Glenelg eatery Francesca’s Pizza + Sandos serving up Neapolitan-style folded pizza for the first time
A new eatery in Glenelg is serving up Neapolitan-style pizza as a more traditional – and cheaper – lunchtime option for people on the go. Read our review.
Food & Wine
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It’s the way they eat it in the modern birthplace of pizza, Naples, Italy.
Now, folded-up pizza – or a pizza a portafoglio – has arrived in Adelaide for the first time at a new eatery on Anzac Highway.
Francesca’s Pizza + Sandos, which opened on Wednesday, is offering up the traditional Neapolitan-style dish as a cheaper lunchtime option for people on the go.
But can the takeaway meal – a type of street food in which a thin pizza is folded into four and served in a paper wrapper – really capture the imagination of SA aficiona-doughs?
SCROLL DOWN TO READ OUR REVIEW
Owners Aman Takhar and Nilavan Baskaran are confident that food lovers will find the new, authentic style of Italian cuisine hard to top.
“Eating a whole 12-inch pizza for lunch can be too much food. This is a lighter option, a quick option, especially for those with a short lunch break,” said Mr Takhar, who previously owned Hey Bianca.
“It’s quickly made, not overly filling yet uses the same quality ingredients as our regular pizzas. And it’s so easy to eat, you can eat it with one hand.”
There are two pizza a portafoglios – translated to pizza wallet – on the menu: a $10.95 Margherita and a $12.95 Goomah option, with asiago, salami and hot honey.
Their traditional flat pizzas start from $20.95.
Mr Takhar said the folded pizzas are about 9-inches in size and offer a tasty alternative to conventional lunchtime fare.
“We’ve made it at that price point because lunch is getting so expensive, we just wanted something quick and cheap,” he said.
“It’s our version of a toastie, it’s light and not heavy as a pizza. That’s the key thing.”
Also known informally as ‘a libretto’ or ‘booklet’ in Naples, the portafoglios are made with their special 48-hr proofed dough, which uses Italian flour and sauce along with locally sourced ingredients to produce a softer, lighter, fluffier texture.
They’re all cooked in their massive Marana wood and gas oven, which has been imported from Italy and fires up to 500C, so it only takes 90 seconds to knock up the perfect pizza.
Mr Baskaran said it all combines to create a crunchy yet soft pizza base with real Italian flavours.
“Woodfire pizza just tastes better – it’s such a high heat, you can control the flavour,” he said.
“We can make really good quality pizzas very quickly.”
Traditional Neapolitan and Sicilian pizza will also be available, as well as a selection of freshly-made sandwiches using focaccia dough baked in-house daily.
To celebrate their grand opening, the new eatery, at 728 Anzac Highway, is offering $2 Margherita pizza a portafoglio until sold out next Wednesday, March 13.
ANTIMO IANNELLA’S VERDICT
Despite my Italian heritage, I was a little apprehensive about the pizza a portafoglio. Would it be too doughy?
I need not have worried. Steaming hot out of the oven, there’s plenty of filling in this pizza, and the gooey cheese and rich tomato sauce oozes out between the folds.
It’s got a lovely crunch, yet remains soft and easy to chew – plus there’s next to no mess.
It’s the ideal lunchtime treat for people on-the-go.
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