All it had was superb Roman-style pizza al taglio baked from scratch with tremendous ingredients and pride to match. And that, sadly, wasn’t enough to make it London.

My favourite of his many varieties: the classic combo of salsiccia (here chunks of mildly spicy sausage resistant yet irresistible to the chew) set against a desirably bitter backdrop of broccoletti (aka broccoli raab, broccoli rabe, rapini, friarelli).

I hint that Herbie’s salsiccia and broccoletti  pizza slice may no longer be the best only because the Roman native now has stiff competition from Nicola and Daniele, two pizzaioli who now work with him. Their pizza al taglio crust is thinner and crisper and has compelled Herbie to up his game.

The only thing separating Datte Foco from true greatness are its deficits in supply and demand: supply of customers with a demand for £2-£2.25 slices. Al taglio is ready-to-go pizza and therefore relies on steady trade to keep the trays turning and allow the pizzeria to offer more combinations. A queue outside a shop in Rome may not be a sure indication of quality but it does suggest the trays of pizza loaded into its window displays won’t sit for very long.

So why are there rarely long queues at Datte Foco? Is it the location in N16, north of Central London with no nearby tube station? Are passersby discouraged by unclear pricing determined by weight? Are they put off by what looks to them like unappetising cold pizza sitting in the window? Do they dislike the vibe, the rear dining area, the counter service? Are they opposed on principle to pizza that isn’t round?

For me none of that matters if Herbie, Nicola and Daniele keep baking salsiccia broccoletti pizza and, see below, aubergine (eggplant) ricotta basil tomato pizza like theirs. Until – fingers crossed – London catches on I am tempted to form my own queue, ordering one small square and then doubling back behind me to order another. And another. And another. Care to join me?

Datte Foco, 10 Stoke Newington Church Street, London N16 0PE (map)

See The Best £1.50 Steamed Burger in London

In the age of triple ristrettos and double-shot flat whites the once beloved cappuccino has hit bottom, dismissed by coffee geeks as all froth and no substance. With the failure of Italy, espresso’s spiritual home, to catch onto the third wave of higher quality coffee it has sometimes seemed as if all of the trad capp’s once beloved bubbles have been popped.

Reviving the traditional cappuccino with quality espresso from the UK’s best roasters seemed like a stretch, figuratively and, given the milk texturing techniques, literally. That’s why in planning the 29 October CoffeeSaturday La Dolce Vita Pop-Up I sought support for the baristas Fabio Ferreira of Notes and Jeremy Challender of Prufrock.

Sue Aron, Chloe Callow and Ian James joined me in a Roman biscotti bakeoff. Sue, the creative force behind The Art of Puddings, baked pizza ebraica, which is not pizza as we know it but rather a distinctive biscuit from Rome’s Jewish quarter studded with nuts and fruits. Chloe The Faerietale Foodie and I both prepared tozzetti, the biscotti that is Rome’s answer to almond (or hazelnut) cantuccini. And Ian of Pie For Brains won the bake-off by the narrowest of margins with his take on brutti ma buoni (“ugly but good”), those impossibly light almond meringues.

[oqeygallery id=29]

Guest of honour Katie Parla, creator of the new and indispensible Rome Dining App, provided an expert voice from the Eternal City. She’s my go-to source on all things edible and drinkable in Rome. Since I can’t always have Katie around I’m happy to have her app.

The La Dolce Vita pop-up concluded with a negroni pizza party. Pizzaiolo Herbie Leonelli of London’s great Datte Foco brought over Roman-style pizza al taglio.

So, yes, the 60-plus who signed up for this CoffeeSaturday pop-up did fall back in love with the traditional cappuccino. But, yes, the traditional cappuccino did have a lot of help.

The benefit of the marathoners’ collective resolve became clearer with the passing of each pizza lap. The Chianti-fueled runners breezed through the outstanding 4th and 5th pizzas – a crostino salsiccia e broccoletti (white pizza with spicy sausage and broccoli rabe) and crostino salsiccia e porcini (white pizza with sweet sausage and fresh porcini mushrooms) without the slightest hint of shortness of breath. All but one made it to the finish line, heartily digging into the 8th and last pizza and praising it with great gusto, much to Leonelli’s satisfaction. He’d prepared the crostino bresaola e rucola (white pizza with air-dried beef and rocket) as a PizzaTuesday exclusive with an assist from his mamma back in Rome. She’d sent him the bresaola in an unmarked parcel.

In designing a marathon menu featuring various toppings and combinations I confess to an ulterior motive: I wished to demonstrate to participants the pure pleasure of a red pizza accessorized only with tomatoes – pizza rossa – or tomato and anchovies – pizza marinara. The base of a pizza al taglio, as the rectangular “by-the-cut” pizza is known in Rome and practised in London at Datte Foco,  is an ideal platform for a generous layer of plum tomatoes: It’s thicker and crispier than Neapolitan-style pizza and therefore doesn’t turn soggy or mushy under the weight of a red sauce.

