Pasquale’s Ninco Nanco Neapolitan pizza,
with yellow Mount Vesuvius tomato sauce,
capicola and buffalo mozzarella.
There are easy ways to sprinkle a bit of
sparkle-dust on your pie including splashes
of truffle buffalo sauce, dollops of lemon
aioli and white truffle oil. But if you’re a
vegetable fanatic, this is your jam: Try a
pink sauce pie piled with artichokes, caramelized
onions and a drizzle of hot honey.
In fact, whatever you order, get hot honey
on top of it. One might hope Americans
could add something to the evolution of
pizza and, likely, this is it.
That’s not to say the menu is entirely
focused on pizza. There’s a Sinatra-style
vibe to the restaurant, one that permeates
the menu with a sly confidence. If you’re
spreading your wings, order up a short rib
sandwich with provolone and pickled onions
or a plate of the Impossi Bolognese, a vegetarian
version of the Italian classic. It’s
pretty easy to construct a multi-course
meal at Bettola that also packs up cannolis,
tiramisu and other local desserts of the day
coated in chocolate. It may have the strongest
visual appeal in the group but the
restaurant is also the most comfortable
understanding that parents can’t eat their
slice in peace if the kids aren’t happy —
and if anyone can entice the whole family,
it’s Bettola.
44 Rolfe Sq., Cranston, 522-5222, bettola.com.
MUST GET: Any kind of pizza with pink vodka
sauce and a drizzle of hot honey. Fried mozzarella
with pesto is a kid-friendly bonus.
PASQUALE’S
Pasquale’s is the OG of the
pizza world — a fact that is
based entirely on the experience
of tasting it. Everything
that comes out of its woodburning
ovens is a homage to the Italian
countryside circa 1950, when people sat at
a farm table in a fragrant field and let the
sun warm their shoulders. Sophia Loren is
at the table making eyes at everyone, the
basil is growing underfoot and life plays out
like a Luca Guadagnino movie. All of that
— no joke — is packed into a Pasquale pie.
You can say, with some authority, that
it’s the fermented dough or the fresh mozzarella
or the San Marzano tomatoes. All
of that would be enough to make a name
for Pasquale Illiano in a continental pizza
competition. But what makes him different
is that, while he’s willing to indulge a buffalo
chicken pie, he articulates himself most brilliantly
through parmesan and prosciutto.
There are three varieties of pizza in the
ovens: New York-style, Grandma and Neapolitan.
The first is the sauciest of the group
with a substantive, chewy crust piled up
with American-sized toppings, including
thick slices of eggplant parmesan and
hunks of Westerly soupy. Grandma-style
pizza is larger and yet more restrained in
its approach; it’s not what anyone would
categorize as “thin” but it doesn’t play into
excess. Pasquale’s serves versions with a
melange of meats but this is the cheese pizza
of dreams, made better by simplicity.
That leaves the Neapolitan. If there’s any
bright side to mandatory takeout, it’s that
Illiano finally opted to let his Neapolitan
out the door after long insisting that it lost
peak flavor over the threshold. This twelveinch
pizza is where the fireworks are, not
just because the crust is Naples personified
but because the options are so vast. Cacio
e Pepe is a simple concoction of parmesan,
romano and pepper; Carbonara combines
egg and pancetta; Briganti is a medley of
mushroom, sausage and pistachio. But the
jewel is Pasquale’s Ninco Nanco, a Vesuvian
yellow tomato sauce draped with translucent
slices of capicola. Order two because
the first should be eaten in the parking lot,
immediately and with gusto.
60 South County Commons Way, South Kingstown,
783-2900, pasqualespizzeriari.com. MUST
GET: Ninco Nanco Neapolitan or, if you’re taking
a break from pizza, the mortadella sandwich
with mozzarella and pistachio pesto. �
110 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l MAY/JUNE 2020