On what must have been Melbourne's coldest evening in June, the seven of us fought the wind and chill of Docklands to venture to 90 Secondi. What many may not know is that 90 Secondi is the cousin of 400 Gradi, and since winning at the World Pizza Championships in Parma, Italy, scoring a table for 7 on a weekend evening would not be possible. However, 90 Secondi with their upper mezzanine level that is also available for private functions were more than gracious to accept our late booking.
The name, 90 Secondi derives from the time that it takes to cook their pizzas, if it's longer than 90 seconds than it's not considered true Neapolitan pizza. In order to ensure that their pizzas are cooked to perfection, they are placed in their specially imported 400 degree wood fired oven, and 90 seconds later, their beautifully crisp crust, light and thin base pizzas emerge.
We chose a selection from the Stuzzichini entree menu, with our dear friend Kyne who suggested 90 Secondi, also recommending their lamb ribs, Costine Di Agnello - slow baked and chargrilled lamb spare ribs dressed with lemon and capers. The lamb literally falls off these delicious lamb ribs, and is tender and succulent with great flavour.
The next item from the menu was the Calamari - semolina dusted calamari with lemon aioli and rocket and cherry tomatoes. The calamari is not your usual fish and chip shop variety, 90 secondi use fresh calamari that is soft and the semolina crumb is light and crunchy that balances the textures perfectly.
The Poleptte - Italian beef meatballs, slow cooked in tomato sugo served with crusty bread, were moist and soft with hearty flavours. Reminiscent of Meatball and Wine Co., these were bigger and heartier. The waitress was kind enough to add an additional meatball in the dish so there was more to share. The lemon aioli was not too zingy and had a lovely creamy texture.
The Arancini - Sicilian rice balls, bolognese, mozzarella with arrabbieta sauce, contained the mozzarella hidden inside and was still melty and was a lovely surprise to bite into and the arrabbieta sauce complemented the arancini well.
Enough of the entrees, and on to the really good stuff! 90 Secondi's pizzas! The Quattro Formaggi - fior di latte, gorgonzola, emmental, grana padano. For any cheese lover, this four cheese pizza is your friend and your foe. It is your friend because who doesn't want a pizza with all the delicious cheeses on a delectably thin base. The Quattro Formaggi is your foe as you'll be wanting more of this gooey-cheesy-flavoursome-goodness.
The Paesana with san marzano tomato, fior di latte, sausage, friarielli and fresh cherry tomatoes. Friarielli in English is rapini, or the edible young leaves of similar to turnip leaves or Chinese kai lan. Cooked until soft, these friarielli are delicious and the bites of sausage and cherry tomatoes spread through the pizza slices give you different flavours.
For those that aren't fanatical about pizza, 90 Secondi's pasta can also hold it's own weight. The Fettucine Con Ragu - ragu of beef, pork sausage, red wine and prosciutto crudo had rich, homely flavours with the pasta cooked al dente.
The one pizze we all unanimously decided on was the Caserta - san marzano tomato, mozzarella di bufala, levoni prosciutto di parma, rocket. With the buffalo mozzarela sent fresh directly from Italy, and the freshly sliced levoni prosciutto di parma this caserta was flavoursome and amazing. The buffalo mozzarella was just gently softened, and the san marzano tomato allowed all the flavours of this pizza to shine through.
Some of the boys were still hungry, and this is where the Quattro Formaggi comes back as your friend and foe, this time ordered with extra gorgonzola and anchovies. They really love their strong cheese, and the anchovies were not your standard salty and dry type, these were lighter in flavour and flaky.
To top the evening off with some more of 90 Secondi's delicious dough, the Calzone Dolce filled with nutella. Their dough with nutella, who would be nuts to deny this delicious dessert. Arriving to our table, it was hot out of the oven, still puffed with hot air and splattered with generous amounts of nutella. Everyone was ready to dive into it with their forks ready.
Cut up into strips to best enjoy the bread and nutella, you can see the nutella literally oozing out of this delicious hot bread mess. It was definitely a hit with everyone, with all the nutella spooned up and a clean plate.
90 Secondi open early during week days to feed those that work in the offices nearby, and boy must they be lucky to just pop down during lunch to have one of 90 Secondi's delicious pizzas!
If you're ever in the area, 90 Secondi is open early til late, and serve fantastic pizzas with the freshest ingredients, and once you try their pizza crust, you'll want to fight over who gets the crust!
