Authentic Italian pizza at Sorellas in Rolf Valley

LOSING your sense of taste and smell doesn’t bear thinking about, speaking as someone who makes extensive plans, on most days of the week, for breakfast, elevenses, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner. If you couldn’t taste what you were eating, there would be no fun in preparing meals; it would probably make sense, in the event, to make a large pot of dhal and another of rice, for a week’s sustenance, to be dipped into at various times of the day, whenever you felt hungry.

Sorellas real deal Italian pizza take away

For this reason (and of course there are others), in the time of coronavirus, I’m careful to wear a mask whenever venturing out of the house. I’m also strict about washing and sanitising my hands, and striving to maintain social distancing when going shopping or meeting friends. Carried away recently by the excitement of catching up with two friends after many months spent at home, we hugged and greeted each other enthusiastically. For the next two weeks, fearing the worst, I did deep breathing exercises, gargled with salt, and took my temperature daily. Fortunately all was well.

Sorellas Pizzeria in Rolf Valley

Whether you’re a healthy nine-year-old, a strapping forty-year-old, or a vulnerable pensioner with an underlying heart condition, the safest place to be is at home. Having said that, a three-month lockdown can make you crave a change of scene, a classic French dish at an upmarket restaurant, a sublime pasta, or even a bag of crunchy KFC. So, depending on your attitude to risk, it’s time to make a booking to eat out at your favourite restaurant, or to take your place in the queue for a take away to eat at home, on the sofa, in front of the TV.

I’ve been to a restaurant for a sit-down meal twice in the last two weeks, and both times the reception with sanitiser and temperature-taking was impressive. Widely-spaced tables were wiped down before and after use, and immaculately dressed staff wore masks all the time.

Before heading off to buy a take away a few evenings ago, I applied hand sanitiser, tied on a mask, and joined a short queue outside Sorellas Pizzeria in Rolf Avenue. I’ve eaten pizzas from a dark kitchen somewhere in Harare, two pizzas for the price of one on a Tuesday evening in Borrowdale, and a really nice tuna pizza from Pizzazz in Greystone Park. All were enjoyable, but Sorellas Pizzeria, run by Gemma and Chiara Faccio, offers something special.

Italians love good food, and enjoy nothing better than preparing and sharing it with family and friends. In the Faccio family, recipes have been passed on through generations, and in their small, family-run pizzeria, you can enjoy delicious food with an authentic Italian and gourmet twist. So if you want the real deal, take a look at Sorellas menu, and the list of traditional Italian pizzas on offer.

The Anchovy ($9) was a generous-sized pizza, topped with mozzarella cheese, black olives, salty anchovies, fresh tomato and rocket. Roman style, with a crisp thin crust, it was the delicious type of pizza you might be tempted to eat every day. Neapolitan style pizzas sold elsewhere have a thicker, puffier base that can sometimes taste undercooked.

George loves a pizza with meat, and left to his own devices, will buy a Hawaiian, topped with ham and pineapple. Putting pineapple on pizza is considered anathema to purists, but it remains a favourite to the other side of the foodie camp. So I decided on a Mediterranean ($8) for George. The combination of olives, artichokes, pepperoni, mozzarella cheese and basil pesto was pretty good, although I thought the pepperoni could have been thinly sliced rather than served in chunks.

To accompany our pizzas we opened a bottle of red wine from our lockdown wine cellar (bottom shelf in the pantry), imagining ourselves at a trattoria in the Vatican City.

If you’re still reluctant to visit a restaurant, set the scene, and indulge your taste buds with a take out meal eaten at home. It can be as satisfying and delightful as eating out.  – A Matter of Taste with Charlotte Malakoff

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