We all know and mostly love (Domino’s excepted, which I regards as filth in a bad way,  I mean their new £4 lunch deal is how I would express “utter despair” in the medium of food) pizza, that Italian food that has pretty much conquered the world. How many of you, however, have heard of (let alone had) a pinsa (cue messages from Jemima and Tristan in Hackney Wick telling me they have been eating them for years, no doubt made using Himalayan Tartary Buckwheat, and expressing shock as how I can be so “provincial”).

Well if you have, the place for you to reacquaint youself with them in Cardiff is Grano in Birchgrove burb of Cardiff (not exactly renowned as a culinary hub) and if (being cheugy, like me) you haven’t, well again the place to try one for the first time is Grano (as I know of no other place in Cardiff that does this Roman – as in ancient Roman origins – dish).

For people like me, who don’t know a pinsa from a pizza, the latter tends to be oval rather than circular in shape (my homemade pizzas seem to be every shape possible bar from a circle, I do do a mean pentagonal pepperoni pizza) and the dough tends to be made from a mix of soy, rice and wheat flour (evolved from the use of more ancient grains back in Roman times). The dough is fermented for up to 72 hours and it is cooked at a lower temperature than a traditional pizza. As a result, you get a more inflated overall base, with a crisp bubbly exterior and a soft interior. With its origins hailing back to ancient Rome, I assume it was the precursor to the modern-day pizza.

The pinsa menu at Grano had some rather unusual (to my trad. pizza orientated mind) topping combos, such as carbonara and Bologna as well as more traditional ones such as good old margarita.

As tomatoes only made it to Italy in the 1548 and Western Roman Empire finally collapsed in 476 AD (the Eastern Empire held out until 1473), a tomato base topping is far from a given with a pinsa (although in reality they tend to follow the lead of their modern day pizza cousin) and this is reflected in the pinsa menu here, with intriguingly pumpkin sauce (pumpkins made it to Europe from the Americas at roughly the same time as tomatoes, so that isn’t an ancient Roman throwback) in evidence in a number of the options on offer.

I was drawn to the Bologna, predominantly due to the presence on it of mortadella. Out of all the myriad types of charcuterie Italy has to offer, I think mortadella is the most underrated. When people see it they tend to think of shxte luncheon meat, with a bloody bear in it, but the real deal mortadella is a million miles away from that crxp, being velverty in texture and made from quality, rich and fatty, pork, redolent with mellow spice.

Here the mortadella (first mentioned in Bologna in 1376, so again post the pinsa’s ancient history) is spiked with pistachios, which brings a nutty flavour and a distinctive contrast to the creamy texture of the mortadella.

My Bologna pinsa (£12.95) was a fine looking and rather substantial specimen,

Generously adorned with copious amounts of said mortadella, rich will creamy fat and spiked with pistachios, it melted on the tongue releasing its fatty goodness.

Folded onto a ricotta and a mozzarella blanket atop a lovely puffy, crisp, base it made for a compelling proposition.

The base itself was a thing of beauty,

with a very pleasing lightness.  The outer shell has a lovely crispiness to it, giving way to an airy, pillowey, interior.

The nature of the toppings (mortadella and ricotta) meant the top was predominately uncooked, with the warmth of the base having gently melted the mozzarella giving (combined with the ricotta) an almost runny brie like consistency, rather than the stringy elasticity you get when it is baked hot and fast and adorns a pizza.

Whilst a pinsa looks very pizza like, I think here it was more like an open sandwich with the hot base gently heating the toppings.

It was easily enough for two, but the lightness of the base made it far less filling /stodgy than I feared when it was first plonked on the table.

My only minor quibble with it was the lack of a touch of acidity. Lot of creamy richness in the mix, but nothing to cut it with. The menu was clear as to ingredients though so no complaints on that front as I knew what it entailed. I do think some roasted or pickled peppers would have worked here as a further topping.

J couldn’t make it (recovering from  Beaujolais Day), but I am sure if she had spied on the menu the carbonara pinsa

she would have ordered it to wind me up. I actually don’t mind this sort of topping on a pinsa/pizza. I mean it ain’t a carbonara, with mozzarella in the mix, but it is harmless to my mind and if it tastes nice then great. Having said that, my preference would have to be to use guanciale rather than pancetta, but I am a a-hole pedant and plus points for the use of pecorino rather than parmesan.

Other aspects of the menu look interesting, particularly the lunch time filled focaccias

which are very fulsome beasts based on what the table across from me had. Even the vegan one sounds nice (a phrase I thought I would never hear myself saying – have I succumbed to the “cavelo nero” side?), although I am pretty darn sure I would order the porchetta or the speck ones over it 999 times out of a 1000.

They also do pizzas in the evening

and, if lightness of touch displayed with the pinsa base is anything to go by, I bet they are great.

On the drinks front there is the offer of booze,

but I was driving and working post lunch (on a Friday afternoon,  which was rather distressing 😱), so I moved on to the hot drinks.

With some snazzy machinery on display,

these looked promising if a touch pricey.

Not sure why, but I ordered a latte (£3.65).

This had the benefit of being a long drink (far too many coffees are way too short in stature these day, with runaway cup size deflation). It was, however, a touch underpowered. Perils of a latte, I suppose.

Pudding wise (I passed as was stuffed),

I bet the tiramisu and cannolo are great. I was less enamoured by the idea of the Tartufo de Pizzo which has limoncello in it (vile stuff that was given away free, post meal, in restaurants in Sorrento when we stayed there and on tasting it I wondered why they weren’t paying me to drink it 🤢).

Verdict

I rather liked my pinsa, which seemed to me to be a pleasing hybrid of a pizza and an open sandwich/Smørrebrød.

It was big and well flavoured, with a surprisingly light and crisp base. With quality toppings and of a size whereby it would be eminently shareable between two, it was also good value to my mind for its £12.95 price tag.

Place has an onsite bakery and deli, with some nice looking cakes and breads,

and I bought myself (temporarily) out of Mrs. SF’s bad books (where I appear to reside pretty much most of the time) with a purchase for her of a jar of crema le pistacchio

which she loves (basically it is Nutella for people with working tastebuds and who aren’t insane).

The details

Address: 104 Caerphilly Rd, Birchgrove, Cardiff CF14 4AG

Website: https://www.granocardiff.co.uk/

Despite it being on busy Caerphilly Road parking was pretty easy on a Friday lunchtime.