The Bella Napoli on Kennedy Street ............ where we learned to love pizza

Now I won’t be alone in having fond memories of the Bella Napoli on Kennedy Street.

Neapolitan pizza, 2017

It opened in 1973 just three years after the Isola Bella and we were there pretty much from the beginning, and carried on going throughout the 1970s.

Since then I have eaten pizza in Naples, tried the Metre Pizza, sampled Bob Amato’s special from his wood burning oven in the garden, and regularly bought slices from the Chinese takeaway in Varese.*

But it was at the Bella Napoli that I had my first pizza.

Back then it tended always to be the quattro stagioni, accompanied by a glass of wine and followed by chocolate ice cream.

I can’t remember how we came across, it probably on one of our wanders around town, and it was our place, which we shared with family and friends but remained “our place.”

It was situated on the corner of Kennedy Street and Clarence Street, you entered by a small door beside which was that illuminated glass window made up of the bottoms of wine bottles.

You went down a flight of stairs where there were a dozen tables with red table tablecloths, and a bar with I think the oven beyond that.

At the back was the entrance to the lavatories which were shared with the Isola Bella and above you there were a set of large pipes which I always assumed were to do with the ventilation.

The other end of Kennedy Street, 2017

The menu came on a large piece of white card with a picture of Vesuvius and list of half a dozen pizzas.

It was simple, cheap and friendly.

Once when I was with a works colleague who was a linguist and attempting to show off his Italian he spent a full five minutes conversing with the waiter in Italian only to discover the waiter was Spanish.

Such are the silly moments that stick in your memory and despite these and many other memories I have no pictures of either the outside or the interior.

But someone will, and in the fullness of time I hope will share them.

And it was while I was browsing the net for pictures that I came across an article from the Manchester Evening News recording the death of the owner of the Bella Napoli.

And from the Pizzeria I Decumani****

This was Evandro Barbieri who arrived in Manchester from Milan in 1958 aged 21.  He began work as a waiter in the Midland Hotel and in 1970 opened the Isola Bella, followed by a series of other Italian restaurants.**

If I look hard enough I will I suppose find out when it closed but that won’t do anything for my memories, so I don’t think I will bother.

Instead I shall think also of the cannelloni which in those red and cream ceramic dishes,and which if you weren't careful was so hot it burned your mouth.

Later long after the Bella Napoli had gone we would take each of the older kids for a special birthday meal at an Italian restaurant, each had their own favourite.

For Ben it was the Isola Bella, for Josh Bella Italia and for Saul that one on the corner of Deansgate and Blackfriars Street.

It's pity they couldn't have shared Bella Napoli.

Location; Manchester

Picture; Naples in 2017 from the collection of Saul Simpson, Kennedy Street, 2017 courtesy of Andy Robertson and a pizza from the Pizzeria I Decumani

*Pizza, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Pizza

**Tributes to Italian pioneer 'who brought pizza to Manchester', Todd Fitzgerald, December 14 2012, updated January 24 2013, http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/tributes-to-italian-pioneer-who-brought-698919

****Pizzeria I Decumani, Via dei Tribunali, 58 80138 Napoli Italy‎ +39 081 557 1309

Pizza by the metre ....... a history lesson, a culinary experience and just a bit of fun

Now I have to say I was a tad sceptical about the metre pizza, having been introduced to the real thing in a tiny side street in Naples.

And I was more than satisfied by our meal in the place.

But when the metre pizza is served in the restaurant which styles itself the University of Pizza you just have to check it out.

Of course pizza is one of the world’s original street foods and is still sold as that pretty much everywhere.

That said I was intrigued by ordering by the ruler and I wasn’t disappointed.

We had travelled down the railway line from Sant’ Agnello just a couple of stops to the Pizza a Metro da "Gigino" L'università della pizza.*

“This historic restaurant, located in the centre of Vico Equense, in the Naples province, is world renowned for its creation.

Created by Gigino Dell’Amura, the Pizza a Metro has delighted its customers with its unique taste, authentic ingredients and its exclusive shape.

The restaurant, also known as “Università della pizza” offers a big selection of pizzas, which can be enjoyed according to the “size” of your appetite. In addition to pizza, you can enjoy the chef’s specialities: large appetisers, seafood and meat specialities, and cakes for every taste.

The pizza a metro was born in 1930s, thanks to the idea of Luigi Dell’Amura, a.k.a. Gigino. Cleverness, fantasy, intuition, hard work transformed the way of making pizza.

The idea of creating pizzas with different sizes according to the number of people at the table was born in order to satisfy the need to serve more guests in the shortest possible time but with high quality standards.

