Receta Don Peppe (Venice, Italy)
Don Peppe is a pizzeria located inside a mall in the non-island part of Venice called Nave de Vero, we stumbled upon this place on our first day while looking for somewhere to dine in after our trip from Ljubljana. Nave de Vero is quite a big mall compared to European standards, and it feels like a those malls in South East Asia.
On the top most floor is where you will find its food court but it a different style of food court as the restaurants here have their own dining area, there is also a communal dining area where concerts and other performances are held. If you notice the restaurants in this food court are the gourmet ones and not the fast food (apart from one McDonalds) or where the dishes are ready made. We tried two of the restaurants here and this is the first one, Don Peppe.
As you walk near their establishment you will immediately notice its bit red bright name together with its big wood fire oven, since it’s our first day here we decided to go for the usual pizza and pasta. As soon as we stepped into the premises we were greeted and seated by an army of very friendly waiters. We did not muck around much as we were hungry so we ordered a couple of pizza and pasta.
As our orders are placed the waiters explains to us that the pizzas and pastas are made fresh and they are prepared really quick, they even invited me to look at their chef making their pasta and take pictures of them.
One of the chef also started to have an exhibition with his pizza while they are all having some fun but it was quite a failure as it dropped on the floor just before serving it to our tables, luckily they cook really quick in that wood oven to waiting time was not an issue even if they prepare it again from the start.
As we eagerly await for 15 minutes or less our tummies start growling and complaining, luckily there were some free sourdough breads to start with.
Few minutes later the pasta was served, the flavour of our choice was the simplest one and only consist of tomato sauce, for the other pasta we got some Frutti de Mare. All I can say is that these are the two great pasta dishes I ever tried, easily it will be on the top of my list. The simplest pasta with just tomato sauce does not taste simple at all, it’s full of flavour. After trying this my daughter was hard to please with other pasta served in front of her.
The Frutti de Mare was equally as amazing, you can taste the richness of the sea from this dish and it uses the same tomato base so expect the same robust flavour from the first one we tried.
While indulging ourselves with the pasta the pizza then arrived, first was this Mozzarella and Ham
and their Don Peppe special which is a unique type of pizza, something like a cross between calzone and pizza. It is filled with different ingredients like mushrooms, meats and cheese not mixed together but clumped in once section of the pizza, so every bite is a surprise as you don’t know what filling that section of the pizza has. It was served over a salad greens with some prosciutto and fresh mozzarella.
Both pizza as expected was good, the crust has that perfect dough texture, a good balance of crispiness and chewiness. Again the tomatoes did a great job and it brought life to the pizza.
We were really full after this dining, in fact I have some leftovers which I planned to eat for breakfast the next day. I never expected to find quite a good quality pizza and pasta in a mall, I am glad I did, definitely this place will go to the top of my list of the best restaurants I ever tried.
Now that we have replenished the lost energy by having some great food, it’s time for us to visit the island part of Venice and its late in the afternoon so it’s a good time to take some photos, also the parking lot will not be as busy compared to the peak hours of the morning.
We did not explored the whole part of Venice this afternoon, we just had a glimpse of what the island has to offer. It was all incredible, definitely a feast for your senses.
This was the time we also rode the Gondolas as we saw a small queue of people in one of the stands, we were afraid if we do it the next day the queue might be much longer.
after our ride we had some short stroll going inland
to see what else is in there, it seems like an endless maze of cobblestone streets and
old style architecture so we walked as much as we can but saved more energy for the next day ahead of us.
Don Peppe
Address: Nave de Vero via Pietro Arduino, 20, 30175 Venezia, Italy
Website: http://www.donpeppe.it/
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