The rossa and marinara together constituted the evening’s true taste breakthrough. Although the group loved the more elaborate toppings, a good third picked the elemental red pizzas as their favorite. Even those who preferred one of the other 7 pizzas regarded the rossa as something of a revelation. Most couldn’t recall ever trying or, for that matter, contemplating a pizza with tomatoes as its only topping. Yet it was just such a pizza, laid bare without the usual cover of mozzarella and sampled amongst a marathon of classic combinations, that proved to be the biggest and best surprise of all. The fullness of the sweet, zesty, unvarnished tomatoes in the mouth can be one of the great sensations in the pizza eating experience.

The next PizzaTuesday is 23 February at Pizza Metro Pizza. Book now.

A second double take is elicited by what lies just inside the window: pizza al taglia and pizza bianca romana so good they could be mistaken for treasures stolen from the Eternal City. Sure I am getting a bit overexcited: This is hardly the first place in Londinium to do either pizza al taglio – “cut” pizza usually sold by weight (see Maletti and Princi), nor is it the sole practitioner of authentic pizza bianca romana (see Spianata). Moreover, the dough is still evolving and the finished product, like all pizza rustica (as the by-the-slice format is known outside Rome) invariably suffers in the reheating. You’ll nonetheless forgive my giddiness once you’ve sunken your teeth into one of these crisp yet puffy rafts and explored its exceptional topography.

The pizzeria was opened by Stokey native Neil Belgrave (above left) and Herbie Leonelli (above right with slab of bianca), two friends who said “datte foco” to their City jobs in finance. Leonelli’s tale is especially poignant: His Anglophile parents travelled from Rome to London so he could be born here and then shipped him off to English boarding school at 13. (You can see him wince even now from the retelling). 20 years later he returned to Rome to apprentice as a pizzaiolo at Pizzeria Russo in the Prati district. His journey home is what’s known, in Rome and elsewhere, as la forza del destino – “the force of destiny.”

Pizza bianca romana ought not be confused with the tomato-less white pizzas seen on pizzeria menus all over. Brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and rosemary, the Roman version is more like focaccia than pizza. My colleague David Downie, author of the definitive Cooking the Roman Way and the indispensable Food Wine Rome guide, observes that it’s crispier and more porous than focaccia and likens it instead to “a leavened flatbread with a rough, uneven texture varying in thickness from 1/4 to 3/4 inches.” The thicker half of that description matches Leonelli’s pizza bianca londinese.

Datte Foco outfits its pizza al taglio in a wide assortment of good-quality toppings. Some combinations are baked nearly every day; others are specials. A couple of the former, like the pizza topped with potatoes cut to the size of frites, were meant to be one-offs but proved too popular. The Margherita is blanketed with decent fior di latte (cow’s milk mozzarella), yet it’s not as pleasing as the pizza rossa with only roma tomato sauce or anything with mushrooms and sausage. It’s a mouth feel thing. Melted mozza doesn’t always reheat all that well.

A great plus of pizza al taglio is that it allows you to sample several varieties at one. You are encouraged to do just that, to go light yourself on fire. Alternatively this might be more fun to do as a group: youngandfoodish.com will be launching a series of pizza Tuesdays, the first of which will take place on the 2nd of February at Datte Foco at 7:30pm. To learn more or book a place at the table,  click here.

Datte Foco: A Pizza & Love Joint – 10 Stoke Newington Church Street, London N16 (see map). Tel: 020 7254 6055

My top 10 pizzas in London list reflects a global renaissance in the appreciation of Neapolitan pizza. The difference this time is that the feeling is genuine.

Naples shared its love for pizza and dry pasta with the world many years ago but something got lost in translation. Rather than eat pasta al dente and pizza soft, in the Neapolitan way, foreigners learned to do the opposite. Non-Italians at last discovered the pleasures of al dente pasta in the late 20th Century. But only recently have hard-core devotees in the pizza diaspora acquired a soft spot for pizza with a pliable crust.

In regulations set by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana a pizza must be soft, easy to manipulate, bendy.

New followers of the Neapolitan pizza fold have been setting up pizzerias in New York and Tokyo, San Francisco and Sydney, LA and London. Their pizzas are not literally made in Naples, but most are baked in Neapolitan wood-fried brick pizza ovens. When true to its roots the pizza’s puffed cornicione (rim) is airy, dry and cooked through, not bready and gummy.

For the sake of comparison I’ve limited my consideration of London pizzas to the classic Margherita. If you have to judge pizza on a single variety it has to be the elemental tricolour of green, white and red – basil, mozzarella and tomato.