And finally, the Pizza a metro and the old bakery of the Dell’Amura family became a big restaurant – the pizzeria.”**

So there you have it.  There were six of us and the waiter suggested we should have a meter and a bit which we did, topped with mushrooms for me and an assortment of other “things” for the rest.

It was daunting to say the least when it arrived but we ate it all.

We could have had a selection of other Neapolitan dishes and there were plenty who were ordering some enticing food.

But we stuck to the pizza.

Now it all sounds a gimmick but it works.  The food is excellent as is the service and the restaurant.

And as they say in all the food magazines were pleasantly surprised at the bill which along with the meter and a bit pizza, and four beers and two still bottles of water was just €64, which was when we worked it out even cheaper than my favourite place in Naples.

In the last few months his pizzas have gone up from €3 to  €4.

Leaving me to say that the meter pizza was indeed the real thing.

Which is a god point to close.  I don't of course want to accused of being pretentious.

Location; Vico Equense

Pictures; inside the Pizza a Metro da "Gigino" L'università della pizza. in 2017 courtesy of ALTO•VISUAL and in an earlier time courtesy of Pizza a Metro da "Gigino" L'università della pizza


*Pizza a Metro da "Gigino" L'università della pizza, http://www.pizzametro.it/en/index.html

A Roman street and Neapolitan pizza from Pizzeria I Decumani........ just perfect

We were in Naples and having chosen not to visit Pompeii and Herculaneum I suppose we felt more than a little guilty.

Walking the Roman street

After all here were those two Roman towns frozen in that moment back in 79 AD when Vesuvius erupted.

But there is only so much you can do in a week.  That said given my love of all things Roman I did feel a little that I had done something wrong.

But Tina knowing how I have felt came up with the Roman remains under the church of San Lorenzo Maggiore.

The church was built at the centre of the ancient Greek Roman city where today the via San Gregorio Armeno crosses the via dei Tribunali and underneath there is about half of an original Roman market which has been excavated over the last 25 years.

Just as at Pompeii you can walk down the main street past a collection of shops including a bakery, winery and laundry, step over the grooves used to drain the basins of dye and bleach and call at the offices of the tax collector.

A little further down the street are seven interconnected rooms with barrel vaults pierced by skylights designed to draw in the air and sunlight.

And in some of these rooms are the shop counters and wall niches along with at least one iron grill which would have protected the windows along the street and a selection of mosaic floors.

Now I grant you it lacks the size of Pompeii and today is deep beneath the streets of Naples but it still is a powerfully evocative place with the added bonus that you are almost on your own walking the 3 metre wide street which runs off for 54 metres offering you a slice of Roman life.

Pizzeria I Decumani

Now that did for me, particularly as it was only minutes away from the Pizzeria I Decumani.*

And of course if you want a pizza there is no where better than Naples.
The two most popular ones were packed out with long lines of hungry tourists waiting patiently outside but we had asked the local fruit seller on the corner of Via dei Tribunali who suggested Pizzeria I Decumani which he reckoned was not only the best but was where he ate.

Now it was midday and the place was full but we gave our name and sat outside in the small area opposite the shops and within the space of  five minutes were inside and ordering.

An as it happens the pizza I ordered

What came was a pretty spectacular pizza and one that cost just €3.50 compared to the €12 we had paid the day before in Sorrento.

So all in all a good day made even better by those narrow Neapolitan Streets with their tall buildings and drying washing hanging from the balconies, which is a story for another time.


*Via dei Tribunali, 58 80138 Napoli Italy‎ +39 081 557 1309

Picture; of the Roman street, "Scavi san lorenzo maggiore01"  and the rest  from the Pizzeria I Decumani

Caputo …….the secret of the cupboard ………and a choice

Now, in our house I take pizza as it comes, although that said I prefer a thin base.

And that has taken me to the store cupboard, where we have a shelf devoted to a range of different flour from plain white to strong white, several bags of self-raising, along with gluten free.

But prominent amongst the lot are  Caputo Red and Caputo Blue, which we use for pizza.

The red is ideal for thinner crust pizza.

It has more gluten and protein in it than the blue flour, and provides a little more elasticity to the dough and is ideal for slow rises.

So, there you have it, I come across a red bag and a blue bag and I have instantly discovered some of the science behind making a pizza dough.

Added to which I know that Caputo is reckoned to be the finest Italian flour for making pizza, and that ‘00’ on the bags refers to how finely the wheat flour has been ground, and the overall texture, with the roughest graded at ‘1’.

