When typing “pizza” on Google you get about one and a half million results, stories and anecdotes that try to reconstruct the story. The most impressed one in the Italian collective imagination tells the story of the Neapolitan pizza maker Raffaele Esposito. In the late 1800s, Esposito submitted to Queen Margherita of Savoy a pizza based on tomato, mozzarella and basil. She was so entranced that he decided to give the pizza the name of the queen: the margherita was born more or less like this. Even the story you will read today has Neapolitan origins, but the protagonist – also an Esposito! – has decided to take his pizzas beyond the Amalfi Coast, to discover Milan. Antonino Esposito and his restaurant “Così fa” land in the historic Via Solferino, a few steps from Brera.
Antonino’s story is a mix of talent, dedication and sacrifices. Today, with over thirty years of experience, he is a true authority in the sector. In the restaurant you can taste all his creations, starting with the most famous: the Sorrento whip, a patent registered in 1996 and exported all over the world. It is a particular type of pizza, elongated and intertwined in the center. The plus of Antonino and the driving force of his incredible career is undoubtedly creativity: like any artist, Esposito loves to push himself beyond the limits imposed by tradition. The pizza then abandons its characteristic round shape and becomes a bouquet, a square, an oval or a boat, without forgetting the morsels and donuts: the shape becomes a way to best enhance the ingredients.
Creativity and experimentation merge with a more traditional search for selected raw materials: in the menu of “Cosi fa” you will find IGP lemons, Sorrento walnuts, Provolone del Monaco DOP, Fior di latte dei Monti Lattari, anchovies from Cetara, cherry tomatoes from Vesuvius and buffalo mozzarella from Campania DOP. Tradition also finds space in the dessert menu, all typically from Campania. Between baba and fried pearls, a delicate (and spatial) Delizia al Limone stands out.
The restaurant has about forty seats, divided between the wonderful tables with ceramic tops made by the designer Rosalinda Acampora. The creations of the Sorrento artist color the entire room: on the walls you will find dozens of hand-decorated plates with geometric motifs and typically Neapolitan representations, such as peppers and tomatoes, which will give you a taste of the Amalfi Coast. And if after the pizza you want to take home a piece of Sorrento with you, don’t worry: even the dishes are on sale!
Source: https://flawless.life/it/italia/milano/cosi-antonino-esposito