Campagnolo Roma

I have not been to Vancouver for a while.  So when I had to come to Vancouver for work, I was determined to eat good food!

I was watching Guy Fieri on Diners, Drive-ins & Dives the day before I flew to Vancouver.  He went to an Italian pizza place in Manhattan called Don Antonio by Starita.  The pizzas looked good.  I was inspired.  Well, I am sure Vancouver has a restaurant that serves good pizza.  I did some research and found Campagnolo Roma.

My foodie partner-in-crime and I arrived after 7.00pm.  There were two guys ahead of us.  I like the fact that Campagnolo Roma is a walk-in restaurant - no reservations unless it is a big group.  It was full.  There was a table outside with complimentary fleece blanket if we wanted it but we decided to wait for a table in the restaurant.  We left our names with one of the very enthusiastic and friendly female staff, and waited for slightly over 15 minutes before she sat us by the window.

We decided to share a Verdissima pizza - charred scallions, spinach, garlic, grano padano and basil, and  the Tagliatelle cooked with milk braised pork hock ragu, rapine, pecorino and rue.  The female staff said both of these were her favourite.  We invited her to pull a chair and come join us.  Alas, she had to work.

Delizioso they were!  I love the thin crust pizza, and the toppings were very unusual.  What was more unusual was the pizza spice that she brought in a small plate.  That pizza spice rocks!  We added it into our pizza and pasta.  The Tagliatelle was well seasoned and pork hock, tender.  I am sure it would have been better if the pasta arrived hot and not just warm.

Verdissima 

Tagliatelle

Pizza spice

The total bill came up to CAD90 including a carafe of Altesino, a Cappucino and 15% tip.  I would definitely come back for great food, great service & lively ambience.

Campagnolo Roma
2297 E Hastings St,
Vancouver, BC V5L 1V2

Sal Rose - the real deal

Just before Christmas, we wanted to have dinner out, on a Saturday. Give the cook a break kind of dinner, tasty, but not expensive. Roamed the 'Net, wondering what category of food might fit the bill. Chinese? nah.. French?.. too complicated, too expensive.. Vietnamese? nice, but just had that last week. Difficult decisions. Finally fell back on old favourite - Italian food. Good neighbourhood restaurant sort of Italian food?.. decided to try Sal Rose, which is " Owner operated, Sal Rose is dedicated to bringing home-style Central and Southern Italian cuisine to the Auckland area. Sal Rose comes with a history of real Italian heritage and Grandma's recipes" Phoned them to make a reservation - just managed to squeeze ourselves in for 6.30pm table. (They are popular.)

Spaghetti con Polpette

Easy to get to, it's located in a residential neighbourhood, in a tiny strip mall next to a "4 Square" grocers store and a real estate agent. Plenty of free parking directly in front of the restaurant and in the adjacent car park.


By the time we arrived, plenty of tables were happily tucking into their food, mostly families.. mom, dad, grandparents, kids. Casual but not sloppy. Cosy diner style bench seats and tables to the right, halfwood panelling with white walls making it look less severe. Ceiling fans whirred lazily overhead, cooling the sultry evening air. On the left, and dividing the main dining area from an extension / covered patio, a well stocked bar running almost the entire length of the restaurant. The extension to which we were ushered by a very pleasant young man, had a more rustic feel - red brick wall on one side and quarry tiles underfoot. Might be a bit cold in winter, but I did note space heaters on one of the walls. Service was prompt, knowledgeable and friendly.


Once seated we looked eagerly over the menu (I confess we had already looked at it online before heading out) and decided on a pasta and a pizza. To assuage our growling stomachs, we ordered a portion of their home made bread which was fragrant, slightly dense and chewy...  proper bread. Not the airy sliced stuff. Served with roasted garlic and olive oil, it went well with a bottle of Italian red - which I can't remember the name of, we enjoyed it so much we didn't stop to take photos or notes!