The omission of more elaborate, less familiar pizza varieties has had two distinct drawbacks: First, some pizzerias made the cut even though not all of the toppings on all of their pizzas are of the highest quality. Secondly, this list passes over a good number of praiseworthy pizzas, from the lardo, egg and spinach pizza at Lardo to the Nduja pizza at Pizza Pilgrims to the Charlie Jones pizza at Story Deli to the rotated specials at Home Slice Pizza.

Slow food is a good thing, especially when it comes to pizza dough. The best are prepared with the smallest amount of yeast and therefore require fermentation lasting 24 hours or longer. What I cannot tolerate is slow eating of pizza. It must be consumed hot.

Top 10 Pizzas in London

10. Franco Manca

Upon arriving for the first time at the original Franco Manca I was so excited I asked a waitress to pinch me. She said I would have to queue like everyone else. Happily the pizzeria beneath the Brixton Market arcades and its then sub-£5 (now £5.90) Margherita were no dream.  I soon discovered if there was any reality pinching to be done it should be of the fluffy, chewy, char-spotted cornicione that frames its pliable crust. Conscientious sourcing is central to the story line created by Giuseppe Mascoli but he overreached in choosing a mozzarella blend from a Somerset producer. The British cheese solidifies in fast-drying patches over the Margherita, marring the interplay with what has become an absurdly thin layer of tomato spread over the sourdough platform. The concern with Franco Manco’s expansion is that not every new pizzaiolo at every new location will be up to the challenge inherent in slow fermentation and fast cooking.  Even so, Franco Manco’s rapid growth must be viewed as a plus, bringing good pizza at a good price closer to more and more Londoners.
Franco Manca Brixton, Unit 4, Market Row, Brixton, S9 – 020 7738 3021
Franco Manca Chiswick, 144 Chiswick High Street, Chiswick, W4 – 020 8747 4822
Franco Manco Stratford, Westfield Stratford, E20 – 020 8522 6669
Franco Manca Northcote, 16 Northcote Rd, Battersea, SW11 – 020 7924 3110
Franco Manca Tottenham Court, 98 Tottenham Court Rd, Fitzrovia, W1T – 020 7580 1913
Franco Manca Balham, 53 Bedford Hill, Balham, SW12 – 020 8772 0489
Franco Manca Southfields, 277 Wimbledon Park Road, SW11 – 020 8780 1048
Franco Manca Broadway Market, 52 Broadway Market, Hackney, E8 – 020 7254 7249

9. Ruben’s Bakehouse Refettorio

In Twickenham Monday and Tuesday are the loneliest nights of the week. That’s when Refettorio, the pizzeria-restaurant connected to Ruben’s bread bakery, is closed. The idea is to give both the sourdough and Daniele the pizzaiolo sufficient time to rest. Daniele is from Puglia and owner Igor Occhiali (his son’s name is Ruben) is from Tuscany, which may explain why the crust is crisper than any Neapolitan would allow. The sourdough base is much stiffer than Franco Manca’s but happily there is nothing cardboardy about a sourdough base that’s thin as a debit card in the middle yet bubbly and charred in all the right places. The fior di latte (cow’s milk mozzarella) is superbly oozy, drippy and stringy and, in a single word, dangerous.
52 Heath Road, Twickenham, TW1, 020 8892 9513

8. Addommè

I can’t imagine what circumstances led Nadia Leonetti and Stefano Casanova of Addommè to leave the glamourous island of Capri to set up shop in Streatham. But if I were the official in charge of bringing tourism to that South London district I’d put their pictures at the top my home page, together with a photo of their Margherita, if only to show more famous pizzerias in posh London districts how fresh, hand-cut fior di latte should behave atop a pizza. Forget the polkadot aesthetic: On this pizza canvas the white and red elements flow freely into one another to form a pink surface. Naples native Peppe Silvestro is a gifted pizzaiollo: His pizzas are blackened and blistered yet the mozza stays pure white and the crispness is just enough to make a noise when you break into it. Reasonable people may disagree about which Streatham pizzeria is superior, Addommè or Bravi Ragazzi. If I were the official in charge Streatham tourism I’d organise comparison tastings.
17-21 Sternhold Ave, Streatham Hill, SW2, 020 8678 8496

7. Pizza Metro Pizza

The first edition of Gambero Rosso guide to the pizzerias of Italy included seven foreign addresses: two in Paris, two in New York and three in Battersea. A single area of South London merited more pages than all of Venice or Trieste. Sadly, one of those eateries, A Fenestella, has closed, leaving locals to choose between two authentic Neapolitans: the admirable if inconsistent Donna Margherita and the outstanding Pizza Metro. Every millimetre of Pizza Metro’s wall space is covered with Naples-themed movie posters, murals and kitsch when all you really want to see is a pizzaiolo pull his puffy-rimmed, lightly charred, gently crisp, metre-long pizzas from the wood oven. The trouble with long pizzas, however, is they’re nearly impossible to rotate in the oven for even cooking. One end might be a little dark and charred; the other, pale and underbaked. I prefer the round ones.
Pizza Metro Battersea, 64 Battersea Rise, Battersea, SW11 – 020 7228 3812
Pizza Metro Notting Hill, 147-149 Notting Hill Gate, 020 7727 8827

