Trulli Pizza & Pasta truly stands out from other Italian restaurants in the area because of how its pizza and pasta are made. “A new kind of pizza!,” the pizzeria’s tagline exclaims.
Trulli launched May 28 in a retail strip at 7700 Trial Blvd., next door to The Crust Pizza along the east side of U.S. 41 south of Vanderbilt Beach Road in North Naples. Trulli moved into the units vacated in January by Fusion Bowlz, which operated for about two years in a space that formerly was Marco’s Pizza.
What makes Trulli different is its unique recipes for pizza using imported 100% semolina and extra virgin olive oil with sauces, meats and vegetables prepared using the sous vide cooking method. It’s not the first time the restaurant’s husband-and-wife managing partners have made their mark on the Naples culinary scene. Executive Chef Domenico Bosco and Barbara Gallone Bosco previously operated the Kitchen41 sous vide bistro concept for more than five years in Naples.
“We make our own sous vide tomato sauce, all blended, and that’s the base for our pizzas,” he said. “With the pasta, we’re going to do all of the sauces sous vide. I cannot walk away from that.”
During the pandemic in 2020, the Boscos launched their Trulli Pasta wholesale business to deliver artisan pasta and chef-prepared sauces created in their commercial kitchen in Collier County to more than 60 locations from Marco Island to Sarasota. They have cut back on their wholesale business but still supply the pasta for 25 dining spots ranging from La Tavola Restaurant on Marco Island to Caffé da Michele Osteria Italiana, a restaurant owned by Bosco’s brother at Miromar Outlets in Estero.
An example of how seriously they approach their craft can be found in the 11 tons of certified semolina that are being shipped to them from Puglia in southern Italy, where Domenico Bosco is from. He moved from Italy to Boston in 1998 and to Naples in 2008. In the U.S., he met Barbara, who hails from the Piedmont region of northwest Italy.
“We tried all types of semolina from North Dakota to Kentucky to Turkey to you name it, we tried it,” Bosco said. “I’m from the home of semolina. Why am I looking for it everywhere else but my own home? So, we went there a few years back and we bought the Italian-grown.”
The coarsely milled durum wheat is certified organic and pure with no enrichment. Pizza crust made with 100% semolina flour has a light amber color.
“It took me two and a half years to develop the one we have now,” Bosco said. “We do a 75% hydration, which is pretty high.”
Henry and Joan Line of Naples were excited to try Trulli’s pizza this week. They knew that the Boscos were expert pasta makers, and they have friends who traveled with the Boscos to Italy.
“We love this concept,” said Joan Line, noting that the pizza crust is light and crispy.
“This 75% hydrated pizza crust is fabulous,” Henry Line said.
Trulli’s inaugural menu features only pizzas and salads but will add pasta dishes such as lasagna and ravioli and even risotto next month.
“Right now, we’re going to roll out just the pizza for a couple of weeks or maybe a month,” Bosco said. “Everyone knows our pasta. I don’t want customers to know us just for the pasta, so, I said, ‘OK, let’s do pizza and you can try it at least once.’”
The menu has 18 pizza choices divided into four sections: Americane with regular mozzarella; Tradizionali with fresh fior di latte mozzarella; Classiche with premium toppings and sauce varieties, such as béchamel and pink sauce; and Avventurose with some adventurous toppings, such as Angus roast beef and Australian leg of lamb.
Bosco’s favorite pizza features béchamel sauce, fior di latte, cremini mushrooms, sweet Italian sausage, prosciutto crudo and arugula. The Australian Lamb pizza has fresh tomato, fior di latte, 24-hour sous vide Australian leg of lamb, roasted garlic, rosemary, roasted potato and goat cheese.
“We’re going to have pizza with sushi-grade tuna and do different things like a carpaccio. We’re doing what we call an Upside-down Carpaccio. So, we’re going to do the opposite, which means on the base we’re going to put shaved Parmesan; we’re going to put arugula and we’re going to put the meat sauce on. So, you actually have the opposite [with the cheese on the bottom and the sauce on top].”
The meat on that specialty pizza is thinly sliced Angus beef tenderloin.
“It’s something that is fun and something that people can say, ‘I never had pizza like this,’ and it separates us from everybody else, so we don’t have competition,” Bosco said.
“We have three bases. We have tomato sauce. We have fresh tomato, like slices, and we also have a béchamel. Nobody uses béchamel for pizza.”
For the pasta dishes, guests will be able to pair the starches and sauces of their choosing. “I hope people will appreciate it,” Bosco said, noting that they make their own ravioli and ricotta cheese. “We do everything from scratch.”
Trulli, named for the landmark cylindrical homes with conical roofs in Puglia, will open only for dinner initially. Hours for the off-season are 4 to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday. During season, the restaurant will also open for lunch, probably starting in October, Bosco said.
