Pizza & Co.
…I also want to assert that this is a fantastic pizzeria, that I visit often and I am not slagging it off at all. Other than my semantics about dough (which I realise for many are boring and tiresome) they are obviously as Italian as it gets. The ingredients are excellent and are always fresh (the pizzeria is always busy and they never make pizzas too far in advance). In fact I’m not sure you’ll find a fresher cooked slice anywhere else in Lecce. I’ve often dropped in for a ‘quick’ slice and then walked off, slice in hand, only to find myself turning back around to go and get another one. And then another one. In fact a good tip (especially if all the tables are full) is to eat on the steps of the church next door. My advice: get a slice and a beer and settle in, bum-on-steps, for a couple of rounds of pizza… until you’re definitely full. I can tell you from experience that this is much more relaxing and efficient than constantly walking up and down Via Giuseppe Libertini, as lovely as it is, telling yourself you’re not going to eat anymore pizza, when clearly, you are.
You can also order a whole pizza which they’ll cook for you to order (which is massive and requires about 4 people to get through).
Pizza & Co. is already a well known pizzeria in Lecce especially amongst the tourist community, and with good reason. They know their way around flavour extremely well and deliver slice after slice after slice.
Squaiu
When we went we were asked if we’d been before (no) and then given a bit of a brief about the provenance and nice talk through all the toppings. Everything is apparently organic or local, particularly organic flour for the dough made with ‘lievito madre’ aka sourdough.
Pizza is super crocante (crispy) and nice and aerated, definitely the best dough or crust I’ve had in Lecce (in terms of pizza al taglio). As pizza aficionados will well know, when the dough is well proved (risen) over plenty of time and as naturally as possible the pizza is much much easier to digest, and after eating here we felt absolutely fantastic. No heaviness whatsoever.
Toppings whilst being excellent quality were perhaps a little on the safe/traditional side in terms of flavour combinations. Guanciale (pork cheek) and Pecorino (sheeps cheese) was about as wild as it got on our visit (which is a centuries old roman combo and about as safe as it gets). Pizzas are pre-cut into fairly modestly sized squares rather than the more traditional sold-by-weight option. Squares are priced firmly, although fairly for the area, which is expensive. They also have a great selection of local craft beers in the fridge.
Re Artù
Puccia (a particular type of sandwich from Salento) is the main draw here, as they do it extremely well. Unlike the Puccia joints in the old city, which tend to have a paired back menu of 4 or 5 options, at Re Artù you can have whatever you want. Puccia is €7 (which is pretty pricey for salento), all the toppings are laid out and you point and ask (which is kinda more how the locals do it). Process wise (for ordering) it’s exactly the same as subway basically. I don’t think all the ingredients here are homemade, but a significant proportion probably are, which sit side by side with ketchup and mayo etc which people here love a bit of in their Puccia. You can make it as highbrow or lowbrow as you like, it’s your Puccia, its up to you.
Pizza is by the slice (or rather by the square) or you can order a whole pizza. I’ve only had squares of pizza here and they’ve been pretty good. It’s that old school pizza that kinda reminds me of our school canteen, aka white fluffy style of pizza base (but with much better toppings).
Il Pizzicotto (#2 Via Taranto)
On it’s day Il Pizzicotto is easily as good as any of Rome’s world renowned Pizza al Taglio joints (their potato and truffle cream & mortadella and stracciatella are notably good) and on other days simply has a good selection of tasty bites. It sometimes suffers from thinking it’s a little bit better than it really is. However, all of the staff are super helpful and speak several languages and will talk you through all the toppings. Sometimes they’re not forthright about which was the pizza that most recently came out of the oven, or if it was cooked that day, so you have to use your eyes to judge.
Il Pizzicotto (Original Location)
On it’s day Il Pizzicotto is easily as good as any of Rome’s world renowned Pizza al Taglio joints (their potato and truffle cream & mortadella and stracciatella are notably good) and on other days simply has a good selection of tasty bites. It sometimes suffers from thinking it’s a little bit better than it really is. However, all of the staff are super helpful and speak several languages and will talk you through all the toppings. Sometimes they’re not forthright about which was the pizza that most recently came out of the oven, or if it was cooked that day, so you have to use your eyes to judge.