Just like eating in a piazza
The ravioli swelled from underneath its creamy sauce, mushroom ragu with slivers of fried prosciutto. I sliced open the pasta and found rich Gorgonzola cheese tucked inside. In my palate, the prosciutto’s flavor could not be lost. It was salty, it was sweet. And it gave my dreamy, creamy ravioli a bit of crunch. When made lovingly, this simple dish can be exquisite. This is why we easily fall in love with rustic Italian cooking. This is why some people love to go to Piazza Pazzo.
The air is warm in the piazza. Everything is designed to evoke casual intimacy in a cozy interplay of warm light and shades of beige with touches of brown painted on the walls. The afternoon can be lazy here. Conversations can go from a giggle to a murmur. You can also read in silence, or write down your thoughts if you must. Do some work even. Just let the piazza mood inspire you every way it should.
The menu is easy and honest. You read and you know what you’d like to eat. Will it be a panini today? The one with crumbles of Italian sausage, roasted red peppers, and fresh mozzarella? Perhaps, a panini and a glass of Sgroppino would be perfect for mid-afternoon? Sgroppino — a concoction of sparkling Prosecco wine with lemon sorbet and vodka — would be good to while the hours away. Or you can have a glass of cold Tormenta di frutta. This drink of lemon sorbet with vodka is perfect for a hot summer afternoon.
Dining at Piazza Pazzo is like having something served to you right from a loving mother’s kitchen. Of course, the food here comes off the kitchen of executive chef Sito Senn, for whom everything must taste good and fresh. No fuss. No embellishments. It’s all about ingredients at their best that make for an honest and satisfying meal. Needless to say, he also prepares Piazza Pazzo’s specials with the same thing in mind.
Aside the creamy ravioli with fried prosciutto, another pasta special is the four-cheese mushroom cannelloni that’s served with drizzles of pesto. Meanwhile, the pizzas, thin and crisp, have just enough toppings that marry well in flavor.
This piazza’s oven continues to cook up a number of dolce pizzas throughout the day, too. The strawberry cheesecake pizza features slices of juicy strawberry lying on a cream cheese mousse and topped with some whipped cream. There’s also the green apple pizza with caramelized apples as well as the banana nutella pizza with fresh banana, nutella, dulce de leche, and whipped cream. But for something wicked with chocolate, there is the choco-mallows pizza that’s got roasted marshmallows and dark chocolate. You can have this playfully decadent pizza with some whipped cream, too.
Piazza Pazzo is also famous for its gelato creations. They can either be speciale or superiore, even iperlight or ipersoia for sugar-free or lactose-free creations. There are about 75 gelato creations that the restaurant offers, with 40 on display daily. Fragola al latte gelato is filled with strawberries and cream. Mexican chocolate features chocolate gelato mixed with chili and coffee liqueur. Menta is where mint gelato is mixed with chocolate chips. And limoncello is where the lemon liquer turns into something tart, creamy, and just a tad sweet. Sorbets make cool treats, too, like mango verde or green mango sorbet and the arancio or orange sorbet.
Piazza Pazzo also serves Italian Danesi coffee. Sometimes, their coffee is blended with some gelato to create some of the restaurant’s signature Fusione drinks. Mocha Nocciola Fusione is coffee that’s blended with chocolate and hazelnut gelato while Mocha Dulce Fusione brings coffee, chocolate, and dulce de leche gelato together in a merry cup. Cappuccino Dulce Fusione is simply dulce de leche gelato with coffee.
For Fusione without the coffee, there’s Due Bacio Fusione with dark and white chocolate gelato with hazelnut. There’s the Aloha Bianca Fusione, which is white chocolate and macadamia gelato. And then there’s the Biscotti Chip Fusione, which mixes Italian cookie gelato with chocolate-laced vanilla gelato called Straciatella.
Life can be truly sweet at the piazza.
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Piazza Pazzo is located at Level P1 of the Power Plant Mall in