Gorgonzola and Pear Pizza

In spite of a rather full house, food came quickly enough, my Spaghetti con Polpette lived up to the reputation of being "our famous meatballs and spaghetti in Rose's tomato sauce". The meatballs were juicy, exquisitely delicious (did they have a mix of pork and beef?), the tomato sauce was as red and luscious as you wanted it to be without being overly rich. Often the big test (IMHO) of a good Italian restaurant is how well they "do" staples. If they had had a Pomodoro e Basilico - and if I had 2 stomachs - I would have ordered that too. The pasta which was made on site (according to the website) was slightly softer than "al dente", but to me, that was perfect, as I have dental braces and tender teeth! My mouth is watering just thinking of this pasta.


Dining partner had a pizza, also very well made - a somewhat exotic Gorgonzola and Pear. Decadent was the best word to describe it. Tangy, salty blue cheese, sliced pear and toasted pine nuts on a pesto base. So very delicious. We ate. We ate for New Zealand. But the bread at the beginning did us in and we had to "take away" half the pizza. Unable to even think of dessert, we enjoyed the last drops of our vino rosso and pushing our stomachs ahead of us, waddled back to car and home.

Pizza Night

Thin Crust Zucchini Pizza

We've been here for more than a year now and have not found good authentic thin crust Italian pizza. Now that most of the unpacking has been done and our pizza stone unearthed, we decided to give it a go. (also that we've just purchased a pizza peel as we weren't sure if MAF would've allowed our old wooden one into this country). Anyway, tried we did and the results were rather good. Browsing through our books we found a copy of an easy and good recipe for pizza base (adapted from Jamie Oliver, thanks to Food Network). The pizza sauce, we were rather proud of, was a passata made from ripe red Tommy Toes from our own vege garden, as were the zucchini and basil. Yum. Nothing better than really fresh fruit and veg.

Kneading dough

Pizza Base:
7 cups bread flour
1 tsp fine sea salt
2 (1/4 oz) sachets dried yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2.5 cups luke-warm water

Sift the flour and salt onto a clean work surface or large metal bowl and make a well in the middle.
In a measuring cup, mix yeast, sugar, olive oil and warm water and leave for 10min to activate the yeast.
Pour into the well
Mix with fingers, gradually working flour in from the sides.
Knead till smooth, about 10min

Dough rising in bowl

Place in lightly greased bowl, turn over once to coat and cover top of bowl with damp towel or cling film and leave in warm place to double its size, (about 1h)
Punch dough down, divide into 8 portions (8 pizzas).
If you don't want to make so many pizzas, just pinch off what you need and place the rest into a ziplock and freeze till required.

Pizza Sauce / Tomato passata:

• Ripe tomatoes
• Garlic (to taste)
• fresh basil (to taste)
• salt

Roughly chop tomatoes.
Heat olive oil in saucepan, lightly saute garlic.
Add tomatoes, cook till soft, add a bunch of basil leaves, simmer for 5min.
Pass tomatoes through sieve.
Reduce sauce till desired consistency, add salt to taste.

Thin Crust Mushroom Pizza

Pizza toppings:
Anything you like - zucchini, mushrooms, we used our own hand made mozzarella :)

Pizza stone (removed from oven to illustrate proper placement) with pizza on top

Assembling and cooking:
Place pizza stone in middle shelf in oven.
Preheat at least 30min (1hour is better) to at least 200C (real Italian pizza ovens are heated in the range of 300C).

Rolled out pizza dough

Roll out the dough as thin as desired (tossing is a bit tricky and messes up the kitchen)
Transfer onto a pizza peel liberally coated with flour or cornmeal (the flour / cornmeal acts as a slippery base so that the pizza slips off the peel onto the stone)
Spread passata onto the base - you can also use pesto for a non tomato base
Add toppings - don't overload as it will be difficult to deliver the pizza successfully
Open oven door, place peel right over the stone and with a swift motion pull it back so that pizza is now on the stone. This may require a bit of practice. Quickly close door so as not to lose too much heat.
Bake for 5-10min
In the meantime, prepare another pizza (it works better if you have 2 peels)
Removing the pizza from the ovens is just reversing the steps for placing it in.

Enjoy!