Gluten free pizza Il Padellino restaurant

Italy gluten free food tour: Turin.

If you are looking for some great gluten free pizza in Turin, then Il Padellino restaurant is the place to go.

Today I am in town again on the occasion of the first Italy gluten free food tour that I have organised for the French magazine Niepi. I am so happy to show Frédérique and Fabien, co-founders and directors of the magazine, the places that I love and where you can eat great gluten free food.

So welcome to Il Padellino!

For those of you who have been following me lately, the name Elisa might sound familiar. Elisa is Baci di Dama lovely nutrionist from Turin. She also works for the Italian Celiac Association of the Piemonte region (AIC Piemonte) and she is the one who trained Il Padellino restaurant, chef Tamer and his team to the art of cooking gluten free. What I find really great about it, it’s that the training courses by AIC Piemonte are completely free of charges – the region pays for them – and this allows more and more restaurants and cafés which handle also gluten in their kitchen to learn how to cook gluten free safe from any possible cross contamination with gluten. Elisa comes back there every six months for a regular check-up of the kitchen, get the feedbacks from the team and see that everything is properly working.

During lunch we’got the chance to catch up with her, Federica who works for the AIC Piemonte as well and Marco, owner and founder of Il Padellino in Turin.

While some great and fresh gluten free bread arrives on the table along with delicious mozzarella, burrata, ham served as antipasti, Marco tells us that he decided to propose gluten free in his restaurant out of curiosity and also because he started to received more and more demands from his clients. So he called the AIC Piemonte and decided to apply for a training course.

Today he is very happy about what he learnt (basically during the courses you get to know about what celiac disease is, gluten free and you’ve also taught the basic of Italian cuisine like how to make fresh bread or pasta and even pizza).

He also understood that making gluten free food is a serious matter and it means business : the health of people who suffer from celiac disease is at stake so it has to be done seriously and with responsibility.

Here it is the famous gluten free pizza called « al padellino » in different flavours.

In Italy a pizza “al padellino” is a pizza is cooked in a baking pan that goes directly into the oven. It was created in Turin and it is here that you can eat it. That was a first for me: in Neaples or in Rome where I come from and lived, we are not used to it. Well, chef Tamer’s gluten free pizza “al padellino” was soft, moist and very tasty. I l-o-v-e-d it!

The Padellino is also a restaurant where you can eat other kind of Italian gluten free foods like pasta for example, fish or the famous meat called “Piemontese” that is typical of this region of Italy and renown of its unique taste.

And now the gluten free desserts! How to resist them ?!!

From the gluten free tiramisù to the profiteroles with chocolate and whipped cream, from the zeppole to the panna cotta, we got spoiled and happy.

If you are in Turin, this is a restaurant that I do recommend you to go.

Besides the staff is very kind and professional and another good reason is that Marco decided that gluten free comes at the same price of the dishes with gluten. This is so great of him! I think that sometimes people in this business take too much advantage of it putting prices that are way too high. Marco also buys gluten free flours that cost more than those with gluten but nonetheless he decided to put fair prices to have more people enjoy the great gluten free food that he makes at his restaurant.

A big thank you to both Marco and the whole staff at Il Padellino: you’re great!