Clementina and Seafood Pizza: Luca Pezzetta is Ahead of the Curve

In Fiumicino, the "new wave" of seafood pizza is emerging at Clementina, research on dough goes hand in hand with dry aging fish. Waving in a seafood revolution, this is how Luca Pezzetta is rethinking the concept of a pizzeria.

Clementina

It all begins with a shared ritual. At 3 pm, the smell of salt saturates the air at the Fiumicino fish market, where expert hands skillfully sort through the day's catch. In the overflowing fish stalls, there is a deep sense of work that no one ever gives the attention it deserves. Luca Pezzetta is an exception: he is there to shake the hands of the sea wolves who have just returned from a sleepless night and listen to their morning sea chronicle.

He touches, weighs, and chooses each fish carefully while his thoughts already race to the maturation room, where he will store the tuna that will adorn his fragrant pizzas after six months of aging. His eyes are trained to spot what’s fresh, yet he’s always curious about what’s new. Because Luca knows that it takes more than flashy toppings and well-proofed dough: the time invested in research changes the game.

Five different styles of dough and a stock of iodine-rich cold cuts make Clementina - a brand opened last year with Jacopo Rocchi - a hotbed of small fins: you could hardly find such a range of larded prawns, swordfish cold cuts, and BBQ octopus anywhere else being gently laid out on tailor-made pizzas.

Slice after slice, we start to see the depths of the sea in a different light. His offerings make you re-evaluate what pizza can be, like how about this Capricciosa (literally translates to extravagant and is a classic pizza topped with mozzarella, tomato sauce, ham, artichokes and mushrooms). Typically, it doesn’t sit well in the mouth, or wait – is this tuna or pork sausage? These pizzas are a realization that a crispy crust and ultra-soft focaccia can hold up to contrasting toppings, even ones from the deep sea. Finally, they are a discovery that there is still so much to say about pizza. And that someone has found a different language to do it.

Nonno Ciro with pumpkin puree, roasted pumpkin, guanciale, marinated anchovies, curly parsley and pepper mixture

Spit-roasted tuna sausage with broccoli rabe cream and provolone cheese

The venue

More than just a "pizzeria" in the traditional sense, Clementina is an environment where yeasts embrace uncommon ingredients. This big bang originates from the long-standing friendship between Luca Pezzetta and Jacopo Rocchi, a pizza chef and the other the heir of a sweet family tradition. While both are still under 35 years old, behind the scenes, they have the traditional approach of those who grew up breathing the fragrance of a perpetually lit oven, waiting to see the fruits of their labor mature.

For Luca, it's a full-circle return home: having grown up in this area, he is coming back after collecting numerous critical awards and teaching courses guiding beginners on the path of dough making. On the other hand, Jacopo has taken over the baton from the three generations before him in the family business: Bar Rustichelli. It is a five-minute walk from Clementina and has been a local treasure for pastry since 1961.

It's impressive to discover that near Clementina's industrial chic furnishings (with a long marble counter and partially open kitchen), the Clementina Tower, an 18th-century bastion of Pope Clement XIV, once stood. Then a cinema was built there. Today, the show continues with a new crew adept at juggling raw fish and flames. The floor manager and AIS sommelier Daniele Mari offers advice on drinks to pair with a seafood supplì or a luscious savory croissant. His beverage list goes well beyond the industry average regarding identity and selection, and the pairings he proposes immerse diners into the tasting experience.

Seafood cacciatore spherical supplì

Coccia di Morto - local potatoes, wood-fire-oven cooked flying squid, wild fennel, cauliflower cream, broccoli rabe powder and olives

The pizzas

The service immediately reveals the critical points of the menu: if pizza is the North, Luca doesn't skimp on fried foods, of which we count (for now) a whopping eight different types, designed as all-around dishes rather than simple appetizers, a solid dessert list completes the circle, partly leavened (see the lustful mini-berliner doughnuts with triple chocolate) and partially produced directly by the Rustichelli.

