A pizza that tastes like a cozy campfire breakfast mixed with Christmas dinner. The complex flavor is sweet, smokey, woody, and even a little sour.
This is my ode to the Campfire pizza from Puccini’s Pizza & Pasta. It’s going on my list of “specialty pizzas you should know by name” along with The Trap from The Missing Brick. When I first tried the Campfire pizza a couple years ago, I thought I had stumbled upon some amazing secret - but it's no coincidence this pie has some local name recognition since it won Best Classic Pizza in America at the World Championship of Pizza in Parma, Italy in 2012.
I fell in love with Puccini's because the name that comes up on Google is Puccini's Smiling Teeth which is so bizarre, and there is ridiculous pop art on the wall of anthropomorphized pizza and pasta ingredients illustrated by artist CJ Pyle (I looked this up on their webstie). It's the kind of place you can take someone from out of town to show off an Indy original that feels casual but interesting at the same time.
The Campfire is smoked sausage, sweet onion marmalade, gorgonzola, and fresh rosemary. It’s sweet and creamy, a hint of sour, woody (rosemary), and the smoked sausage with just a bit of char on the outside reminds me of camping by Lake Michigan in the fall. There is not a strong smoke flavor but just enough that with the rosemary and sweetness from the marmalade also reminds me of Christmas.
I did my best with these photos, the lights inside Puccini’s were literally yellow and the table top was orange so they came out a little funky.
We also tried the breadsticks, and the nacho cheese was extra $0.95. It looks like they mixed the cheese up with some additional jalapeno or something because it was pretty good but I didn't want to fill up on breadsticks and cheese before the pizza.
The breadsticks were hot, heavy, and long. The inside was ever so slightly under cooked and had kind of a yeasty chewy middle that honestly we were okay with. Like a croissant that didn't rise all the way.
Chris got pepperoni and bacon and added fontina cheese, which gave a nice bite to it, not exactly sour but adding another dimension of interest. It almost taste like they brush the crust edge with melted butter, it has a sweet savory finish.
I know I'll be back soon, Puccini's is a favorite of mine. Another famous pie from Puccini's is the Sweet Lil' Razorback, which my aunt loves and remembers by name. @IndyFoodGuy recommends the Sweet Lil' Razorback with added ricotta.