I asked Danilo to write this one with me, because pairing wine with pizza is his territory and he has strong opinions about it.
The first thing he wanted me to say is this. Pizza is not one thing. You cannot answer the question “what wine goes with pizza” any more than you can answer “what wine goes with dinner.” Our Cacio e Pepe and our Guanciale need completely different wines, and anyone who tells you otherwise is not paying attention. If you want the broader version of that conversation, we also have a more general guide to which wine goes best with your pizza.
The second thing he wanted me to say is that Roman style pizza changes the equation. Because our base is thin and crispy rather than soft and chewy, the toppings carry more of the flavour balance. There is less bread to soak things up. That means the wine has more work to do, and the pairing matters more.
So here is Danilo’s guide, built around the pizzas we actually serve at MaMeMi.
Three Principles First
Before the specific pairings, three rules that apply almost every time.
Acidity is your friend. Tomato is acidic. Cheese and cured pork are fatty. A wine with real acidity cuts through the fat and meets the tomato instead of fighting it. This is why so much Italian wine has high acidity. It evolved alongside the food.
Tannin needs fat. Big tannic reds need something rich to soften against. On a light pizza they taste harsh and metallic. On something with guanciale or pancetta they become beautiful.
Match weight, not colour. Forget the old rule about red with meat and white with fish. Match the weight of the wine to the weight of the food. A textured orange wine handles our Carbonara better than most reds do.
Carbonara
Pecorino cheese fondue, egg cream, pork cheek, black pepper.
This is the richest pizza on our menu and one of the hardest to pair. Egg cream and pecorino fondue together create a coating, fatty texture with no acidity to balance it. Then black pepper on top.
Put a big tannic red against this and the tannin has nothing to grip. It just sits there tasting bitter.
Danilo pours: A skin contact orange wine from Friuli. Ribolla Gialla with a few weeks on the skins. The gentle tannin cuts the egg cream, the savoury nutty character matches the aged pecorino, and the acidity keeps everything moving.
Also works: Something with bubbles. A dry natural pét nat or a proper metodo classico. Carbonation is one of the great tools against richness.
Spianata Piccante
Tomato sauce, spicy salami, salted ricotta, honey glaze.
Heat and sweetness in the same pizza. This is a genuinely tricky combination, because chilli amplifies alcohol and tannin. A powerful high alcohol red here will taste hot and aggressive, and the honey will fight it.
Danilo pours: Frappato from Sicily, served slightly chilled. Light, floral, low tannin, low alcohol. The bright red fruit sits beautifully next to the honey glaze and the coolness calms the chilli.
Also works: A dry natural Lambrusco from Emilia Romagna. Bubbles, acidity, and dark fruit against the spicy salami. One of Danilo’s favourite pairings on the menu.
Amatriciana
Tomato sauce, crispy guanciale, Pecorino Romano, black pepper.
Roman food deserves Roman wine. This is the pizza where tomato acidity, rendered guanciale fat, and sharp pecorino all pull in different directions, and you need a wine confident enough to hold the middle. You can read more about the ingredients themselves in our guide to guanciale, pecorino and ‘nduja.
Danilo pours: Cesanese from Lazio. It is the great red grape of the Roman countryside and it does something no other wine does with this dish. Medium body, firm acidity, and a spicy herbal edge that picks up the black pepper directly.
Also works: Sangiovese from a natural producer in Tuscany, or Nerello Mascalese from Etna if you want something more mineral and smoky.
Mortadella & Gorgonzola
Italian cured pork with blue cheese and pistachios.
Blue cheese is the classic wine killer. It is salty, fatty, and pungent, and most dry reds get flattened by it. Add mortadella and pistachio and you have a pizza with real personality that needs a wine with equal nerve.
Danilo pours: An orange wine with some age and oxidative character. The tannin structure handles the gorgonzola and the nutty savoury notes echo the pistachio almost exactly.
Also works: Go the traditional Italian route and pair sweet with blue. A small glass of Passito or a late harvest wine alongside this pizza is an old move and it works every time. Try it once.
Cacio e Pepe (V)
Three types of Pecorino Romano at different ages and preparations, three types of pepper.
Intensely salty, intensely peppery, and no tomato at all to bring acidity. Three pecorinos means three different intensities of salt and sharpness layered together. This is the pizza people most often get wrong with wine.
Danilo pours: A textured white with skin contact. Ribolla Gialla or a Malvasia from Lazio with a week or two on the skins. It has enough grip to meet the pecorino rather than being erased by it, and enough acidity to reset your palate between bites.
Also works: Sparkling wine, again. The combination of bubbles and acidity against salt and fat is one of the most reliable things in wine.
Pancetta
Pork belly, potatoes, rosemary.
Earthy, herbal, rich, and no tomato. The rosemary is doing a lot of work here, and the potato brings a soft starchy weight.
Danilo pours: Nerello Mascalese from Etna. Grown in volcanic soil at altitude on the slopes of the volcano, it has this smoky, ashy, savoury quality with red fruit underneath. It picks up the rosemary and meets the pork belly without overwhelming the potato.
Also works: A rich, textural natural white from Friuli with some oxidative character. