«We wanted to make something different, not the usual pizza you eat around here: thick, soft and spongy» says Marco Farabegoli, born in 1973, telling about the birth of pizzeria Da Neo “number one”, still open in Cesena and run by his family.
The Farbegolis were and are famous in town, «I started working at 18 as a butcher, because we had a grocery store and three butchers’ with other partners».
In 1993 came the first turning point: they closed the shop and opened a pizzeria between the stadium and the hospital with a different concept.
«A friend suggested we speak with Angelo Iezzi, a historic pizzaiolo and the first promoter of Roman-style baking tin pizza. He showed us a new dimension and we decided to make that style our own».
The second turning point in 2009, when Marco Farabegoli decided to leave his family and work solo, opening his restaurant in Gambettola, 10 km away (Via del Lavoro 1, tel. +39.0547.653833).
The name? “Pizza Da Neo", because his father’s name – Neo – is a famous local brand from the years of the grocery shop, with a 30-year long history, the SuperConad Da Neo.
Da Neo “number two” has a similar type of pizza, «but pays even greater attention to quality. Not that they use bad ingredients in Cesena, quite the contrary. But I only choose absolute excellences», a gourmet change that followed Farabegoli’s meeting with Renato Bosco: «I met him some 10 years ago, when he was less famous than today. Those at Molino Quaglia put us in contact because I wanted to meet someone who could teach me something». Mission accomplished: from that moment on, research has grown more and more.
Today at Da Neo in Gambettola Farbegoli offers a dough made with Petra 1 mixed with 5-10% Petra 9, «I make the poolish, I don’t use mother yeast, I believe Roman-style baking tin pizza doesn’t need any». It leavens for around 36 hours, then electric oven.
The challenge is offering this different pizza in a town with 13 thousand inhabitants and «14 traditional pizzerias. It’s not always easy. Besides, I never make compromises when it comes to topping. For instance, I’d never put French fries». On the contrary, he adds the best produce he can find in the market, according to season, «and though for instance I always use tomatoes, I pay attention to buy Sicilian ones and not Spanish».
The seasoning offer is tempting and changes all the time: cooked cabbage, mustard seeds and crispy pancetta from Prague, or Fried rapini with chilli pepper, sausage and mozzarella «a typically Roman variation».
Carlo Passera
source: http://newsletter.identitagolose.it/email.php?id=634
Petra archive photo (ed)
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