Of course, this will not be new to foodies or those who spend hours inside the pages of cookbooks, but for me it was a revelation.

And set me off looking for the Caputo company, which began in 1924 and is the last mill, in Naples.*

Its site offers up little on its history, other than a  fascinating picture of the family and staff, sometime long before now.

As you would expect there is plenty there on their products, and an interesting link to Granonostrum, which is, “the first agricultural chain of soft wheat in Italy …… and provides for the traceability of all agricultural practices starting from the search for raw materials through the sowing of wheat, scrupulously monitoring every single production process up to the collection and storage, up to the final processing of the product.

The entire production process will use only two varieties to be cultivated according to the climatic and soil peculiarities and above all the products that the pasta masters must make, obtaining a wheat and a final product qualified as superior”.**

And here I confess that I had no idea that those two bags of flour would lead me off on a trip around southern Italy.

But that is what you do when you go looking for the  things we store away.

All of which leads me back to those two bags of Caputo flour, and the pizza choices we make.  

Leaving aside this the choice between thick vs thin, there is that debate on what constitutes an acceptable topping.   

Everyone is of course entitled to place what food they fancy as a topping. 

For the Italian side of the family along with Italian friends the only authentic pizza has been cheese and tomato.

That said everyone knows my fondness for mushrooms, but like the family I draw the line at pineapple.

Location; Chorlton, and Naples

Pictures; Blue and Red Caputo, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson and finished pizza, from the collection of Balzano, 2020

*Caputo Mill,  info@molinocaputo.it  Corso San Giovanni a Teduccio, 55

80146 Naples, Italy

**Grano Nostrum, https://www.granonostrum.it/

A fish finger, a pizza and a certain day in April

Now if you are serious about pizza, there are certain toppings which are beyond the pale. 

Of these I class pineapple, beetroot and chocolate as abominations, and while at the end of the day it is anyone’s choice what to place on their pizza, I stick to that simple rule that tomato, cheese and basil are best.

To which I can add fried pizza, but for me it has to be the simplicity of the traditional Neapolitan pizza that wins out.

So, I was intrigued when a friend of a friend posted a picture of “Pizza Bastoncini di pesce”, which if my google translate is correct is Pizza Fish sticks.  The accompanying caption reads “Here comes the pizza with fish sticks”, suggested it was following a request and would be available on April 1st.

And here of course alarm bells should have rung, but when pineapple can find its way onto a pizza why not fish fingers?  

At which point I have to say that before I became a vegetarian, I would happily eat fish finger sandwiches.

But maybe not so, because back in February La Repubblica carried the story “From joke to reality: pizza (frozen) with fried fish sticks”.*

Going on to explain, that the German food company Dr. Oetker, had bowed to customer requests on Twitter to introduce the new pizza line after it had announced two years ago on April Fool's Day that “the pizza with fish sticks” would be on the shelves of German supermarkets from 1 April.

The new pizza that raises more than an eyebrow , and which has already sparked not exactly benevolent comments from the Italian community in Germany, will be produced by Dr. Oetker in collaboration with Capitan Iglo (Findus) regarding the six fish sticks. which will rest on a base 'topped with tomato sauce, a mixture of mozzarella and Edam and spinach', as explained in a note which adds that 'the spices complete the Mediterranean-maritime recipe'*

So, a slow burn silly story or a reality?

I shall have to ask the Italian side of the family to go and check out the new range in the local Esselunga supermarket, and in the meantime trawl the net for more information on Dr. Oetker's new product.

We shall see.

Picture; Neapolitan pizza, 2017, from the collection of Saul Simpson, and Fish sticks, 2022, courtesy of Alessandra Natali

* From joke to reality: pizza (frozen) with fried fish sticks by Jeanne Perego, La Repubblica, February 18, 2022, https://www.repubblica.it/il-gusto/2022/02/18/news/pizza_con_bastoncini_di_pesce_fritti-338265785/#:~:text=%22This%20is%20no,world%20of%20distribution.

When the lad from Chorlton made a Neapolitan Margaretta in a Polish pizza oven

We often joke that our Saul learned how to make pizza in one of those small Neapolitan pizzeria’s  you come across down a side street off a busy main road.

They are the places only  frequented by a loyal local clientele and a few tourists in the know.

We have eaten at more than a few over the years and have never been disappointed.

All of which takes me back to Saul’s pizzas which stand equal to many of those we have had, and despite my best efforts mine have never come close to his.

We were talking just the other day and out of that conversation came the news that he had bought a pizza oven.

