Bresaola and radicchio pizza... This is my favorite pizza to eat when I'm here in Stresa. Maybe because it's a pizza that I'd never heard of before... or maybe it's because it was the first dinner that I ever had here... or maybe just because it is that good.

Every tourist wants to eat pizza when they are here in Italy, and I am no different. One always wants to compare it to their pizza at home. For me, the differences were several. Here in Stresa, pizza was definitely a fork and knife food; there were no slices precut. And the large pie was intended to be a meal for one, all for me. So, I just began cutting and eating. The pie ordered for me was a bresaola and radicchio pizza, and although I've tried other pizzas since, this one remains my favorite. Bresaola are paper-thin slices of meat, beef or sometimes horse. They are not cooked but either dried or cured, and then shaved into thin pieces. They can be a little dry on their own, which is why they are generally served with something which contains a bit of olive oil, to moisten them up. And radicchio is red chicory, crisp and crunchy.

At first I thought perhaps this was a regional specialty, but it turns out that it's more a specialty of the Ristorante Nazionale, in Baveno, where we ate it. It's just one of many interesting combinations of toppings you can find on the pizza here. And although I am sure you may be able to find it again at other restaurants somewhere, I still haven't seen this pizza anywhere else except Nazionale. Therefore, you'll need to come here to try it. Or, if not this one, to discover your own favorite.


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