Punch Neapolitan Pizza

Eden Prairie, MN

I took my parents out to Punch Pizza on Mothers Day. I decided on Punch because plans for this weekend were a bit up in the air until the last minute on account of the weather, my dad is a farmer, so I couldn't really make reservations for some Mothers Day brunch. And, I didn't want to wait some place for 45 minutes to an hour and fight crowds and noise for some food where the quality had more than likely been sacrificed in order to feed a giant number of people on account of the holiday. I knew with Punch it may still be busy, but the wait wouldn't be long and the pizza would still be good and, above all, mom would like it.

Punch is authentic Neapolitan style pizza. In fact, they are one of only about 25 U.S. members of Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, which is an international trade association that seeks to “promote the culinary tradition of the Neapolitan pizza”. They have strict rules for members ensuring the authenticity of the pizza, which include wood-burning domed ovens and dough that is made from only flour, yeast, water, and salt. Punch actually flies in some of their toppings from Italy each week.

We arrived there with my parents at 11:35. I remember this exactly because I was going to meet my parents at their hotel at 11:15 in order to be at the restaurant at 11:30 and I would have been perfectly on time had I not nearly forgotten mom's card and had to turn around to get it and waste 5 minutes in the process. My brother and his fiance were meeting us there and beat us by a few minutes. The place was still pretty quiet at this point with maybe not even half of the cozy dining room filled. We spent a few minutes going over the menu and my wife and I tried to answer any questions the best we could but neither of us have done the "craft your own" option, so we weren't exactly sure on all the details. I was willing to spend as much time as needed on the menu because I had some concerns about bringing this group here. My mom, my wife, and I will eat pretty much anything. My brother's fiance is a really picky eater. She does a good job of making it her problem and not everybody else's, but I really don't know the things she likes and doesn't. My dad is Norwegian and most of my siblings display this trait when it comes to food. I seem to have overcome this affliction.

My brother and his fiance ordered and grabbed a table while we spent another minute on the menu. My wife ordered her favorite, the Siciliana (proscuitto, artichoke, picholine olive, basil), and then I ordered my favorite, the Visuvio (spiced salami, saracene olive, cracked red pepper, pepperoncini, basil). Mom order the Palermo (spiced salami, sun-dried tomato, saracene olive, oregano) and then told the girl at the register that "you're going to have to help him" and pointed to dad. Dad then explained to her that "I'm Norwegian". He ended up ordering a Napoli (sauce, oregano, mozzarella) with ham, sausage, onion, and garlic. My brother had also ordered the Palermo and his fiance got the same thing dad did but without the sausage.

We couldn't have been sitting at our table for more than five minutes before our pizzas came, which is about par for the course. It only takes 90 seconds to bake a pizza in their 800° oven (there is video of this on their website). If you aren't familiar with their pizzas, they are individual sized and are very thin crust. The outer crust rises in the oven and the middle stays thin and doesn't get crispy. You will need to be prepared to use your utensils or carefully dive in with both hands. It can be a messy experience between that and the wonderful charred spots on the crust that can leave your fingers and lips black.

I just love Punch and everybody in our group seemed to really like it too. The ingredients at Punch are very flavorful and I love the spiciness of the Visuvio. The only blemish was that my brother must have missed that the Palermo has olives on it and, after eating a couple, he picked the rest off. I'm not a fan of olives myself, but I do kind of like the saracene olives that are on my Vesuvio.

Punch has 6 Twin Cities metro locations.

UPDATE:
Here is that video I mentioned, courtesy of Punch Pizza.



They also have a Flickr page where you can check out some photos like this one.


The Siciliana.

Umbria Pizzeria

Bloomington, MN

Yesterday evening we went out to Umbria Pizzeria in Bloomington. They have several other locations around the Twin Cities. Our motivation to go was because we are looking to cater in some pasta for an upcoming party and we knew that Umbria had both catering and pasta. As the name suggests, Umbria also has pizza, which we have had several times.