Cacio e Pepe squared supplì

Supplì al telefono (cheese pull supplì)

If we were looking to nitpick, perhaps the range of ‘green’ condiments could be expanded to allow those who follow a strictly plant-based diet to approach the menu less easily. But, on the other hand, the attention to leavening is evident, starting from the custom blend of three stone-ground ancient grain flours (a collaboration with Mulino Angelica) up to the handling of three different dough-raising methods (biga, mixed, and sourdough) from which an equally varied range of one bite dishes are born.
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Square of Roman-style tray pizza with BBQ octopus cacciatore

Italian style croissant

After a lightning-fast bite of Roman-style tray pizza with sea urchin, the dinner's crown jewel arrives in country-style focaccia. It is a whirlwind of toasted cereal aromas. Oat, rye, wheat flours, plus five seeds (sprouted pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, millet, and flax) generate a harmonious, elastic, and fragrant dough that serves as a bed for the grill-kissed lard-wrapped striped prawns, leaving the heart raw for an ultra-luscious bite

Country-style focaccia with grill-kissed lard-wrapped striped prawns, ricotta, pumpkin, hazelnuts and mesclun

Luca then weaves a creamy veil of fresh ricotta and carrots spread thinly between the dough and the crustaceans. The initial fear that the base might be penalized by a strong topping suddenly disappears when we sink our teeth into this small honeycomb covered with a dense sprinkle of hazelnuts. In the meantime, Daniele grants us a refill of Spumante Ru Maccone, an ancestral method Brut of Angiuli that will boldly accompany the following pizzas.

The Roman-style tray pizza is a cushion of pleasure: hydrated to 90%, it enhances the best of the swordfish guanciale obtained from the fatty part of the fish and roasted on the BBQ after six months of aging; the mantis shrimp mellows the friction, and the buffalo mozzarella washes away the salt at the end of the bite.

Roman-style tray pizza square with smoked guanciale, raw local mantis shrimp, burrata and almonds

Roman-style tray pizza square with smoked guanciale, raw local mantis shrimp, burrata and almonds

The Antifocaccia shines. It is a colossal success of thin crust and soft crumb through a double cooking method in a small pan (first steamed and then in a static oven) that the Roman pizza chef has been perfecting since 2015. We try it covered in melted fontina cheese, burnt leeks, whole baby carrots, potato and almond cream—many different textures for a single slice where the vegetable takes its ample revenge.

Antifocaccia with burnt leek, carrots, potatoes, almonds, and fontina cheese

Antifocaccia with burnt leek, carrots, potatoes, almonds, and fontina cheese

The evergreen options remain in the fried food section, such as fried balls of Mulino Angelica spaghetti or rice from the Po Valley. Still, the elegance award goes to the cod filet, carrot cream, and rosemary crumble, with an extremely fine shell and silky interior, which summarizes at least five complementary textures in a few spoonful’s. We try it with the Misunderstanding Pet Nat by Padroggi La Piotta (a superb bottle refermented rosé that already reminds us of baked goods in the nose). At the same time, Luca explains how each coating of the supplì is made up of a particular type of bread studied explicitly for the filling.

Lard-wrapped salted cod filet, carrot cream, and rosemary crumble.

Suddenly, between a sip and a Crunch Sphere of fish cacciatore, something appears on the table that you would never expect to find in a pizzeria like this. It's an Italian-style croissant made with type 0 flour, with meticulous manual layering and hints of butter that are more than volatile. Yet, it slowly yields to the chewing rhythm, melting with the roast beef filling, tuna sauce, and capers - it's almost impossible to remain indifferent.

Fish cacciatore spherical supplì

Italian-style croissant with roast beef, tuna sauce and capers

This transition from smooth to crunchy reveals all the flavors of Capricciosa di Mare with tuna belly aged for two months, gray mullet bottarga, slow-cooked red and yellow cherry tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella shreds, olive soil, and fried artichoke petals.

Capricciosa di mare - Seafood Capricciosa

It's the Renaissance of the old-school Capricciosa, stripped of its excessive protagonism: the tomato is made gentle by long cooking times, the tuna is flavorful but not salty, and the bitter tones of the olives manage to avoid the abuse of iodine that has contributed so much to discrediting the original version.

The 170-gram dough disk, rolled out by hand, defies gravity and supports the generous fillings perfectly. When bitten into, it produces a satisfying crunch, combining character and lightness. This is also thanks to the high percentage of durum wheat in the dough, made from a sourdough starter and cooked in a wood-fired oven that never exceeds 380°C. As a result, the Diavola a Mare is bolder, featuring a tuna 'nduja for a spicy kick and small dollops of ricotta that mitigate the spice and balance the opposites. Along with them are slightly spicy mustard leaves, a pungent whirlwind that will please fans of bold flavors.

Seafood Diavola

All that remains is to dive head-first into the Rustichelli Tiramisù and toast with a small glass of Passito to the new wave of "sea pizza."