Pizza #253 Montanara, Rei di Napoli

Posted by Sale Lilly on December 09, 2009|Comments

Ingredients

Sausage, buffalo mozzarella, sliced cherry tomatoes, basil, mushrooms

Cost

€ 7.00

Location

Via Partenope (approx. 24-26) Napoli

Review

Rei di Napoli sits next to pizzeria Antonio e Antonio, also with a great view of the bay of Naples. Rei di Napoli’s pizza seems to have all the right ingredients and a hearty crust, but this pizza never tasted satisfying. The Montanara pizza was topped with peppery sausage, sliced cherry tomatoes, basil, and buffalo mozzarella and looked good.

I think the odd combination of sausage and buffalo mozzarella is where this pizza went wrong. Buffalo Mozzarella ( see here for more information on cheese produced from water buffalo milk ) has such a powerful and creamy flavor that combining it with anything but a sweet taste is superfluous. Even a bit of grease from the sausage inhibits the creamy taste of mozzarella. The powerful taste of buffalo mozzarella may be a good reason Italian pizza chefs rarely mix it with any other topping except tomatoes and basil. ‘Fior di latte’, mozzarella from cow’s milk is probably a blander, although better choice for a pizza base with meat toppings. My observation on this particular pizza should not take away from the fact that the ingredients were still of a high quality, and the crust was well above average. On a scale of one to ten I give the toppings a 5 and the crust a 6.5