Gino Lenti, owner of La Villa Pizza & Family Restaurant in Morrisville, learned how to cook Southern Italian food as a boy growing up on a farm in the Italian Province of Calabria. His mother taught him how to cook all the traditional foods, including pizza, which was a staple at the Lenti household. La Villa offers delicious veal, seafood, chicken and pasta entrées. The salad menu includes Antipasto Salad, Arugula Salad, Greek Salad and Tuscany Salad. Pasta includes all the regular sizes and shapes—spaghetti, ziti, rigatoni, fettuccini, and so on, but the dishes themselves are all Gino’s unique creations. Such tantalizing offerings as Ziti Al Spinacha with ziti, fresh tomatoes, and sauce basil and Tortellini Matrigiana that comes with cheese tortellini, bacon, scallions and has a cream sauce are expertly prepared by this gifted Italian chef.
For the Italian food aficionado there are veal, seafood and chicken Entrées and for those wanting a grilled entrée, there is New York Steak and Char-Grilled Chicken Breast. The menu also includes vegetarian dishes and a Gluten Free Menu. There are daily lunch specials, and combo specials along with lots of tempting sandwiches.
Of course, from its beginning in 1998, Pizza has been a staple at La Villa. However, Gino heard people rave about tomato pies made in the Trenton neighborhood of Chambersburg. These pies were considered the best in area, maybe even in the United States. So in 2005 Gino had a friend take him to Trenton to try a tomato pie. The thin crusted pie was delicious, Gino thought, and he knew he could replicate it. He kept buying them and making them until he had it down to a tee. But as he made them and sampled them, he felt something was missing.
Gino decided that he could make a better tomato pie than anything made in Trenton. So he started to improve the pies and the results were astounding. Streams of people came La Villa to eat pizza in, takeout or delivered.
Among the improvements that Gino made was the use of an ingredient that Gino’s mother used in her pizza. This ingredient, a family secret, changed the taste very subtly and made Gino’s pies a notch better than anything being made in Trenton. In fact, his pies became so good that people came from outside the area, willing to travel way out of their way, to have a tomato pie at La Villa.
When making his pies, Gino uses only the finest ingredients. Even when cheese went sky high for a season, Gino did not skimp. And for those who like their pies topped with sausage, Gino makes his own sausage. The square Trenton Tomato Pies are made in square pans imported from Calabria.
La Villa Pizza & Family Restaurant is located at 21 S Pennsylvania Avenue, Morrisville, PA 19067. To see a menu, visit www.lavilla-restaurant.com. To order, call 215-736-3113 or 215- 736-3116.