Italian cuisine is one of the best in the world, and many gourmets in Europe rank it highly without reservation. Pizzerias, pubs and pasta shops also line Berlin, and going to a good Italian restaurant around the corner is part of the regular monthly nightlife for many.
And that’s not all: in the capital, there are not only about 30,000 Italians, but also many delicatessens and supermarkets where they go shopping. It’s easy to track things down: where can you find the best tomato sauces, the tastiest pasta, the best buffalo mozzarella? We asked Italians and Italian restaurants in town where they buy their groceries. Here are the top addresses and a few insider tips – part one of our new series “Super Markt” about culinary paradises from around the world in Berlin.
One for all: Centro Italia
Gianluca Simonato doesn’t have to think twice about his favorite addresses in Berlin. For his pizzeria Lovebird on Rosenthaler Strasse in Mitte, like most restaurateurs, he buys in bulk. But when the native of Venice, who has lived in Berlin for nine years and runs a school for pizza makers here, cooks privately, he usually heads to Centro Italia.
Paulina Hildesheim
Hard to find the fresh food counter: Italian supermarket Centro Italia in Charlottenburg.
The Italian Supermercato is one of the most famous addresses in Berlin when it comes to Italian food. There are three branches in the capital: in Marienfelde, Prenzlauer Berg and Sophie-Charlotten-Strasse in Charlottenburg, Simonato likes to go. The portfolio is huge: you can buy about 3000 original Italian products at the Berlin markets, including more than 200 types of pasta (including fresh).
“There, I buy special wheat flour for pizza, because the German flour 405 is not suitable,” says Simonato. “They also have good buffalo mozzarella, canned mummy tomatoes and, as a good childhood memory, biscuits from Mulino Bianco, which you will never find in other shops with this variety,” says the 29-year-old. Centro Italia “It’s a bit rough, but it’s cool – and not such a big chain with a regular program,” concluded Gianluca Simonato.
Centro Italia: Sophie-Charlotte-Str. 9–10 (Mon–Fri 9:00–6:30 p.m., Sat 10:00–4 p.m.), Greifswalder Str. 80c (Mon-Fri 10am-10pm, Sat 10am-4pm), Grosseberenstr. 169–171 (Mon-Fri 10 am to 7 pm, Sat 10 am to 4 pm), www.centro-italia.de
Fun things to do online: Puro and Corridorm
Another tip from Gianluca Simonato is Puro’s online shop. But attention! Just scrolling through the website will make you hungry. Behind Puro are two Sicilians, Pietro Nicotra and Vincenzo Costanza, who focus on high-quality products from their homeland and are active in wholesale in Berlin and Brandenburg.
Since 2016, the volume of production and the circle of producers and partners have grown continuously, today there are delicacies from all Italian regions. Private customers can order in the online shop: Italian cream cheese burrata, for example, sun-dried tomatoes, pasta, sauces, anchovies and Sicilian olive oil. puro-import.com
Many Italians living in the city swear by another online retailer. Corianderm has excellent Italian delicacies: imported olive oil, sausage, tomatoes, cheese and buffalo mozzarella are made by small family businesses in their homeland that use only organic production techniques. In fact, you can order fresh fruits and vegetables here. shop.koriandrum.com
Small but mighty: cargo in Friedrichshain
One person who knows the many Italian addresses in the city is Andrea D’Addio, founder and CEO of Real Italia, a Berlin-based network that promotes authentic Italian food culture abroad. If a Roman can’t do without anything when cooking, good tomatoes – not supermarket items from Italy, Holland.
D’Addio does a lot of online shopping, but he has another tip. “I often ask good Italian restaurants that order oil or vegetables if they can order something. Many restaurants are very open to this, so you can find excellent suppliers and products.
Imago/Panthermedia
A good carbonara: only real with guanciale.
The journalist likes to go shopping around the corner in Friedrichshain: in the small cargo shop on Samaritstrasse. “Also, you can find the dry-cured, unsmoked bacon from Lazio that you want for a good carbonara,” says Andrea D’Addio. The cargo is a restaurant and a delicacy. They sell cold cuts, cheeses, appetizers in oil, pesto, confit and wine.
Cargo gastronomy; Samariterstrasse 37, Friedrichshain, Mon–Sat 12pm–10pm, Sun 5pm–10pm, www.cargogastronomia.de
All Cheese: Mozzarella Bar & Bottega
It only comes to Andrea D’Adio A Mozzarella in the bag, that is, made from buffalo milk. His tip for really good cheese: Mozzarella Bar and Bottega in Meath. The delicatessen stocks buffalo mozzarella from Campania, grown in rural dairies and hand-shaped. With a strong smoky or mild taste – you can tell which type you like on tastings.
35 other Italian cheeses from ricotta to airborinato to taleggio, all accompanied by a fine selection of cold cuts and wines. Unfortunately, the original products are often strictly protected. Buffalo mozzarella, for example, with the DOP designation “Mozzarella di Bufala Campana” typically comes from Campania.
The word mozzarella in turn derives from the way it is made: the individual parts are separated from the cheese mass by “mozzatara” (beating, cutting by hand).
Mozzarella Bar and Bottega: Auguststraße 34, Mon-Sun 12 noon, www.alcontadino.eu
Pasta Love: Mani in Pasta
Anyone who works in Kreuzberg’s Markthalle Neun, like the pastry chef Giulio Silveri from Cakes by Gaia, can eat authentic Italian pasta for lunch every day. “I recommend Manny’s in Pasta not only because they are my friends, but because they make really good pasta that you can take home with you,” affirms Silly.
imago
Lorenzo Corisi, Gioacchino Celona and Angelo Celona from Manny in Pasta in Marktal New.
In the year In 2015, two chefs and a sound engineer for the project Mani in Pasta – that is, handmade pasta – brothers Angelo and Gioacchino Cellona and their friend Lorenzo Corisi. Angelo is a pasta master, his younger brother has already cooked at WAU and Herr Rossi restaurants. The Italians create their fresh creations from durum wheat and spelled flour, water and eggs from the chickens of northern Italy: Bigoli, Caesarese, Tagliatelle, Fusilli, Macaroni and more.
Manny in pasta Eisenbahnstrasse 42/43, Mon 11 am to 5 pm, Tue – Sat 11 am to 6 pm, www.maniinpasta.de
Fresh in the southwest
We end our culinary journey to Italy in the Steiglitz, southwest of Berlin, fittingly. There is Gabriele Ikonis, who runs Pizzeria Spacanapoli No. 12 in Friedrichshain. Secretly, the Italian likes to shop at Salumeria da Salvatore in Lichterfelde, “a typical salimeria, a small shop that you can find everywhere in Italy.” There’s delicious mortadella, salami, cheese, lots of good stuff.
imago
Oranges from Sicily: red, aromatic and also available in Berlin.
For fresh fruit, vegetables and other specialties from Sicily – for example, a common orange with dark red flesh – Iaconis recommends the Terra Verde natural food store in Friedenau. “It’s worth stopping there, the offer changes seasonally and you’ll always find something new.”
Salumeria da Salvatore: Gardeschutzweg 142, Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Terra Verde Farm Food; Rheinstr 6:00 p.m., Tues-Fri 11:00-6:00 p.m., Sat 10:00-4:30 p.m.