6. Santoré

Forget Tower Bridge and Trafalgar Square: The essential London attraction for Southern Italian tourists was Spaccanapoli in Soho, probably because its pizza’s puffy, chewy, smoky-flavoured cornicione was so similar to what they can get at home. When that great pizzeria was evicted by the Crossrail construction project its owner, Mimmo Savarese, sent his most loyal customers as well as Nicola, his best pizzaiolo, to Santoré, Spacccanapoli’s sibling restaurant in Clerkenwell. Nicola’s Margherita is eminently foldable, its toppings reliably juicy in the best possible way.
59-61 Exmouth Market, Clerkenwell, EC1 – 020 7812 1488

5. Sacro Cuore

A mural of Naples, its cartoon monochrome an amusing departure from the kitschy landscapes of pizzerias past, may reveal Sacro Cuore’s origins. But you discover its the Margherita pizza that points you in the direction of Naples with greater speed and accuracy than the most advanced GPS navigation. The tomato sauce and fior di latte float over a wonderfully light, elastic, charred crust. Bend a triangular slice and the loose toppings will collect in the middle and, upon first bite, shoot flavours throughout your mouth. Sacro Cuore is the proud sibling of Santa Maria and lacks only the consistency of the mother ship.
45 Chamberlayne Rd, London NW10 3NB (see map), 020 8960 8558

4. Saporitalia

If you want to understand my desire for a molten mozzarella hurry to Saporitalia and see how the islets of fior di latte melt into one another, keeping soft and fluid even minutes after the pizza has been pulled from the wood-fired oven. Lift the pizza up from one end and the cheese slowly slides to the other, loyal to its substratum of rich plum tomatoes but not stuck to it. If I speak of this Margherita less as an inanimate object than a living thing that’s because it is. Pizzaiolo Ciro Sinese’s is crust is softer than most pizzas yet on the crisp side for a true Neapolitan. Its sure break in the mouth is a special chew sensation.
22 Portobello Road, London W11 1LJ (see map), 020 7243 3257

3. Bravi Ragazzi

The crust of a Bravi Ragazzi Margherita can be so light it’s a wonder it doesn’t collapse under the pressure of their moist toppings. But weightlessness in a Neapolitan-style pizza is a reflection of strength, from the way the dough is formed and rested to the manner it which it is stretched. By this measure Michele, the top Bravi Ragazzi pizzaiolo, is one powerful dude. The pizza is hardly flawless, but rustic imperfection is one of its charms. The dark spots and air pockets have an old-world authentic about them. The fior di latte goes into the wood-crackling oven as a solid and exits as a liquid.  If you want to know where Neapolitan pizza is headed head to Bravi Ragazzi.
2A Sunnyhill Road, Streathham, SW16 – 020 8769 4966

2. Santa Maria Pizzeria

The January 2015 facelift of Santa Maria featured new lighting fixtures, a new kitchen, a new Carrera marble counter and, most crucially, a new pizza oven hand-built by a Neapolitan craftsman with biscotto di Sorrento clay bricks and finished with black matte mosaic. But one thing has not changed: You can still see the reflection of the divine in the Margherita’s shimmering pools of milky, oozy and, yes, salty fior di latte floating over its surface.  This pizza, like its demanding co-owners Pasquale Chionchio and Angelo Ambrosio, is Neapolitan to the core, its soft, delicate yet resilient crust holding up to pressure, from the beautiful tomato sauce as well as your eager fingers.
15 St Mary’s Road, London W5 5RA (see map), 020 8579 1462

1. L’Antica Pizzeria

I salted my Margherita with tears when I heard Antonio, L’Antica’s star pizzaiolo, would be leaving the Hampstead pizzeria and moving to Tenerife. The response of the co-owners, Luca de Vita and Alessandro Betti, was more productive. They nurtured a replacement with ambitions as great as his hands, Giacomo Guido, and slowly – very slowly – improved their dough through longer fermentation at ambient temperature. The result has been an incredibly light dough, as is the fashion in Naples.  It’s as if Giacomo had inflated his cornicione with helium and not air. The only thing keeping the weightless Margherita from levitating above the table are its layers of tomato sauce and dreamy fior di latte, which Giacomo now cuts by hand. Now, if Antonio tried to return to Britain and reclaim his place at what is now London’s best pizzeria I would advise UK Visas and Immigration to stop him at the border and, if necessary, revoke his passport.
6 Heath Street, Hampstead, NW3 (see map) – 020 7431 8516