EDINBURGH’S newest pizzeria, offering the chance to sample pizza that aims to be most authentic possible outside of Italy, has opened – providing a street food entrepreneur with his first bricks and mortar business.
Michael Notarangelo has combined detailed research to find the best ingredients from across Italy, exhaustive trials to perfect the dough and evoked childhood memories of his Italian heritage to launch Pronto Pizza.
The excited entrepreneur shared that while there are plenty of pizza places in Edinburgh, his goal – stemming from a love of pizza that started on holidays to his family home in Italy – has been to make Pronto as near as authentic as you’d find in Naples.
He added: “I grew up eating great pizza during trips to my grandparent’s home in Italy and my aim is to emulate that nostalgic taste in all the pizzas we do.
“I always knew I wanted my own pizza place. But it had to be right, serving proper, authentic log-fired pizza that I remember from my childhood.
“I was always around real Italian food where everything was bought in season from the market and all pizzas were wood-fired with juicy, ripe tomatoes and locally-sourced mozzarella. When I younger I didn’t realise how good that was but as you get older you realise it’s hard to emulate that flavour.
”The key to getting that authentic flavour is all down the ingredients. Every core component has been carefully sourced using specialist Italian importers who find the very best ingredients from all regions of Italy. Everything from the flour, tomatoes, cheese and charcuterie have all been selected from all over Italy. Even the salt.
“Italy has lots of variations of pizza but the Neapolitan style was always a favourite of mine and that’s what we will specialise in.
”We use a slow fermentation process to prove our dough and all of our pizzas are hand stretched to order and cooked in our state of the art wood burning oven. The intense heat of the oven instantly expands the air pockets resulting in that light and airy crust that is synonymous with Neapolitan style pizza.
”As any Italian will tell you, it’s all about the crust.”
The menu will include traditional favourites but Michael is planning to work with suppliers to develop new pizzas as regular specials. Vegan and gluten-free options will also be available.
The launch of Pronto – on Brighton Place – provides Michael with his first ‘physical’ premises for his fast-growing Belmonte Catering business, which was formed in 2021 after starting as a bespoke street food operation in 2017.
Michael named the business after Belmonte Castello, the Italian hill-top village in the Lazio region, between Rome and Naples, where his grandparents originated from.
It operates a range of street food concepts, including the Pronto Pizza brand which was first launched as a pop-up at Edinburgh Zoo and which provided the inspiration for Pronto Slice, a sister business offering Scotland’s first pizza al taglio from a site on Castlehill close to Edinburgh Castle.
Michael continued: “I’ve been determined that Belmonte Catering should never stand still, so while our street food operations have continued to grow over the years, and then the addition of Pronto Slice, the opening of our first trading site is a big landmark for the business.
“While the Brighton Place site allowed us open Pronto, it will also be the hub to serve Pronto Slice and support our other street food operations as we continue expand in the future.”
Pronto, which offers some casual dining options, will be open seven days a week – with plans to serve pizza al taglio slices at lunchtime as well as other Italian deli treats in the near future.
Belmonte Catering currently has four concepts: Rollys Ice Cream, the first in Scotland to serve unique ice cream ‘rolls’; Dog n Bon, which specialises in gourmet hot dogs and loaded fries; StikWaffle, a hot dessert concept; as well as Pronto Pizza.
