PONTORMO CAFFÈ

The pizza of the Via Francigena

In summer, pilgrims arriving from San Miniato stop at the Pontormo Caffè, the first bar in town for those coming from the north. It is not uncommon to catch a glimpse of them behind the windows, perhaps they pass the word – from traveller to traveller – perhaps they are impatient to rest, perhaps the scent of Rosi’s dishes and Gerardo’s pizza attracts them.

And so, for some years now, they have been keeping the locals company, those regular customers who come for a coffee, a quick meal or a snack, when the children go crazy for the famous donzelle, one of the tastiest Tuscan street food dishes (a simple leavened dough, similar to bread, fried in strips in boiling oil and then eaten still warm).

Rosi and Gerardo are an institution in Gambassi, but to tell the truth, they arrived there by chance, due to the tsunami of globalisation, they say between the serious and the facetious. They spent half their lives working in Prato, in the textile industry, and then in 2006 they changed their lives and opened Caffè Pontormo.

On 1 July of that year, while Rosi was honing the preparation of simple dishes such as pasta – amatriciana, carbonara, with fresh pesto but also aubergines alla Parmigiana and more – Gerardo was learning the art of pizza from Giuseppe Il Calabrese, a long-time pizza maker.

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To this day Gerardo follows Giuseppe’s recipe, but after years of wrangling with the dough he can no longer tell whether he obeys it or vice versa. His pizza is certainly slow, so is the rising, preparation and baking because, as Confucius says, it is difficult to make bad pizza, quite another thing to make it well!

Well, it is not certain that Confucius ever ate pizza, but we like to think that if he had, he would have considered it on a par with all those manifestations of the sacred that he recognised in everyday life!

Then use organic durum wheat flours, leave the dough to rise for at least twenty-four hours and use fresh produce. It’s not quantum physics, but anyone who has tried to make pizza knows how delicate the balances are for a crispy, light dough.

Gerardo succeeds and it is clear as soon as he cuts the first slice. And to confirm his theory he quotes Colette Tatou from Ratatouille: ‘How can you recognise good pizza without tasting it? Not by the smell, not by the appearance but by the sound of the crust‘.

Stop for a pizza at Bar Pontormo, but don’t rush, Gerardo’s pizza time is slow and worth it.

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