Now, Saul lives in an apartment in the heart of Warsaw, and there is no way that even a small wood burning pizza oven would fit or pass a safety check from the local municipal authorities.

So, instead he bought an electric four-minute oven which judging by the results looks pretty neat.

Eric from Swansea will no doubt tut, but we can’t all have the luxury of a purpose-built pizza oven and a ready supply of wood.

Leaving me just to reflect on the internationalism of food which some Brexiteers would rather deny.

For here is our Saul who was born in Chorlton making pizza in a Polish pizza oven admired by the Italian side of the family who were from Naples.

Location; Warsaw

Pictures; the magic pizza oven and the pizzas, 2021, from the collection of Saul Simpson

A little bit of Naples on Beech Road

It’s been one of those slow days.

I had wanted to  plunge into the murky world of lodging houses in that stretch of the city known as Little Italy.

But that was not to be, so instead I went looking for the story of pizza which took me back to Naples, and memories of some very happy meals in the simplest of eating places.

At which point it would have been easy to  slide into a list of pizza places, but there would be no fun in that, given none of us are getting back to Italy for a while, and anyway they are there on the blog.*

That said  some of the best I have eaten in Varese came from the local Chinese restaurant round the corner, which is as it should be given that the chef had trained in Naples.**

Instead I will ponder for a moment on the all important topping.  In our house that means just cheese and tomato sauce, although when wither Tina or Rosa want to indulge me they will throw on a handful of mushrooms.

And that is it ………… no forest of green stuff, no sweetcorn, no pesto, pineapple, or selected meats.

Which when you think about it, only detracts from the simplicity of pizza.

And sometimes we fry the pizza before adding the toppings which is one way they do it in Naples bringing the city to Beech Road.
Location; where ever the pizza is

Picture; last nights pizza, and others, from the collection of Balzano

*Pizza, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Pizza

** Ristorante Pizzeria Grand Mondo, 28 Via Cascina del Rosario, Varese

Naples ........ eating what the city does best

Now if you are in Naples the obvious choice of something to eat just has to be pizza.

We had ordered up some good ones in Sorrento but the Neapolitan ones were better and turned out to be cheaper at 3€.

And when our Saul was there last week he ended up with two fine pizzas.

Enough said.

Location; Naples

Picture; Naples in 2017 from the collection of Saul Simpson 

Pizza, pesto and a trip up country ........... getting closer to my Canadian history

Until recently I had no idea just how deeply my family’s past was linked to Canada.

Our connections with Germany and Italy were pretty straightforward but the Canadian side rested on a few stories of my great aunt Dolly who crossed the Atlantic in 1925.

Of course if I had thought hard enough it would have been obvious that a fair few of the family would have chanced their arm and started a new life on the other side of the world.

After all with an empire upon which the sun never set there were plenty of open spaces.*

I knew about Uncle Charles who had gone out to East Africa and later India in the 1930s and pretty much never came back but was totally unprepared for the rest.

These included the brother of our great grandfather who had slipped off to New Zealand before settling in Australia the relative who had plied the high seas as a ships engineer and great grandfather Montague who in the course of serving in the old Queen’s army had seen the sun rise in the West Indies, idled his spare time in Gibraltar and spent three years in South Arica.

All of which could be the story of many British families but what I never expected was the great uncle migrated to Canada in the spring of 1914 by the Derby Poor Law Guardians because my great grandmother “was incapable of caring” for him and his siblings which included my granddad and great aunt Dolly.

Once established he persuaded Dolly to join him which she did but in her own words not “fancying the open wilderness of the far west” she settled in Ontario got married and that is how we now have an extensive Canadian family who in turn can draw on French and British settlers from the late 18th century along with a Mr and Mrs Pember who set out from Salford in the 1840s and never looked back.

And in the winter of 2015our Saul wass there in Ontario,.

He did the tourist bit of visiting New York, Memphis and Texas before making the 36 hour bus journey north from New Orleans to Ontario crossing the border at 6 am on a cold Saturday morning and has spent the last week with our cousins.

During that week he met more of the family, saw some stunning countryside and in return dished up homemade pizza and pesto and in the process brought all of us a lot closer.

All of which could be a prelude to a shed load of family stories but instead it will just be a thank you to Chris and Andrea and their two sons for making him so welcome and to our  Jac who sent me the first picture of them all together.

Andrea has more photographs ready to send but for now that’s it.



Pictures; a meal and the landscape of Ontario from the collection of Saul Simpson

*Possibly according to one American journalist because God didn’t trust the British and so wanted to always be able to see what we were doing.