L'Elementare - Casal Bertone

Casal Bertone, a residential corner of eastern Rome that seldom attracts much notice, now has L’Elementare, a newly opened pizzeria. The seating is divided among window bays. The pizza is the low, crunchy Roman kind known as scrocchiarella, with dough stretched thin and baked until the rim cracks. Some pizzas were created for this branch alone, and they share the menu with the Marinara Doppia, topped with anchovies and yellow tomato, and the Datte Foco, with provolone del Monaco and nduja. Local families from the nearby blocks fill it early, younger diners arrive later, and visitors hardly figure among them.

To get a feel for the base, go for the Marinara Doppia: with barely any topping, the thinness of the dough becomes something you can actually hear. It is also worth asking the staff which pizzas were devised for this particular address, because those aren’t served at the other L’Elementare rooms, so they are the part of the menu you can only eat in Casal Bertone.