"The staff at Nona Mia may be the friendliest in Asheville, which is really saying something in this good-natured city. Regulars are greeted warmly, newcomers are welcomed like regulars, and the kitchen staff offers to carry out stacks of pizzas for hungry to-go customers."
Dueling Pizzas
Neapolitan or Sicilian...we've got them both
Pizza was born in Naples, but authentic Neapolitan pizza is rare today. It requires uncompromising dedication, the right ingredients, traditional techniques, and a short visit to its own private inferno.
At Nona Mia Ritrovo, we use only San Marzano tomatoes, grown in small plots outside Naples and demanded by the Verace Pizza Napolitana, the international organization that oversees authenticity, as the only variety allowed. We make our own Mozzarella, so it's always fresh, and our own sausages and cured meats. And we use only the best imported "00" soft-wheat flour, and our own 10-year-old, all-natural starter...so our house-made dough is not only fresh every day, but also made the same way as in Naples itself.
Then there's the oven. A scorchingly-hot, wood-fired oven burning at up to 900 degrees, this little bit of hell transforms simple ingredients into a taste of heaven. Only Neapolitan pizza can be so crisp yet so marvelously chewy, so simple and so rich. Nothing else comes close.
And that includes Sicilian-style pizza. Sicilian pizza doesn't come close because it's too busy moving at high speed in the opposite direction. Where Neapolitan-style is austere, a pizza for purists, Sicilian-style is abbondanza, a pizza for partiers. This is kick-ass pizza. At Nona Mia Ritrovo, it kicks quite a lot.
As with our Neapolitan pizzas, we use only the finest and freshest ingredients on our Sicilian pies...just more of everything. Go ahead and pile it on: this pizza can haul any freight and not break a sweat. It's made for more.