On June 2, at the Madrid restaurant Baldoria, they gave away a slice of pizza margherita to everyone who came by to celebrate the victory of SSC Nápoles in Serie A del Calcio. A league championship that the club had not won since 1990, a source of pride for any fan of southern Italy.
In a short time, Baldoria has become the benchmark for Neapolitan cuisine in the capital, thanks to the good work of Ciro Cristino and his team, highlighting the skill of a pizzaiolo that has led them to appear this year at number 13 in the prestigious ranking 50 Top Pizza Europe 2023. The name of the restaurant, which in Spanish could be translated as revelry, is a declaration of intent by its owner, after a long career as executive chef of the French group Big Mamma.
Ciro arrived at the Villa y Corte in the midst of a pandemic to inaugurate Bel Mondo, which immediately became a favorite with the chic clientele of the Barrio de Salamanca. He fell in love with this city and, when the company wanted to send him to launch a new project in another country, he decided that the time had come to become independent. Together with some partners, he has opened a fashion trattoria in this corner of Ortega y Gasset with Mártires Concepcionistas with an informal atmosphere, decoration inspired by the Amalfi Coast, neon signs with verses of songs by Raffaella Carrà, DJ at night, live music on weekends and even a photo booth to share selfies on social networks.
But if the place seems like another one to see and be seen, the culinary proposal that Cristino has defined together with the chef Simone Attolini is commendably reliable, standing out the homemade pizzas and pastas, which arrive at the table served on a colorful artisan ceramics made in Positano.
On our first visit, we started with the Tropea onion tarte tatin with n'duja –a kind of spicy sobrassada– and goat cheese in the purest Calabrian style, to later fall in love with a Tonno Tonnato, which is a version of vitello where the veal is replaced by a tuna tataki that is accompanied by a mild tonnata sauce and caper berries. A simple and addictive snack.
And the pizzas? Well, the dough rests for 48 hours before being cooked at 420 degrees in a traditional Acunto oven, so no joke. Our margherita with buffalo mozzarella, San Marzano tomatoes and fresh basil was more than adequate, although it wasn't what we fell in love with the most.
Among the pastas, the most demanded is the Cacio
If Baldoria comes to enrich the cuisine offer of Naples in Madrid, Ozio Gastronómico does the same with Sicilia in the Cuatro Caminos venue where Goizeko Kabi once operated, vindicating that southern side of transalpine food that has the Mediterranean as its maximum reference, with its fish and its taste for herbs and spices.
“For reasons that are difficult to explain, Sicilian gastronomy has never been one of the most represented in Italian restaurants abroad, and Neapolitan, Roman, Emilian or Piedmontese have always taken the cake. In Madrid there have been some noteworthy attempts, especially that Sicilian Taverna that in the first decade of the 21st century became the best ambassador for the island, although it closed in 2010”, our colleague and friend Alberto Luchini rightly explains in Seven Cannibals.
Indeed, pan-Italianism has been the tonic on the menus of most of the establishments in the country of the boot that operate in our city, with the laudable exceptions of Mercato Ballarò and Premiata Fornería Ballaró –successors of La Taverna Siciliana– or the Boccondivino very solid Sardinian restaurant. That is why it is excellent news that Ozio Gastronomico has been operating since January 2022 as the Madrid branch of the dining room of the same name located on Via di Blasi Francesco Paolo in Palermo.
Run by Gabriele Cristiani and recently joined by thirty-something Margherita Fuligni as head chef, Ozio Gastronomico Madrid is a charming little restaurant where they prepare a thick and fluffy pizza style similar to a foccacia, fermented for more than 72 hours and topped in a pan with a little olive oil, which is quite satisfactory, especially if it can be shared among several diners.
Before, we had tried a house hit, such as Luna Rossa, which consists of a buffalo burrata served with candied tomatoes and tuna botarga. And we had also discovered the creative vein of Margherita in this Crudo de Carabineros, which is a refreshing tartare of the aforementioned crustacean seasoned with pistachio granola, orange-flavored oil and phisalys and served on foccacia.
Of course, the star dish here is the trio of caponatas, that jumble of aubergine with olives, capers and other vegetables that is one of the most iconic recipes on the island. In this case, the three versions that come to the table are elaborations originating from different cities: the one from Ragusa has artichoke, red onion and zucchini; the one from Catania includes pepper, tomato, potato and pine nuts; that of Palermo, onion and a surprising touch of cocoa powder. They all seemed very remarkable to us.
In the pasta section, Ozio also stands out from the predictable with island creations such as spaguetto reale with bottarga, candied lemon and toasted almonds, busiato with pesto di Trapani or pasta con le sarde, which has sardines, raisins and breadcrumbs. . We opted for a chitarra pasta al ragù di mare that demonstrates the young chef's talent for seafood stew and we also tried some capellacci ravioli stuffed with shrimp tartare on burrata cream that weren't bad either.
As for dessert, we had heard a lot about the wonderful cannolo, that crunchy cookie filled with fresh sheep ricotta, cocoa beans, pistachio and orange, which is the most emblematic sweet of Palermo pastry. And I attest that it lives up to expectations. For more daring diners, be sure to ask for the creamy dark chocolate with Sicilian botarga.
Young, well-trained service and a wine list that highlights – here too – the Etna volcanoes. Another recommended table that shows us that the south (of Italy) also exists.
