Pizza flair at La Bottega

NEW RESTAURANT

La Bottega Enoteca 346 Joo Chiat Road Singapore 427596 Open for dinner only Tues to Sat: 6pm to 10.30pm. Sun: 11.30am to 3pm. Reservations: Go to website labottega.sg or Instagram @labottegasg

IF we were the pizza mafia in Singapore, we'd take a contract out on the dough maker of La Bottega Enoteca. Who is this upstart home chef, coming out of left field to open a trattoria in Joo Chiat, making what some people say are the best pizzas in town? We were here first. We - sworn members of the Neapolitan brotherhood who came to these shores to educate the natives (oops, customers) on the virtues of a margherita. We - who forsook our vows to uphold the traditions of our pizza-making grandfathers because the plebeians (oops, customers) still prefer Hawaiian Choice? If anybody's giving accolades for pizza, heck, we're taking them.

If this were our hometown in Naples, Antonio Miscellaneo would wake up with a horse's head as his bedfellow. But horses are hard to come by here. We could substitute a pig, but Miscellaneo is known to be a handy sausage-maker - it would defeat our purpose if he just made pig head salami out of it.

We decided to confront him personally, except that trying to make a booking at La Bottega is harder than finding the right size cement shoes for others who cross us.

So we simply threaten a minion with death or a month-long no-carb diet to get us a table, and find ourselves at the doorstep of an Italian taverna that, well, reminds us of a taverna back in our hometown - but without the bullet holes.

Miscellaneo recreates the retro ambience right down to the rustic exposed brick walls, antique iron doors, vintage lamps, dim lighting and things in netting hanging above your head. Any envy we feel dissipates when we see the price of the menu: a multi-course set of S$139, with a la carte items for top up only. For pizza? Who's robbing who here?

Grudgingly, we chow down on house-made bresaola - wafer-thin slices of air-dried cured beef that melt on the tongue with just enough umami funk and a light hand with salt. Garnished with shavings of fennel and radish, a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of parmesan - before we know it, we do the unthinkable and ask for another round, this time with equally good salami.

Before La Bottega, Miscellaneo did time at Casa Nostra - just one letter away from Cosa Nostra, aka the Sicilian mafia, just so you know - a home dining setup where he first made his move on our turf with a self-styled version that would get him thrown out of Neapolitan Pizza Academy. Not that it stopped him from being hailed a dough messiah by his own congregation.

Moving up from eight diners in his apartment to 40 pax in La Bottega gives him room to do more, such as bring in ingredients from his hometown of Belluno and the surrounding regions.

We try not to arouse his suspicions by asking him what mafiosos like to eat, so we deftly turn the conversation to the pan-fried Dolomite cheese in front of us. It has the satisfaction of hot melted mozzarella with the elasticity of haloumi, and an addictive crunchy exterior with a hint of bitterness that is intentional, he says.

Before the real star makes its appearance, we get the opening act: double crunch pizza which are airy, baked-fried or fried-baked dough pockets that hold different fillings of mortadella and ricotta or a much better mixture of raw Italian red shrimp and burrata covered in a shower of deep-fried zucchini strips. There's lots of crunch but little fuss over what's essentially a well-made snack.

Then finally, the moment of truth. Billowing dough, rising higher than our egos and charred in parts like our disposition, with a lightness that is matched in depth and chew but not heaviness. If it only had the toasty, smoky fragrance from a wood burning rather than gas oven, we would have gone home with our horse's head and called us even.

Still, the combination of dough and toppings is pretty next-level - not for imagination or variety, but just the balance and composition of ingredients. The deep complexity of homemade marinara sauce and burrata; pleasantly gamey pork sausage and bitter broccoli rabe; full-on savouriness of creamy parmesan foam and dollops of intense tomato paste made of the Sicilian pachino varietal; and briny pickled sardines. Floppy but not soggy, each slice holds its shape even when cold.

You don't want to call this pizza authentic Neapolitan - hence the name Newpolitan, because it's got a character of its own.

Miscellaneo also holds his own in the pasta department, wielding a solid spaghettone tossed in olive oil, fresh sardines, fennel and raisins.

If you'd rather skip pasta for some meat, there's a chargrilled pluma iberico - which starts off with a juicy beefiness and ends with its true porkiness. And if you're keeling over by then, a serviceable rum baba and hazelnut semifreddo are a sweet finish.

That Miscellaneo doesn't let you do takeaway means that, like secrets, what you eat here stays here. He may even have his own pizza mafia thing going - if we can't beat him, maybe we'll just join him.

Rating: 7

WHAT OUR RATINGS MEAN

10: The ultimate dining experience 9-9.5: Sublime 8-8.5: Excellent 7-7.5: Good to very good 6-6.5: Promising 5-5.5: Average

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