There are no starters, no empanadas or fainá, no coffee, no dessert.
There is only pizza, the oldest and most sought after in Mar del Plata, light, crispy
, the result of a combination of the techniques that make a Neapolitan pizza and the Argentine taste.
There is only pizza and it is stone-baked
.
This variety with a thin and crispy base - because it is cooked on a hot stone - eternal rival of pan pizza is very much ours.
The recipe for "Pedrito, the King of stone pizza" does not keep any major secrets
, except for a lot of work.
And underlying it is the sacrifice of the makers of it to start from scratch.
The story of Pedrito, the king of stone-baked pizza
Escaping the hardships that the second war brought, Pedro Vento and his wife Josefa Amendolia, Mrs. Pina, arrived in the country in search of a future for their family, which was already growing: with them, when he was not yet two years old. , they brought their little daughter, María.
They arrived from Messina
, a port city in northeastern Sicily.
Pedro, during the war, had navigated these waters and
found some resemblance between the coasts of his hometown and that of Mar del Plata.
Shortly after arriving in the country, in the mid-40s, he settled here, and by chance at some point he was able to buy land in an area that was then quite far from the center, although close to the sea.
There is always a line at Pedrito, the king of stone-baked pizza.
Photo: Gabriel Bulacio.
"There was nothing here, it was the outskirts of Mar del Plata," says Esteban Manzo, his grandson, today in front of the Pedrito ovens.
In those years the city grew at a frenetic pace.
Havanna was already flooding these beaches with its alfajores and began to build its factory on the corner where Salta Street meets the coast.
For a long time,
hundreds of workers began to move in the workshop and this was right in front of the Vento property.
"Nona cooked very well, and she knew about fish and seafood from Italy. She cooked and sold to the workers," he recalls.
Until
1952, on December 18, the pizzeria and seafood restaurant "Pedrito" opened its doors.
On the same corner where it operates today with the same wood-burning oven - fueled by eucalyptus and quebracho - that Don Pedro manipulated.
Customers of Pedrito, the king of stone pizza, appreciate that the recipe is the same as always.
Photo: Gabriel Bulacio.
That name explains why the room, even though today it only serves pizza, has ancient suggestions written on the ceiling beams: "Try the exquisite mussel vermichelli";
"Prawns to taste";
"Order the typical Sicilian lasagnas", and a phrase that at some point has sounded within its walls: "Hey, Pedrito! Get some fish."
What to eat at Pedrito, the king of stone-baked pizza
At Pedrito, the king of stone pizza, there are classic pizzas and house specialties.
Photo: Gabriel Bulacio.
Today he is "the king of stone-baked pizza", for more than seven decades.
"Legacy from my son," says Esteban, who continued running the pizzeria when his grandfather died in 2003. At some point, his son decided that he would only serve pizza, and today the room, for which there is rarely
anything waiting on the sidewalk,
has a dynamic rotation.
Reservations are not taken, neither by networks nor by telephone - there are none;
In high season it opens every day, in low season from Thursday to Sunday.
"It was to continue with what my boyfriend had taught me
, I have been here since I was 3 years old, and I do everything as if he were there, with the same standards of respect for the client, for the work and for top quality raw materials" .
But the pizza master
is not a simple heir to the profession: he studied gastronomy, then trained in Spain.
Pizza "to Argentine taste" at Pedrito, the king of stone-grilled pizza.
Photo: Gabriel Bulacio.
Pedrito already has a fifth generation of customers, who want the pizza just as they ate it the last time.
There are
unavoidable classics on their menu, such as the "Pedrito"
, which with tomato sauce, bell peppers, onion and mozzarella, parsley and oregano, on a dough made "with some secret", completes the colors of the Italian flag ($10,000 ).
In addition to the classics, the "Quatriple", with tomato sauce and double mozzarella ($9,000);
the "Real con jamón", with ham and bell peppers ($10,000);
of anchovies and tomato ($9,000), which can also be ordered "Triple", with mozzarella ($10,000), you must take into account the specialties, such as those with hearts of palm, those with fresh mushrooms or those with provolone and roquefort.
The fugazza ($7,000, onion only) can be with or without mozzarella.
"It is a hybrid, because it is not possible to replicate a Neapolitan pizza as is, the raw material is different, from a tomato, to the dough, which is made with a different flour," explains Esteban.
"We can say," he summarizes, "that
the heart is that of a Neapolitan pizza, made in an oven that can reach 600°, but adapted to the Argentine taste
. "
María Vento, the only daughter of the Sicilian couple, married the doctor Juan Manzo and they had six children.
Teresa, Laura and Javier dedicate themselves to their professions, Lucía, Esteban and Federico, together with her, give continuity to the inheritance of a family that continues to grow: Paz, the most pampered of the Manzos, daughter of Esteban, the master pizza maker , great-granddaughter of Pedro and Doña Pina, at 18 months old, she already inhabits that unique dimension that the wood-fired oven and the irresistible aroma of freshly baked dough give to the environment.
Pedrito, the king of stone pizza.
Salta 301, Mar del Plata.
Open every day from 8pm. IG: @pedrito_pizzeria.