Settebello Pizzeria

I visited the Settebello Pizzeria in Salt Lake City, located just a few blocks east off the 400 South Exit of the I-15 freeway.  This pizzeria was highly recommended to us by a few locals, so being quite fond of pizza, JG preferred we go early on during our week-long stay in SLC.  The ambience was nothing special, but service was friendly and our food came fairly fast.

The pizza at Settebello is in the Napoletana style, meaning it is made with a soft dough and takes about one minute to cook in a wood-burning oven. Because of this, Pizza Napoletana has several distinctive characteristics: soft and foldable and can be considered "wet" by American standards. For this reason the people in Napoli generally eat their pizza with a knife and a fork.  Blackened char spots on the pizza crust is a tell-tale sign of Pizza Napoletana that has been cooked in a blistering hot, wood burning oven.

I decided on the Settebello pizza.  This namesake pizza was topped with crushed tomatoes, pancetta, sausage, roasted mushrooms, toasted pine nuts, mozzarella, basil, and extra virgin olive oil.  The dough was very soft and pancake-like.  All the ingredients seemed to make the middle even more wet than usual.  I was a little disappointed by the strips of bacon, as opposed to real Italian pancetta.  However, I liked the addition of toasted pine nuts that gave extra crunch and another dimension of flavor.

JG ordered the seasonal special - Pizza Casola - that featured oven roasted asparagus, capers, mushrooms, mozzarella, and pecorino cheese.  The capers were a bit overpowering, and JG admitted he preferred pizza with tomato sauce as opposed to 'white pizzas' such as this.  He soon swapped slices with JB, who ordered the Capricciosa.  Her pizza was topped with crushed tomatoes, prosciutto cotto, artichoke hearts, roasted mushrooms, olives, mozzarella, basil, and extra virgin olive oil.

We decided to order gelato for dessert.  There were nearly 20 flavors to choose from and I was super indecisive.  Graciously, our server allowed us to pick two flavors for the price of one.  I chose lemon and panna cotta, however I received Lemon and Crema Baci - a very sweet custard with bits of chocolate candy in it.  It was very rich, and I preferred the lemon instead.

Overall, the pizza was mediocre.  I've had much better wood-fired pizzas where the crust is not as doughy.

Total Rating: 3.15
Food: 3, Price: 3.5, Service: 3.5, Ambience: 2, Accessibility: 5

What I ate:

Settebello

Crushed Tomatoes, Pancetta, Wood Oven Sausage, Roasted Mushrooms,

Toasted Pine Nuts, Mozzarella, Basil, Extra Virgin Olive Oil