Saporito: A small storefront with a big sign in Hod Hasharon - restaurant review

Saporito is a small storefront restaurant with a big sign. The kitchen dominates most of the restaurant’s space, with a glass-enclosed seating area up front for comfortable temperature-controlled dining. When Carlos, the owner of this restaurant, invited us for a tasting, we thought, “ho-hum, another pizza/pasta place.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

When Carlos was released from the army, like so many other young people, he started working in a restaurant. Carlos’s story ends a bit differently than most, as now, some six years later, Carlos is a partner in four restaurants in the Sharon area. Saporito is his newest venture, less than half a year old.

The name Saporito is Italian for “tasty and rich,” an accurate description of the dishes that we enjoyed. The signature dish is the pizza, which goes by the same name as the common food, but is nothing like what you expect. This is artisan pizza, prepared in small batches and with attention to detail. It is made with quality ingredients imported from Italy and supervised from the start: it is baked in an on-site wood-fired stone tabun oven at 450⁰ Celsius till the crust blisters.

The magic is in the dough. At the start of the process, the flour is saturated with water and is left to rest until the water is absorbed. The dough is then allowed to rise for 70 hours, an unusually long fermentation process that develops the flavor and improves the texture. The pizza dough is then hand-stretched, which results in a somewhat asymmetrical round shape. Once you have had the Saporito pizza, no other pizza will do.

Which is the favorite pizza? I asked Carlos.

Without skipping a beat, Carlos pointed us to the Batata Dolce. The twist is the spicy honey sauce. This writer flinches at the word “spicy,” so I treaded carefully. As all the foods at Saporito are made to order, the pizza was prepared for us with the so-called spicy sauce on the side. Turns out the spicy was exaggerated. The honey balanced out the sharp taste of the Tabasco, the secret ingredient, and even I could handle it.

Which ravioli do you recommend for the gal who shies away from spicy foods? I asked him.

Limona ravioli came the reply. This is a beautiful dish of ravioli filled with spinach and ricotta cheese. The ravioli is covered in a lemon butter sauce flavored with garlic, sage, and gremolata, an Italian condiment that complements the lemon flavor. The dish was topped with grated Parmesan cheese, which gave it just the right balance of flavors.

We have two rules that we always adhere to: one – never leave a restaurant without leaving a tip, and two – never leave a dairy restaurant without dessert. And we didn’t have to ask twice before they brought out the dessert menu. Tiramisu, said Carlos, and so it was. My companion and I shared a wedge of the dessert that was so rich, we could not finish it. Tasty and rich, as the name says.