Back to Buca!! Perhaps the Best Pizza in Canada, and More.

Buca is the place for very good sophisticated, rustic Italian cuisine. The hallmark for me for the best eating involves cuisine of any ethnicity that has is based on regional rustic foods as they have been prepared and cooked for generations, with elements of today's thinking. Pizza here is rectangular and served on a wood platter with scissors for cutting their delicious thin, crispy, crunchy crust. The toppings can vary and tonight, my fave, the 7 hour slow cooked pork with rosemary and sea salt was not available....but, there were other tasty possibilities.

Funghi....seasonal mushrooms (king oyster), mascarpone and marjoram.

Pizza all'amitriciana, topped with preserved tomato, onion soffrito, house cured guanciale and pecorino romano. (No photo, we dived into this one before i remembered to take a picture!!!! It was my fave).

Raw Dorset lamb loin, montasia frica, duck bottarga and crisp squash.

Crispy (and they were) pigs ears.....delicious.

Cotechino....braised Mennonite pork skin sausage, lentils, pickled baby turnips and bagna cauda. The sausage was for sausage lovers. Apologize for bad lighting...forgot my camera and was using my phone.

Ravioli doppi....double stuffed ravioli, braised embden goose, roasted squash, fonduta di parmigiano, hazelnut crackle and rosemary leaves. Gone in a flash!

Here I went again, the dish smelled so good and hungry me was into the dish before the photo....the smear on the upper left is not the artistic smear of the chef! Hand rolled saffron and fava bean pasta (malloreddus), preserved roma tomato, salsa verde, pecorino brilla and ottobratico olive oil.

Pomodoro and truffles.....preserved tomato, basil, fresh pregiato truffles and truffled burrata cheese. The first 2 pizzas were so good, after we finished our other courses, the 4 of us went for ANOTHER pizza!!

Some Singular Dishes From Different Restaurants, Toronto: Pangaea; Buca

I consider these "must have" dishes, worth trying.

Spot prawns, scallop and spinach risotto, flavoured with preserved lemon, mint, soy oil and topped with creme fraiche and crispy torn bread. Loved this dish of perfectly cooked shellfish and risotto, from Pangaea.

Carbonara di mare, bronze die-cut mezze maniche from Abruzzo with parmigiano reggiano cheese, fresh Italian chili, caviar and sea urchin bottarga. The key to the flavour explosion with the perfectly cooked pasta are the briny sea flavours of the sea urchin. An amazing rustic dish enjoyed at Buca.

Pizza at Buca, One of My Faves

One of my 2 fave places to enjoy pizza in Toronto, is Buca. I ask for a well done crust, although they do that frequently without being asked. The crust, as I prefer it, is thin and crispy enough to pick up slabs which are cracker-like in stiffness (the pieces don't flop, at least when first served). The pizzas also have interesting, delicious flavours. The toppings for this one consisted of a rich base of tomato sauce (so often bland at other pizza serving restos) with basil leaves, zucchini flowers, sliced zucchini, cherry tomatoes and perfectly (under) cooked shrimp. The tradition is to cut the pizza with scissors provided.