Mattachioni’s Napoli makes great case for anchovies on pizza
YouTuber Shane Dawson eats odd toppings, but Dupont St. spot has a much better idea
Twinkies. Guacamole. Icing.
Some people will put anything on pizza.
Take Shane Dawson, a 28-year-old YouTube star with more than 17 million subscribers.
Dawson specializes in gross-out food videos. He tastes hospital food, dollar-store candy and the “diabetes spaghetti” from Elf using language not suitable for work.
But it’s his adventures with Crazy Pizza Toppings that has me watching in horrified fascination.
Dawson layers pepperoni slices with sweet and savory junk food then tries the results. It’s garnered 1.6 million views.
I recognize at least one topping from Toronto restaurants: Nutella. Speducci and Pizzeria Via Mercanti make dessert pies using just the chocolate-hazelnut spread. Dawson smears it on top of pepperoni and cheese.
“That’s shockingly good,” he tells the camera.
I’m not convinced. Dawson’s quixotic quest makes me queasy. So I turn in the opposite direction, toward artisanal pizza maker David Mattachioni.
Mattachioni is a classicist. At his eponymous restaurant on Dupont St., the former Terroni pizzaiolo makes lovely pies using a wood oven and respect for tradition.
Some people consider anchovies disgusting on pizza (or anything). Not Mattachioni. He goes through 5-kilo cans of melt-in-the-mouth Sicilian anchovies at a time, putting in the work to clean and fillet the fish.
“A lot of our customers like the anchovies,” he says.
Their pungent saltiness brings to life the basil-accented tomato sauce and mellow pools of fresh mozzarella on the Napoli pizza ($16). The silvery fish, along with the meaty cerignola and gaeta olives beside them, are a taste worth acquiring.
But it’s the crust that stands out. Mattachioni makes his with imported Caputo 00 flour, salt, water and nothing else. A sourdough starter provides the lift; no commercial yeast here.
The crust emerges from the oven black at the edges and as puffy as a Canada Goose jacket. Still, the chew is there, in a good way.
As for what constitutes a weird topping, Mattachioni makes no judgments:
“Everybody likes something different. You can get it your way. That’s the good thing about pizza.” Mattachioni, 1617 Dupont St. (near Dundas St. W.), 416-519-1010, mattachioni.com. Open seven days, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. apataki@thestar.ca