Let's start with the pizza. There has been an increase and improvement in pizza options in our corner of Bloomington since we moved there a year and a half ago. At first there were a couple of the major delivery chains, Papa Murphy's, and the local Frankie's. Frankie's isn't bad, but it didn't really float our boat. (Ha ha... I just had a flash back to school lunches and pizza boats.) It's worth trying. It just wasn't our thing. Then Umbria showed up, or we just found out about it, followed by Nick-N-Willy's. Our delivery preference has now shifted to Umbria.

Umbria's pizza has a thick crust, not deep dish by any means, but thicker than most places. It's maybe a little breadier than most crusts too... if that's a thing. They have a wide range of toppings and, overall, it makes a very nice pizza. We've had a few different kinds of their gourmet pizzas. The one that stands out the most to me is their gyro pizza. It sounded interesting and possibly tasty and it turned out to be surprisingly awesome. They have some pretty good gyro meat and this Greek white sauce that really makes the pizza. We always end up getting an order of garlic cheese bread when we order pizza, partly because they always have coupons for it and partly because it's really good. It's pretty much perfect.

Back to the pasta. We decided to each order a different pasta so we could have an idea of the quality. My wife ordered the meat ravioli and I got the cheese tortellini and then we shared a bit. The pasta dishes come with a salad and a piece of garlic bread. My tortellini was in a creamy alfredo sauce. A lot of times alfredo sauce can be pretty blah, but this one actually had some parsley and a nice peppery kick to it. The pepper might be a little too much if you're eating an entire plate of it, but I was able to break it up with the garlic bread and some of my wife's ravioli. I would eat it again.

The ravioli were huge and were stuffed with what must have been pork sausage. The sausage had a little bit of a spicy kick to it, but certainly not enough spice to scare away too many Minnesotans. We both enjoyed the ravioli.

After we ate we talked briefly with the manager about catering. He did tell us that the pastas aren't limited to the menu. If we wanted to add stuff like chicken or spinach or whatever, they would do it. It would cost a little extra, but they would do it. They may even do that for you in the restaurant.

We don't really go out for pasta very often. When we do, we like to find a place that's really special, like Donatelli's. However, if we were craving some pasta that we didn't want to make or don't normally make, Umbria would certainly fill the bill.

Donatelli's

White Bear Lake, MN

Friday night we went out to Donatelli's with a couple friends. Donatelli's is a little Italian restaurant located in an innocuous strip mall in White Bear Lake. They also offer American food. You can't hardly be a family restaurant in Minnesota without offering some kind of hamburger, but Donatelli's actually has many burger options, many of which are Italian inspired and use monterey jack and mozzarella cheeses. They also have American and Italian sandwiches and wraps... but that's not why you came. The appeal of Donatelli's is their homemade Italian food. They make it all by scratch, including the pasta.

We found out about this place from Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives and we knew we just had to make it there sometime soon. The place is pretty little and there isn't much room to wait for your table, especially when it's February outside. They do have ice cream right up front, so you can stop in to get ice cream to go and they also have a couple coolers with pizzas, pastas, sauces, etc. that you can pick up and make at home. After a brief wait, we were seated at a table in the large group/busy night overflow room and not in the main dining room. We could have held out for a booth, but it was our understanding that the food came to both booths and tables, which it did.

My wife and I put together a game plan. We were each going to order something different and share. She had been craving some manicotti, so she ordered the baked manicotti, and I ordered the baked mostacolli. Most of the pasta dishes come with the option of meatballs, Italian sausage, or meat sauce for a small up-charge. Since my wife isn't a huge fan of sausage and heartburn, she got the meatballs and I got the meat sauce. The game plan fell apart as soon as the food arrived. I did get a bite of the manicotti and some meatball (the meatball was awesome) and she got a couple bites of the mostacolli, but we were both fully enjoying what was in front of us that neither one of us cared if we got any more of the other dish. The red sauce was killer. The mostacolli was cooked perfectly and topped with mozzarella and sharp cheddar and baked. Then some grated parmesan was added at the end. The sharp cheddar really completed the dish. Those bites that included everything were just fantastic. I haven't been that into a pasta dish in a long time, if ever.

Donatelli's also offers pizza, which I understand is also really good. But that will have to wait for another time, assuming I can resist the lure of the mostacolli.