Del Popolo started as a food truck, and is less than a year old as a brick-and-mortar establishment, but already it has made the SF Chronicle’s top 100 restaurants in the Bay Area, and for good reason. The well-charred, wood-fired pizza is comparable to the trendier artisanal pies of New York City.
Margherita, with plenty of charred, blistery spots. The dough for these was a bit thicker than the Neapolitan pizza I have eaten in Naples (and it was very chewy).
The butterball potato pizza, with leeks, fontina cheese and slightly spicy-hot honey. Delicious.
But what really caught my attention was this sensational, simple salad of summer squash, cucumber, toasted almonds and buttermilk dressing, seasoned with an Italian herb called nepitella.
This is a grand prize winner in my book. The squash is raw and sliced very thin on a mandoline. Nepitella is also called calamint. To substitute, you might try mixing chopped fresh mint and oregano.
Linnet Moss 
Yes to the salad 🙂
So, where are those pizzas you speak of? My European eyes see slabs of dough that could dwarf the Braille edition of War and Piece, and which appear to be infected with the bubonic plague…
What did I just type there?! My subconscious clearly wants a “Piece” o’dat, LOL!
It’s 6:49 am and I am already hungry for pizza.
LOL, I found those buboes a bit unnerving too! I think that dough has some highly developed gluten, so that the bubbles get really huge before they pop. And the oven blackens them. But it was quite a pleasure to devour these pies.
Oh, hello! I too was worried about the charring but glad they tasted delish.
The charring looks extensive, but it didn’t taste burnt.
That yummy salad would go great with the pizzas 🙂 Funny, i am not the biggest fan of potatoes on pizza, bu i have had them on flammkuchen, where it did work really well 🙂 With cheese on top! I usually prefer think crispy pizzas but this looks delicious, charred bits 🙂
I never had potato on pizza until I went to Rome, but I love it! They have to be shaved very thin 🙂
Mmm. These all sound wonderful! I wanted to send a picture of a pizza I had last night. It reminded me of you and this blog – it had a great crust with artichokes, spinach, carmelized onions, mozzarella and pesto. Unfortunately I couldn’t figure out how to attack the phot to a reply. 🙁
That sounds like a sensational pizza! Are you still in CA?
Yes, that pizza was at a restaurant called Stuft Pizza in the town of La Quinta, near Indio, where the Desert Concert was held. Given the name I didn’t have much hope for the place, but it had a wide variety of choices (not just puzza) and everything was great. I’m now back in Escondido at my friends’ place. Catalina Jazz Festival next weekend. 😊
You are having quite a musical interlude! Fantastic 🙂
LOL, I notice that I forgot to mention the Kalamata olives and mushrooms on the pizza. Big oversight as the olives really added to it.
It was really loaded. I love kalamatas.