After our pastry stop in Fão, another 90 minutes of hiking and crossing of the Cávado river, we arrived in the town center of Esposende. Another of the region’s seaside resort towns, Esposende is also a regional hub for agriculture and fishing, so the town is pretty substantial, around 30k residents, and has two reasonably busy business areas (one on the waterfront, and a similar one around the old town). However, we arrived on a Monday, which is one of the nights when many restaurants are closed. But with a short walk around town, we found Pizzeria Di Pappi, which was open, and quite popular, especially the outdoor patio, but they managed to fit us into the inside seating.
While most of our dining in Portugal focused either on traditional or modernized Portuguese cuisine, di Pappi is basically your classic Italian pizzeria, and walking inside, that’s exactly the ambiance: a classic pizzeria interior, with an above-average wood-fired oven setup and a lot of older French and Italian travel posters to give the place a little flair. Getting a pleasant inside table, we relaxed with a bottle of Italian wine and looked over the list of pizzas.
Like most continental pizzerias I’ve been to, di Pappi focuses on a single pizza size, approximately 40 cm in diameter (as opposed to the primarily American approach of making large family-sized pizzas), and I find with a group of four, the smaller pizzas work perfectly for sharing: four people, each with their pizza cut into four quarters, makes it really easy for everyone to sample a bit of each pizza. First up, the Capricciosa, a classic tomato and mozzarella pizza topped with mozzarella, salami, fresh mushrooms, black olives, and basil. This was a great start to our pizza lineup, since this had all the hallmarks of a good pizza: a nice chewy dough, well-cooked in the pizza oven to a light char with a good crown. The cheese was nicely melted and starting to crisp, as were the various toppings except for the basil, which was added right as the pizza came out of the oven. A good, well-flavored sauce tied everything together into a very good pizza.
Next up was Carol’s selection, the Di Pappi (basically their house special). This was another tomato pizza, this time coupled with two different cheeses (a nice aged parmigiano reggiano and a soft fresh buffalo mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes, arugula, basil, extra virgin olive oil. I really liked this pizza: the basic cheese and tomato base had a really rich flavor from the use of two cheeses and two different tomato types, and arugula is one of my favorite toppings for a fresh-out-of-the-oven pizza.
My selection was the Proscuitto e Funghi. Basically a classic tomato and mozzarella pizza with sliced prosciutto and mushroom. One place that southern Europe (and I’m including Spain and Portgual in this category) excels is good aged ham products, and the overall pizza was the perfect combination of lightly charred crust, crisped toppings, and sauces that complement the excellent crust without burying its flavor.
Finally, Dan went for the Ortolana: a tomato and parmigiano reggiano pizza with peppers, sliced eggplant, courgettes, sautéed fresh mushrooms, and basil. While I’m not generally a fan of eggplant, it worked particularly well here with just enough crisping and charring from the oven.
After a full day of hiking, Pizzeria di Pappi was a particularly pleasant dinner, with a friendly staff, warm ambiance, reasonable prices, and excellent pizzas. It’s definitely a spot worth checking out if you are in Esposende.
