Toscanaccio is a cute little Italian bakery and pizzeria situated on a side street in Lavapiés, opened a year and a half ago by Guillermo (Madrid) and Federico (Siena). Out of their small kitchen and sole oven comes authentic homemade bites from Tuscany, all lovingly crafted on site, from scratch and with prime ingredients.

While you’d think the creators of Toscanaccio hailed from a long line of Italian bakers, their story is rather unexpected. Guillermo and Federico met over a decade ago while studying in London, and have since travelled and lived around the world, always picking up new skills and game for new adventures along the way.

Neither of them had planned on opening an Italian bakery. That is, until a few years ago when they decided to set out on a new venture in Madrid: a Tuscan-inspired takeaway joint in Lavapiés.

Before opening, they spent months training with a señor who’s been hand-crafting authentic Italian baked goods for over 40 years. After learning from the best, they found a place and refurbished it practically by hand. And here they are!

Toscanaccio fits perfectly into the already diverse and eclectic neighborhood of Lavapiés, full of charming gems and surprises scattered throughout its sloping, winding streets.

When you step into Toscanaccio, you’ll immediately see a tempting display of prepared foods. Options range from savory bites like pizza, focaccia, calzoni, and ciaccino ripieno (sandwiches typical of Tuscany) to a wide selection of traditional cookies, cakes and pastries like crostatines, tarta de la nonna, and panello de uva. Depending on the day, you may even find brownies and carrot cake.

The ciaccino filled with brie, arugula and pesto is my new favorite go-to snack. 

There’s also an assortment of homemade breads, with an additional daily special. Today’s was pan de calabaza (pumpkin bread). All the dough is made with different types of organic wheat, rye and spelt flour, made right here in the kitchen, in plain sight.

The space is quite tiny, but it’s all you need. If you want to sit, there are only two stools and a bench outside. Otherwise, it’s best to order to go. Luckily their hours are quite accommodating: they open from 11am-11:30pm every day, and until 3:30am on Fridays and Saturdays. Tuesday is their day off.

So thanks to these two guys, we’ve now got the perfect place to grab a delicious Italian bite on the go, almost any day of the week.

Toscanaccio

• Facebook
• Instagram: @toscanaccio_
• Address: Calle de la Fe 16
• Metro: Lavapiés
• Phone: 912974729
• Hours:
  • Monday through Thursday 11:00 AM – 11:30 PM
  • Fridays and Saturdays open till 3:30 AM
  • Closed on Tuesdays

• Facebook, Website
• Address: Augusto Figueroa 21
• Metro: Chueca

Fratelli Figurato is a newly opened pizzeria in Madrid’s Chamberí neighborhood, brought to us by two brothers hailing from Naples who share a strong passion for pizza and innovation.

Before founding Fratelli Figurato, Riccardo and Vittorio had both worked in marketing and lived in different parts of the world. It wasn’t until December of last year that they decided to give it all up to pursue their true calling: reinventing the Neapolitan pizza.

The mastermind behind the kitchen is Riccardo, who’s been a pizza-making aficionado for years, creating his own methods and putting spins on Italian culinary tradition. You’ll always spot him sporting a blue New York Yankees hat.

Vittorio is in charge of marketing and communication, and designed the restaurant’s image and peronsality. He’s the crazier one of the two, although he shares the same passion for gastronomy and creativity as his brother.

Together, the Italian duo has made their dream come true with Fratelli Figurato. Lucky for us, we now get to delight in their welcoming, family-run restaurant serving delicious Naples-style pizzas featuring innovative techniques, elaborate processes and special ingredients.

Their pizzas stand out in particular for the light dough – Figurato’s trademark recipe created by Riccardo. It’s fermented for an impressive 36 hours and made with top-quality ingredients. With each pie you order, you get to choose from three dough options: traditional, wheat and five-grain.

After greeting the two brothers and hearing all about the restaurant’s story and mission, here’s what went down at the table:

We each ordered a glass of Italian wine: a white Casal di Serra, and a red Lacryma Christi. To whet our appetites we were given slices of Tuscan-style salami. A perfect and simple appetizer.

You can’t go wrong with any of the pizzas listed on the menu, but seeing as it was our first time, we asked to try the most standout options – mortadella and pistachio, and squash and pancetta.

The first is made with a cream of ricotta and pesto, and provolone cheese. After leaving the oven, it’s topped with thin slices of mortadella from Bologna, bits of toasted pistachios and basil. We had it prepared on traditional dough.

The latter is made with cream of roasted squash, provolone and crispy pancetta. It’s topped with walnuts and basil. We ordered it on five-grain dough.

The mix of ingredients and flavors was so unexpected and delicious. Not to mention the dough was outstanding and very light.

To round it all off, we ordered their most in-demand dessert, the Sicilian-style cannoli. Divine.

All the star dishes certainly have a signature Figurato flair. We’ll definitely be going back to try everything else on the menu! 

Fratelli Figurato:

• Facebook, Website
• Instagram: @fratellifigurato
• Address: Calle de Alonso Cano, 37
• Metro: Alonso Cano
• Phone: 914 85 79 93

Being a full time teacher means that I’m lucky enough to get some pretty major teacher perks, aka, a lot of holiday days – which let’s be real, is something that money can’t buy. So this week I found myself with a blissful 9 days off and aside from the on-going trauma that is ‘buying a house’ in Spain (that’s a whole other blog post that trust me no one wants to read) I basically found myself at a loose end.

The upside of this being that I had time to become a lady who lunches – so having managed to persuade a friend to extend her lunch break, I sought out somewhere tasty looking near her office that wouldn’t break the bank – my pennies are now being directed towards furniture sadly, and not food.

Fast forward to Grosso Napoletano, a lovely little Italian spot serving up some of the best pizzas in the city. Located on C/Santa Engracia, it’s neighbours with a whole host of hip and happening foodie outposts that are emerging weekly in Chamberi.

The beauty of Grosso Napoletano in my opinion was the simplicity of the menu – a few salads are on offer to share (we plumped for chicken and avo to get the tastebuds going) followed by diavola and a quattro formaggi pizzas respectively.

The cavernous wood burning oven cooked them to absolute perfection – the base was light but not doughy, the toppings charred but not burnt. I ate every last crumb and my friend took her leftovers back to work – much to the envy of her colleagues.

As the nervous energy that comes with the quest to becoming a homeowner appears to be burning some of my calorie intake, I plumped by a matcha tea tiramisu to round things off nicely. It was a quirky twist on an Italian classic and every bite as delicious as the pizza.

Pizza places are essentially ten a penny, but decent ones are not. Grosso serves up authentic Italian eats at prices that, let’s face it, are far more purse friendly than a return flight to Rome to sample the same.

So if you fancy living La Dolce Vita but the budget won’t stretch quite as far as Sardinia, Grosso Napoletano is no poor substitute. Both the service and the décor were spot on and if a simple lunch spot is what you’re after, then that’s what you’ll get. With two locations in the city (the other one on C/Hermosilla) it’s easy to grab a ‘pizza’ the action.

Photos from instagram @grosso_napoletano

Grosso Napoletano

• Website, Facebook, Instagram
• Address: Currently they have 8 locations
• Phone: 911 70 46 53