Carbonara in a Pizza at Don Antonio Pizza Bar & More
PUBLISHED August 26th, 2014 10:00 pm | UPDATED April 21st, 2016 08:17 am
Simplicity can speak volumes, and three-month old casual Italian restaurant, Don Antonio Pizza Bar does that with its humble array of just over 20 down-to-earth Italian fare with exhilarating flavour combinations, like a pizza that tastes like Carbonara.
Started by Naples-born Chef Antonio Cocozza and his Singaporean wife, Germaine Wong, the 30-seater eatery used to house the famed Frederick Lee’s Bridal Couture in its conservation shophouse locale. The décor – breezy and minimalist with raw cement flooring and whitewashed walls – is a welcomed divorce from the typical earthy trattoria interiors
Standing out from sea of pizza offerings in Singapore are the cream-based pizza. Instead of the usual tomato sauce, almost half of the eight pizzas here have a mixture of cream and cheese slathered on its crust. While the dough is not baked in a wood-fired oven (Chef explained that it was due to a lack of oak wood here), the 13-inch dough is kneaded with a tad of yeast, and left to sit for 24 hours, before being baked. The result? A pizza base that straddles between a feathery light biscuit (think Skinny Pizza) and a dense chewy crust (think Pizza Hut). The not-too-cloyingly bready crust, which tastes like sourdough bread, is actually good to eat on its own. And amazingly, the crust stays crisp for more than 30 minutes.
But, of course, you need some toppings. The Bianca pizza ($24) is a shoo-in to order; it’s like carbonara in a pizza – the medley of cream and mozzarella cheese is given a smoky accent with slices of bacon. Raining on the pizza are drops of rich black truffle cream that heightens the flavour combination, with a savoury punch. As if that’s not enough, the luscious pizza is plastered with basil leaves that adds a refreshing zing. Another cream-based pizza that I tried was Salsiccia E Ricotta ($24), which had a generous dollops of milky and grainy baked ricotto cheese lumps, with streaks of Italian poor sausages and halved juicy cherry tomatoes and basil leaves. Admittedly, the cheese takes come time getting used to.
To give the classics some airtime, I tried a tomato-based pizza, the quintessential Prociutto E Ruccola ($24) is laced shreds of cured ham, cheese slices, and a fistful of rocket leaves, parmesan slices and basil leaves on a tomato sauce-smeared base. It is a safe option, but I would recommend the cream-based pizzas.
The Eggplant Parmigiana ($16) is a treasure trove of baked goods. The homely appetiser is a testament to deft baking skills. The middle portions of the Mozzarella-scented slices are moist, soft, while the sides are burnt and crisp. Tasting the meaty vegetarian dish, drenched in basil-tinged tomato sauce, feels like biting the burnt bits of char siew (roasted pork).
The Paccheri Genovsse ($24) consists of rectangular pasta tubes stacked to a pyramid, showing off intricate beautiful folds from the side. Crowning the pyramid is a mound of stewed pork collar, slow-cooked for three hours with soft caramelised onions, thyme and carrot cubes. The sweet, braised filling is very tasty, but the portion of meat is not proportionate to the mass of thick pasta tubes. I enveloped a spoonful of meat within a pasta tube, and the chewiness of the pasta overwhelms the sweetness of the tender pork, leaving it hard to savour the pork. The other pasta, Raviolacci ($24) fared better – a sunshiny mound of ravioli stuffed with Porcini mushrooms – is drenched judiciously in a golden mixture of butter and white truffle oil, and emanates a strong truffle scent. The Porcini mushrooms lend an earthy, woodsy contrast to the rich truffle, which was also not overshadowed by its dough pouch. The truffle butter sauce is great for mopping up with leftover pizza crust.
The Italian perennial dessert, Tiramisu ($10) is quite unique, with streaks of Kahlua-spiked egg yolk and sugar mixture lined across the block of Zabione and ethereally light mascarpone cream, which alternates with layers of crushed Savioardi (ladyfinger) biscuits. This different interpretation of Tiramisu is not as boozy as I would have expected, but I love the warm coffee-flavoured, rum-based liquor that lingers.
Just when you’re wondering how exciting and different Italian fare can get in Singapore, Don Antonio shows you how with its stand-out cream-based pizzas, appetisers and that tiramisu, which is forward-looking in taste and presentation, with a strong foothold in its classic cooking elements.
Don Antonio Pizza Bar is located at 2 Jalan Kalpa, Singapore 199314. Open Tuesday – Sunday: 12 noon – 2:30pm (lunch) and 6:30pm – 10:30pm (dinner). Call 6293 6548 for reservations.
Written by Kenneth Goh
