Bottega Traces its Neapolitan Recipes Back to 1928

In the run-up to the Beijinger's 2015 Pizza Cup, we are profiling some of the best pies in Beijing so that you, our faithful readers, can try as many as possible before we ask you to make your choice for the best.

Today we tell you about the pizzas on offer at Bottega, one of the restaurants selling their wares at our two-day pizza festival Oct 17-18 at Galaxy Soho. General Manager and co-founder Daniele Salvo tells us about their pedigree:

How long have you plied the trade?
Since I was  a kid. My family has been making pizza since 1928. My father and grandfather were both pizzaiolos in Naples. I started working in my father’s restaurant when I was nine years old.

What's your style/pizza philosophy?
Combining 100 percent imported Italian ingredients together, using my family’s technique and recipe, which has been passed on from generation to generation since 1928. The family recipe started with my grandfather and was passed on to my father, and then my brother (and co-founder) Paolo and me. The recipe is all in the flour and the sauce, which only Paolo and I know how to make. We've been making it for so long that we can just prepare it by feeling.

In a market crowded with over 100 different pizza shops, what do you do to stand out?
Bottega serves traditional Neapolitan food and rustic Italian fare in a contemporary environment, seamlessly integrating old and new elements to create a unique overall experience for the diner.

What would you say your style is?
Neapolitan. Its main characteristics are include the fact that its preparation is more complicated. It requires that the dough be fermented in two cycles, once overnight and then once again the next day. The whole process takes around 17 hours. Neapolitan pizza is also made from simple and fresh ingredients: a basic dough (in our case we are using Type 00 Stagioni flour from Italy); raw tomatoes (we use imported San Marzano tomatoes and pomodorini del piennolo for the premium pizzas); fresh mozzarella cheese (we use Fior di latte, made from cow’s milk); fresh basil, and olive oil.

Neapolitan pizza is also cooked in a wood-fired oven at very high temperatures. Our oven was custom built in Naples and shipped to Beijing. We use it to cook our pizza at  800°F-900°F for no more than 90 seconds.  So our pizzas have a smoky flavor due to the apple and lychee wood we stoke our oven with.

Thick vs Thin: What's your take?
Both thick and thin.

What's the secret to your sauce?
100 percent imported Neapolitan San Marzano tomatoes, which we lightly season to cook the sauce for our pizza base.

What kind(s) of cheese do you use and why?
We only use 100 percent fresh Italian mozzarella. Its creamy, milky texture brings out the flavors of traditional Neapolitan pizza.

Tell us about your standard pizza.
Name: Margherita                   
Thick or thin crust? Thick crust
Type of sauce? San Marzano tomato sauce
Type(s) of cheese? Fior di latte Mozzarella
What other things make it special? 100 percent Italian extra virgin olive oil
How many sizes does it come in? 12 Inches, RMB 68

Tell us about your most creative pizza.
Name: Bottega              
Thick or thin crust? Thick crust
Type of sauce: Pomodorino del Piennolo del Vesuvio. These tomatoes are grown in the volcanic soils at the base of Mount Vesuvio, which is known to provide the most optimal growing conditions for tomatoes of any geographical region in the world.
Type(s) of cheese: Fior di latte Mozzarella
What other things make it special? We add a huge Burrata cheese in the middle of the pizza.
How many sizes does it come in? 12 inches, RMB 118

Come sample slices from Bottega and 16 other pizza makers at our two-day pizza festival Oct 17-18 at Galaxy Soho.

Images courtesy of Bottega