Man vs. Mannion (Mannion Edition)

Searching for Naples at Settebello

Settebello Pizzeria Napoletana is located at 60 North Lake Avenue approximately 1 mile from Caltech. A few years back, I led a trip to celebrate the food of Naples and the Amalfi Coast for the Caltech Alumni Association. I chose this restaurant because I wanted to see if their food transported me back to some fantastic memories of Naples, as well as to see if this was a restaurant that students could escape to for a quick break from their academic rigors. As you will see below, the verdict was split.

Settebello has moved from its original location on Colorado; I did prefer the old location. The version on Colorado was more quiet - you could see the ingredients, like 00 flour from Italy. There was outside seating where you could at least pretend you were sitting on Via Partenope, eating Neopolitan pizza while looking at Castel dell’Ovo.

The new location is very much American. High ceilings, bright lights, very loud. The good news for the owners is that the place was packed. There was a counter with hanging lights over it in front of the food prep area. Unfortunately, not only was the counter too high to see any of the action, there was also clutter everywhere – piles of to go containers, boxes of straws, empty pizza boxes, paper napkins, etc. Could have been a great place for individuals or small groups to sit at the counter with a view of the action, but instead it takes away from the visual appeal of the restaurant.

Naples pizza is protected with a DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controlla or Controlled Destination Origin) by the Association Verace Pizza Napoletana (VPN). Settebello has been granted DOC designation. The tomatoes must be either San Marzano, or the tomatoes that grow on the slopes of Vesuvius. The cheese must be mozzarella di buffalo from Campagna (you can also find this in Roma deli on Lake Avenue). 00 flour and brewers yeast are other key components of this pizza whose making is included on the list of intangible cultural heritage produced by UNESCO. Note that only one pizza at Settebello appears to fit the DOC regulations - the Margarita DOC.

I ordered caprese salad, margherita doc pizza, pizza polpette, pizza settebello, arancini, involtini, and bruschetta.

First, the bruschetta. They ran out of crostini (small toasted bread that the bruschetta would go on) sometime before our 6:30pm order.

Caprese salad. The tomatoes were ice cold and had a greenish yellow core. Do not refrigerate under ripe tomatoes, they will never ripen properly! The cheese was too cold as well. Hard to tell for sure if it was buffalo mozzarella, but I would wager that it was not. Not a version that would make the folks in Naples proud.

The polpette, or Naples style meatballs were decent with lots of pine nuts inside. The meatballs themselves were a little dry, but tomato sauce balanced that out.

The involtini (prosciutto wrapped arugula and goat cheese) was quite large. The prosciutto was nice but there was too much arugula and really no obvious goat cheese. The bitterness of the arugula and the olive oil really took over due to the size of the serving. Some goat cheese and lemon would have balanced this dish by adding some acidity to neutralize the bitterness.

Arancini, a Sicilian dish, is made by cooking risotto, fillinga round ball of it with a traditional meat and pea ragu (there are many other variations), then breading and frying the ball. The version we had was seasoned with a great deal of saffron and had a molten mozzarella center. It was an enjoyable dish, but I would have toned down the saffron. For purists it ate more like the Roman fried rice ball – Suppli.

The pizza has possibilities, especially the Margarita DOC, and I would encourage you to try it, but we hit a bad night. Quite normal for a sort of wet center of San Marzano tomatoes to be in the pizza, but we had undercooked dough with a very wet pizza. The pizza was visually appealing with a good balance of buffalo mozzarella , sauce and basil. The outer crust did have the chewy , slightly gummy texture that is a positive trait of Neopolitan pizza. The Settebello pizza had way too many toppings for a Neopolitan pizza (although technically it wasn’t a Neopolitan pizza), the crust was even wetter and the cheese did not quite melt. The Polpette pizza had the right amount of topping, but the cheese was nowhere near melted.

If you are looking for a fun dinner with decent food close to campus, Settebello is worth a visit. If you are looking for a true taste of Naples, keep looking.