EAT IN ASIA / Destinations / Other destinations / Europe / Croatia
Italian top dishes for all pizza lovers in Croatia
All lovers of the Italian cuisine will feel as in Heaven while being on holidays in Croatia. Plentiful of pizzerias, Italian restaurants and cafeterias will surely satisfy you. Pasta, calzone, pizza, gnocchi, whatever you want. Add to that a small aromatic espresso, and you would feel as in Italy. Actually, it should not be surprising, given the fact how closely both countries live and coexist. People are permanently migrating and some of their family members live in the other country. Travelling for tourist purposes is also popular. A quick jump from the Northern part of Italy to Croatia just for sunbathing and enjoying beaches happens on a regular basis. So, it could not be, that Croatia would not offer Italian food. The most popular is of course pizza. You will find a traditional Italian one only with basic ingredients like tomato sauce, cheese, ham and mushrooms, but also you will get more local variations. These would include sausages, eggs and peppers. Apart from that, all kind of pastas and calzone is widely available. Read more about Croatian pizzas in the post Best Croatian style pizza.
We started our culinary journey with a calzone in Novigrad
1. Calzone with ham, cheese and cream– Novigrad
A warm evening, sky with stars, a beautiful view on the harbor and plenty of restaurants offering mostly seafood and Italian courses. We chose one restaurant with a nice patio and with a perfect view on the port. Among other dishes, a big choice of pizzas was available. Among them, if I might say so, there was also calzone. Calzone with ham, cheese and cream. It was served on a round plate and garnished with a mild tomato sauce with whole olives. Calzone was shaped in a dumpling-like form, with the folding part on top. It created a nice form and due to the proper baking process, had a pale color with some golden and darker spots. The pizza-like dough was thin, with crispy edges and soft inner part.
After cutting it in half, a hot and moist filling appeared. Well melted, created a combined stuffing with ham, cheese and cream. The whole calzone was delicate, soft and delicious. The upper part of it was sprinkled with shredded cheese. Nicely served, tasty and well composed with the mild tomato sauce.
2. Pizza Siciliana – Zadar
The next pizza from Zadar did also not disappoint us at all. Pizza Siciliana with cheese, ham, mushrooms, onion, black olives and green spicy peppers. It was served on a thin and delicate dough covered with tomato sauce. Then came a well melted cheese with an Italian ham slices topped with thin mushroom slices. The whole pizza was sprinkled with narrow onion slices and decorated with black olives and four pickled peppers.
The dough was crispy and well baked inside. Its thin layer allowed tasting all other ingredients. The melted cheese created a good base for ham and mushrooms and stayed in a liquid form for a long time. Mushrooms were juicy, not overbaked and not dry. The garnishing part consisting of olives and peppers was added, I guess, at the end of baking what kept them solid and allowed to keep the flavor.
3. Pizza Capricciosa – Trogir
The next one was pizza Capricciosa in Trogir. Same ingredients as these that were used for the capricciosa pizza in Zadar. So, cheese, Italian ham and mushrooms. All of them on a thin dough covered with cheese and tomato sauce. Comparing this capricciosa pizza to the first one, this one from Zadar had definitively more mushrooms and ham, but less cheese on the base. The dough was darker, even more crispy and more baked. Its edges were higher, but not thick, and brownish due to the baking process. It was easy breakable and extremely crunchy.
The inner part of the pizza was covered with tomato sauce and cheese. It was spread only in the center part, so edges were empty. However, that is not a disadvantage. Laying these both ingredients in that way allowed to keep them inside and not overflow the dough.
The whole pizza was generously covered with the Italian ham, that did almost not leave any space uncovered with ham. Then came a lot of mushroom slices. Thinly cut and white. Although they kept their color, they were highly baked, what caused them to lose their natural juice that sunk not the dough. Slices were dry, paper like, but not chewy. Their aroma was also to be distinguished in the dough. This pizza capricciosa was different from the first one, but also very good and that was a pleasure to eat it.
4. Pizza Hawaii – Stari Grad, Hvar
The last standard pizza, that is worth mentioning, is pizza Hawaii from Stari Grad in Hvar. As the first one on the Hvar island, this pizza also had higher edges and more baked as in previous places. Also here, dough edges were creating a some kind of a natural bowl that was filled with tomato sauce, cheese, ham and pineapple. The tomato sauce had a more intensive aroma and color. Mozzarella cheese was well melted and covered the whole inner part. On it, four quite big Italian ham slices were laid. The ham was quite good, however had some tougher parts, that sometimes were not so easy to bite. On top of it, were canned pineapple pieces. Fruit parts were relatively small, well-trimmed and sweet. The overall taste of the pizza was strongly dominated by the pineapple flavor and tomato sauce. Finally, it was sprinkled with oregano, that was composed with the rest of ingredients.
The dough was crispy and well baked in each part. Both the outer and inner parts were as they should be.
5. Pizza Capricciosa – Zadar
Zadar is full of restaurants. Pizzerias, local restaurants, seafood corners, fast food bars and many more. But pizzas appear in most of them. You will even find stalls selling pizza per slices. The first evening we ended in a pizzeria, where we order a basic one. Pizza capricciosa with ham and mushrooms. The dough was thin, homemade and well baked. On it, came as it should be, tomato sauce and thin cheese layer. It was topped with a couple of Italian ham slices and a handful of mushroom slices.
The pizza was crispy, mild in flavors, but tasty and delicate. The crunchy dough was almost paper-thin, what highlighted the taste of other ingredients.
6. Pizza Salami - Hvar
This pizza was the worst one we had. Not that it was untasty, but still, there was nothing special about it. Apart from that it was the most expensive one due to the location of the restaurant, that kind of a pizza could be found in any cheap bar all over the world.
Used ingredients were very basic and not of the best quality. Ordering pizza salami in a restaurant in the old town, let’s you wish to have a one either with a real salami or at least with its good imitation. The salami used in this one was rather the cheapest one. Fatty and finely grounded, what rather did not suggest, that the meat was good. It was neither spicy nor had any distinctive taste.
The dough was tasty, thin and well baked too. Crispy edges and the soft inner part were well composed with other ingredients that came on it. The tomato sauce was mild but good. The cheese was grounded and generously covering the base. On top of it were big salami slices in number of eleven. Salami slices were sprinkled with oregano, that was giving a nice aroma. I cannot say that all in all the pizza was poor in the number of used ingredients, but their quality could be definitively improved.
If you are more interested in the Italian cuisine read these posts: Best Croatian style pizza and Exceptional Hungarian style pizzas.
