Pizza Brutta on Monroe street has quickly become our favored pie in Madison. To us a great pizza is all about the crust.

When you order at pizza brutta you can stand around and watch them craft your pizza. There are no pizza presses in sight. A ball of dough comes out on the marbled surface. It gets a sprinkling of flour and then it flips on the floured surface. You notice that the pizza brutta craftsmen are gentle with their hands and the dough is very eager to spread when pushed. They coax the dough to spread with the palms of both hands. One hand kind of holding a part down other pushing the dough out.

No matter what pizza you order, the ingredients are few and never overloaded onto the crust to burden it. A very light amount of sauce too, unless you go for a bianca which is what we almost always do.

The Pizza Brutta crust is thin, and from the marble it slides onto a peel and then into a sizzling hot wood fired oven. It bubbles excitedly in the oven, the air trapped in the crust balooning and in a few minutes has blisters on the edge to show for it. When you grab a slice you can find the swollen lip on the outer edge and a very thin crust. Its crispy but chewy and not brittle.

The simplest and a very delicious crust here is the rosemary flatbread. Its savory and crisp with a hint of rosemary, olive and sea salt. Warm out of the oven with pine like aroma from rosemary this is just fantastic with your tongue every now and then encountering that special little sea salt crystal. But even with this simple but delicious flavoring, it really works because their crust is so good. It is a real value option on the menu as well coming in under 4$ or so even with cheese added.

One of our favorite pies is the cremini. Its a bianca which is a white crust without tomato sauce flavored with cheese, olive oil and salt. It lets the earthy mushroom shine and we love that because sometime the tomato sauce overpowers such delicate ingredients.

Many times they will have seasonal specials. In late summer we came upon this fantastic cherry tomato and mozzarella pie. The tomatos were ripe and sweet and the mozzarella which is made from wisconsin curd was a perfect complement.

They do feature some pretty good salads too. As a very attractive feature they come with couple of slices of my favorite rosemary bread. If its the two of us dining we order a salad and a pizza and it makes a perfect meal to share.

The interiors are nice and also has a bar like seating overlooking monroe street. The staff is always fun and enthusiastic. Whenever we are in that area we are always in mood for a slice. Whenever i do go i still just love sitting on the beautiful wooden bench by the counter and watch my pizza getting made.

The attention to detail with the whole process and using ingredients sourced from wisconsin makes this place quite a special pizzeria.