Food & Dining

Trattoria Napoli: There’s No Place Like Home

Nearly every large city in South America has at least one or two very good, if not excellent, Italian restaurants.   What every city does not have is an authentic Italian trattoria — a mid-priced, family-run restaurant that serves delicious, regional  dishes  in a casual, home-like setting.

Lima’s Trattoria Napoli does just that, serving up first-rate southern Italian fare in a sliver of a building tucked in no-frills Surquillo.  The trattoria is truly a family business:  The owner’s from Calabria (the toe of the boot), his wife keeps the tiramisu in the fridge next-door, and the ponytailed son-in-law can often be found munching on gnocchi with the grandkids at a nearby table.  The homey ambience embraces diners, too: Eat here and you feel like part of the family — welcomed and satisfied.

Owner Don Pasquale opened his first restaurant in the neighborhood six years ago, on the corner of calles Los Paujiles and Tiendas, across from the Metro supermarket.  Locals immediately became enamored of the well prepared pizzas and pastas, but the corner location encouraged a “to go” mentality that was at odds with the relaxing dining experience that Don Pasquale wished to foster. Three years later, the restaurant moved into a narrow space a few doors down, and a real neighborhood trattoria was born.

Don Pasquale taking orders from his customers
Don Pasquale taking orders from his customers

The menu at Trattoria Napoli features southern Italian dishes like pastas, lasagnas, soups and, of course, pizzas. As soon as you sit down at one of the restaurant’s 10 tables, you’re served a free appetizer of Italian flat bread with dishes of marinated red peppers and eggplant, and chimichurri, for dipping.  The bread portion is small, so you will probably want to order more.

Your waiter also will set out shotglass-size samples of sweetish red wine from the owner’s personal winery. If you like it, you can order it by the glass or the decanter (full or half), another trattoria tradition. There is no wine list here, so if you’re in the mood for a Chilean Merlot or an Argentinean Malbec, you’ll have to pop over to the local Metro. Don Pasquale will happily set out glasses and uncork the bottle for you. Just be sure to pour one for him, too.

Other ways to start your meal include an Ensalada Caprese of tomato, basil and mozzarella (S/.20 & S/.25, prices in Peruvian soles), calzones,  and large bowls of minestrone soup (S/.18) and meat cappelletti in broth (S/.20).

Most people come to Trattoria Napoli not just to nibble on appetizers, however, but to dig into big portions of lasagna, fettuccini, ravioli and other homemade pastas.  Ravioli are stuffed with meat or spinach and ricotta, and any pasta can be topped with the sauce of your choice:  a la crema, alfredo, pesto, puttanesca, gorgonzola, Genovese de osso bucco, spicy calabrese sausage, and others. Prices range from S/.20 to S/.30 a dish.  (The pesto includes a steak on top for S/.30.)

My favorite sauces include a nutty cream (salsa nueces), which is great over ravioli, a creamy pesto, and an extremely flavorful Bolognese, which tastes like someone slaved over it for half a day.

Trattoria Napoli’s unprepossessing exterior, in Surquillo, Lima

Lasagna varieties (S/.25 to S/.28) include carne, ham & mushroom , vegetarian, four cheeses and seafood. They’re served in square enamel dishes which are brought to your table from the oven, piping hot.

Something that I order all the time, but which isn’t on the menu, is eggplant parmesan. Don Pasquale’s version resembles an eggplant lasagna, with slices of eggplant layered like wide lasagna noodles with parmesan cheese and olive oil (no bread crumbs).  Just ask for the berenjena parmesana, and they’ll make it for you. It is divine to pucchare (dip bread) in and has sustained me through three Lima winters so far.

The other part of Napoli’s official name is “Pizzeria,” and I know several  Limeños who come to Don Pasquale’s just for the pizza. My son is one of these, as is my chef brother-in-law, El Filósofo.  Sometimes El Filósofo will be cooking in his own organic restaurant and if he hears that El Fotógrafo and I are going to eat at Napoli, he will tell us to bring him a pizza to go. That’s saying a lot when a chef with his own pizza oven orders out from the competition.

I like Don Pasquale’s pizzas very much. The crust is rather thin and is topped with fresh mozzarella, tomato sauce and your choice of peppers, sausage, vegetables, pepperoni, basil, etc. Prices range from S/.20  to S/.30 for a Personal, to S/.30 to S/.40 for a Mediano, to S/.40 to S/.50 for a Familiar.

Daily specials such as Beef or Chicken Milanese (S/.25) and Oregano Chicken with Fettuccini in Cream Sauce (S.25)  round out the entrees.

By the time you finish your segunda, you’ll probably be stuffed, unless, like a cow, you have several stomachs.  Whatever condition you’re in, Don Pasquale will probably appear at your table, beaming, and urge you to try the tiramisu (S/.13). The tiramisu is something he is extremely proud of, and I spent a whole year saying No to him, again and again, until one day I caved in and tried it. It’s quite good and very traditional: all drippy mascarpone and cake and coffee and liquor.

You can also end your meal with a respectably strong cup of espresso or cappuccino.

Even paying the bill at Trattoria Napoli is pleasant. It’ll run you about the equivalent of US $10 to $13 a person, including drinks, and you may very well leave with a doggie bag. What you won’t leave is hungry.  After dropping a tip for the waitstaff in the ceramic porcellino (little pig), you can let everyone know that you enjoyed your meal by ringing the bronze bell hanging by the front door.

I haven’t failed to do so in the 15 or so times I’ve dined there.

Barbara Drake, An American in Lima (review & photos)

DETAILS:

Trattoria Pizzeria Napoli
Calle Los Paujiles #190
Near block 8 of Av. Arambur
Limatambo, Surquillo
Phone:  221-0936 – 409*3202
Delivery: 221-0936
Tues – Sat:  12:00 pm – 11:00 pm
Sun:  12:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Closed Mondays
VISA and Mastercard accepted

Trattoria Napoli on Facebook

map

I am an American writer who lived in Lima for seven years (2007-2014), where I covered Andean traditions, melting glaciers and daily life in the capital for Miami Herald, MSNBC and Huffington Post. I now live and work in northern Florida where I champion climate change advocacy and compassionate, affordable eldercare.

6 Comments

  • El Pantera

    It is well known among those whom know well, that pizza is Egyptian, in the same way that Pisco es Peruano. What is not well known however, is that the tomato was introduced to Europe around the time of 1552 by Neapolitan sailors returning home with tomato seeds gathered and imported from Peru. And that for many years after this importation to Europe, the tomato was not accepted, and was considered to be poisonous. Interesting, isn’t it?

  • graciela

    ¡¡que rico se vé !!!Voy reservando mi pizza , para cuando vaya . Felicitaciones todo hecho con amor …es lo que transmite. Besos a esta linda familia trabajadora .Graciela

  • Barb

    De nada, Graciela.:)

    El Pantera — I didn’t know that pizza is Egyptian. Readers, had you heard that? I had heard that people thought the tomato was poisonous (like the potato) and that there was reluctance to accept it. It is remarkable when you consider how ingrained the tomato now is in cuisines around the world.

  • Pico

    Ya me ha dado hambre!

    Ask Don Pasquale if he can make a a pizza with roasted eggplant. It is delicious. My children love it and you know how hard it is for kids to eat veggies.

    Also, since he is from the south, ask him if he can make some panzerotti. If you have it made with anchovies it is to die for.

    Salud

  • Janice

    It’s on my list of places to eat the next time I’m in Peru! Sounds heavenly… THANKS!