Tree Leaves may be changing color, but autumn remains hot and sunny, which all but requires visits to sidewalk cafés and restaurants. While the main drag in Mountain View, Castro Street, may not exactly offer the people-watching of an Italian piazza, the authentic food and service at Doppio Zero Pizzeria Napoletana brings Naples one step closer to Silicon Valley.

Lunch starts with Polpettine ($8) and a side of sautéed broccolini ($7), served by a waiter with a notable Italian accent. The polettine dish consisted of four meatballs swimming in a spicy tomato sauce topped with a slice of grilled bread. The sauce was well balanced between sour, sweet and salty, and the meatballs were respectable. The generous helping of sauce made for a great dip with the grilled bread, and the tender broccolini was sauteed well with chunks of garlic, drizzles of olive oil and a sprinkle of Italian chilies.

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By the time our wild boar fettuccine ($16) arrived, the waiter had figured out we were splitting the dishes and out came two plates each with a neat coil of housemade pasta topped with parmesan crumbles and parsley. The wild boar ragu sauce had a pulled pork texture, but aside from texture wild boar does not taste much like its domestic pork cousin. Instead, it has a slightly gamey and rich flavor. The housemade pasta was soft and springy as can be; it made the dish a hit.

The restaurant’s name represents a regional specialty of Naples called Pizza Napoletana, with the most popular variation being the margherita pizza. They use “double zero” grade milled flour at Doppio Zero, hence the name. On this day we were in the mood for a white pizza rather than the signature red sauce pies. The Bianca ($16) was topped with three cheeses, Fontina, homemade mozzarella and sottocenere cheese. For an additional $4, slices of delicate prosciutto laid across the pizza add a carnivorous touch to the cheesey pie.

I would have preferred the thin crust to be slightly more charred on the edges and crispier at the bottom. The middle was soft, though not so soft that it took away from the structural integrity of the slice. It was still a darn good pizza with a great combination of quality cheeses and tasty prosciutto.

Like most Americans, my understanding of Italian cuisine has been compromised by the slew of highly processed products available. It seems so simple to boil some Barilla, pop open a pre-made jar of sauce and pour it onto sautéed ground beef. We won’t even go into how easy it is to get a slice of pizza these days. With so many ways to shortcut the preparation of a mainly three-ingredient cuisine (flour, tomatoes and cheese), it’s important to appreciate Doppio Zero’s commitment to treating these ingredients right.

During my meal, the quality of ingredients was most evident in the tender broccolini, the tastiest of cheeses on the pizza and the freshness of the pasta. Most importantly, Doppio Zero makes a mean wild boar ragu sauce, served with a side of accommodating Italian hospitality.

Doppio Zero Pizzeria Napoletana
Italian
160 Castro St., Mountain View. 650.938.4147.
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