Pulcinella Ristorante

NolaNative and I stopped by Pulcinella in Katy for dinner Saturday.

Houstonians in the far-flung suburb of Katy, you ask? Happily, we were in the neighborhood of a popular Neopolitan-style pizza joint there, thanks to our shopping expedition at Katy Mills (where I gave into my usual, insatiable mall/airport craving and downed an insanely unhealthy MochaLatta Chill from Cinnabon).

Our menu:
Antipasto
Pizza Margherita
Pizza Quattro Formaggio

We chose the antipasto because neither of our pizzas contained meat, and we wanted some. The assorted cheeses, meats and olives were good, but I’m still battling a monthslong, self-inflicted prosciutto fatigue, so please don’t make me dwell on this topic…

Now I know that Neopolitan-style pies are not supposed to be drowning in cheese and toppings like their American counterparts, but I couldn’t help wishing the restaurant had been just a little more generous with the mozzarella on their otherwise tasty pizzas. At least give me a smidge of cheese in each bite of Margherita –- would that have been so hard? I also wished the four cheeses -- provolone and mozzarella, ricotta and bleu -- on the Quattro Formaggio had been better distributed, with at least two cheeses partyin’ in each bite. It’s a good thing the antipasto platter had the delicious bleu, because I never got to taste it on the pizza. And because of the hearty dollops of ricotta, NolaNative likened it to lasagna (which was fresh on her mind, since she had just baked a pan recently).

The next day, I upped the cheese-crust ratio and gobbled down three leftover slices with some melted slivers of a young, semisoft pecorino (noticeably more assertive than the aged stuff). Now that’s good eatin’.