This month has been a super cool month for me. Don’t get me wrong; it’s been tough, but it’s been a lot of fun. I leave for Europe in five (!) days, and a little while ago, I got to make my very own custom pizza with the chef at Rosso Pizzeria here in Edmonton.
Rosso is a #yeg favourite from owner Dave Manna. It’s done well: not only is Rosso thriving in the Garneau area, but Dave has plans for a new restaurant called Bianco in the Phipps-McKinnon building later this year. (It’ll be right across from my very favourite building in Edmonton, so I’m sure I’ll see a lot of it.)
Bianco sounds beautiful – fresh pasta, an extensive wine list, and an “industrial Italian chic” aesthetic. But, while it’ll have a few Rosso favourites on its menu, it’s mostly new things. Rosso, as Dave told me, “is done. We like it; you can come here.” He had no desire to duplicate the experience.
Rosso Pizzeria’s 5-year anniversary
He isn’t wrong: Rosso is done, and done well. It’s a boutique pizzeria celebrating its fifth anniversary this month; for May, they’re offering five items at $5 each. (Perfect for date night!) The food items are a breakfast panini, a full-sized margherita pizza (do it), and panna cotta; the drink items are a 4oz glass of wine or a 16oz draft beer (full details at @rossoyeg).
The pizzeria uses high-quality unbleached, organic, non-GMO flour, and emphasizes ingredients. Things like ketchup and jam are made from scratch in-house; they source their meats locally from organic farmers when possible. They even marinate their own olives – served warm and dripping in olive oil.
My custom pizza experience
The pizza that I made with Chef Chavez Murguia was a white pizza with goat cheese and fleur de latte (I’m really into goat cheese right now), sprinkled with roasted grapes, kalamata olives, pancetta, spicy soprasetta, and finished with basil. I totally botched my first crust, but the second one looked good – and tasted even better.
They’re baked in a legit, wood-fired oven in a tiny, open kitchen, but the restaurant itself doesn’t get smokey. The crust is beautifully elastic and chewy, and it’s something that I’ll be back for, time and time again.
It’s just a shame that I can’t ever get my pizza there again. But we’ll see: maybe one day at Bianco, if I can ever be persuasive enough.
