarizing (almost) the whole range of flavors that Pizzarium offers.

To get an idea of the prices, know that the tomato pizza will cost you around 20 euros per kilo, while the egg and bottarga one, the most pretentious, can go up to 45 euros.

We spent about 15 euros, divided between slices of pizza with various toppings, each weighing one and a half pounds, with prices ranging between 20 euros per kilo for tomato pizza and 45 for egg and bottarga, the most exclusive.

These are the fillings we have chosen:

Tomato

A dough made from enkir flour and Senatore Cappelli durum wheat, left to mature for 72 hours in a cool place and obtained with an indirect processing method - "biga", for connoisseurs - that is to say through a separate leavened pre-dough which, once combined with the rest of the dough, will be able to develop lactic and acetic bacteria which will give rise to unique flavors and aromas.

Dough that will be enhanced by a light garnish of tomato sauce, obtained exclusively from tomatoes from gardens owned by Bonci himself.

Porcini and peaches in salads, together with wild fennel stalks in vinegar

A combination of textures and flavors all played between acidity and sweetness, between the firm consistency of the mushroom and the softness of caramelized peaches.

Sautéed porcini, bonito in oil, rocket and capers

The example of research on raw materials: blue fish is smoked in wood to have the right nuance of flavor.

Japanese-style stewed egg, greenish lemon, onion marinated in juniper and bottarga on the way out

The gourmet pizza par excellence, with eggs from free-range hens fed only on hemp. The eggs coagulate much more slowly ensuring a pleasant humidity.

“Roasted” octopus, ie blanched and then grilled. Result: two pleasant textures: roasted on one side, soft on the other

7. SUPPLI 'OF SPAGHETTI, MOZZARELLA IN CARRIAGE AND ENKIR BEER

2.50 euros - 3 euros - 4 euros

And with these last two jewels we enter the realm of vice. Of lust applied to the throat.

Just look at these very special supplì where instead of the usual rice, Bonci uses succulent spaghetti with tomato and basil, cooked to perfection, whose shape requires manual skill and practice.

Although the delicious flavor and crunchy texture will win you over, certainly not the shape.

The mozzarella in carrozza, then, has nothing to do with those low pancakes dripping with grease that we sadly see peeping out of the rotisseries under the house.

Crunchy breading on the outside, soft and generous mozzarella inside, where the pure flavor of 'nduja emerges, well blended with the cheese, to revive the ethereal mozzarella.

A roasted bite of paradise, which remains so even when everything tends to cool down, without creating annoying layering between the two fillings.

And finally, the beer. Certainly not just any beer but the "Enkir", born from the collaboration between Bonci, Birra del Borgo and Mulino Marino, which gave rise to this high fermentation beer, with an alcohol content of 6.1%, a hint of wildflowers and acacia honey, and with a clearly perceptible note of cereals and which gives the palate a particular sensation, almost of … chewability.

You will notice the acidulous note of the enkir at the end, to round off the tasty pizza-based meal. When cut, of course.