Originally from Naples, Italy, Gaetano moved to Romania with his wife, Doina, back in 2013. They came to his wife’s hometown, Milișăuți, a famous Bucovinean town with a tradition of making sour cabbage in really vast barrels. It felt like home to him, so, for quite some time, he longed to move in. As a child, he had a passion for making pizza, so he worked in many restaurants and pizzerias and was brilliant at his job. Once settled in Romania, he continued to pursue his passion for Neapolitan pizza making.
“At one point he was drawn by a sign, “Oven Baked Pizza”. To his disappointment, the oven was electric.
“-Pizza in an electric oven! That’s not possible”, he said.
He went over to speak to the owner.
“-I’ll come work for you”, he said.
“-I’m looking forward to that”, the owner replied.
“-I’ll work for you, but on my terms”, he said.
“-What are they?”
“-Build a wood-fired oven,” he asked.
Thus, the electric oven was replaced with a wood-fired oven. It was a great success. Unfortunately, the owner got sick and they closed down”, remembers his wife.
“This was his passion, and his dream was to open up his restaurant. One day, as we came back from shopping, we saw a “for rent” sign in the town center.”
“- There I’ll make my pizza shop”, he joked. It was January. In May 2014, we opened Pizzeria Da Nino”, she continues.
Soon, he endeared himself to everybody with his happy and cheerful ways. People from all over came to meet the Italian man who had moved to Milișăuți. With a passion for cooking, his wife grew to like making pizza and learned its secrets.
“They wondered about him, what made him move over here. He had an open personality that everybody liked. Unfortunately, he passed away in 2018. I carry on what I learned”, she says with tears in her eyes.
In the first hour, she gets everything ready for the day: chopping mushrooms, shredding mozzarella, and having the salami, prosciutto, and olives, all lined in a row. She kneads dough for the following day.
“I use cold water when making bread dough. I eyeball the ingredients. It should be neither too hard, nor too soft. You’ll know it is ready when the dough starts wrapping around the kneading hook.”
When that is done, the huge lump of dough is shaped into dough balls the size of a child’s fist, lined up on a tray, and left to rise for 12 hours at room temperature. In the evening, the risen dough is placed in the refrigerator to be used the next day.
By this time she already started taking orders, her hands rotating the elastic dough on the flour-sprinkled surface, letting it stretch between her hands. She shapes and dresses four pizzas in an instant. Now, with a long paddle, she puts them in the preheated wood-fired oven to cook.
The place quickly becomes flooded by a delicious smell that drives everyone crazy, a cheesy, tomato-y, and slightly doughy smell that draws more people in, making them want to try the delicious Neapolitan pizza.
As for me, ever since I started working on this video, there hasn’t been a single day that I didn’t eat pizza. Never before had I been craving so much pizza! Even now, as I am writing, my stomach growls for more, and I can’t wait to get there this summer to eat a Neapolitan pizza at Da Nino’s.
With quick movements, she makes me a Volcano, her husband’s invention, one that erupts like the Vesuvius from Naples, one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had. After one minute of seething in the oven, the stunningly delicious cheese-flooded pizza is sizzling on the plate.
Contact Pizzeria Da Nino
Phone: 004 0758 614 548
Stefan cel mare nr 37, Milișăuți 727369, Suceava County
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