Salsiccia e friarielli @ Little Furnace
178 Smithdown Road, Wavertree, Liverpool, L15 3JR
This country has spent the past few years so tightly in the grip of the Neapolitan pizza trend that it can sometimes feel suffocating.
The tyranny of chewy naan-like dough, of charred bubbly crusts, of nduja and burrata specials is all-encompassing. You begin to yearn for crispy bases, pizzas called things like ‘supreme’ or ‘farmhouse’ and menus without entire sections dedicated to aioli-based dipping sauces.
Still, there’s a reason Neapolitan pizza places like Franco Manca and Rudy’s started popping up everywhere (other than venture capital funding). It’s because when it’s done well, it’s a genuinely wonderful food. And one place that does this kind of pizza better than almost anywhere this side of the boot is Little Furnace on Smithdown Road.
It’s a tiny shop dominated by a huge, constantly burning brick oven (nicknamed Papa Gamboso) and with only a handful of seats. Because of this - or maybe because your clothes stink like a bonfire if you linger here for too long - most people order to takeaway or for delivery. But it is worth trying to eat in; Neapolitan pizza more than any other kind suffers for being transported.
Try to squeeze in one of the three booths here and order anything, it’s all great. Try the regina margherita – with fior di latte cheese and fresh, sweet orange and yellow tomatoes – or their best, the Salsiccia e friarielli. A white pizza with wilted bitter Italian broccolini and coarse, crumbled sausage, heavy on the fennel. You’ll remember why you fell in love with stretchy pizza in the first place.
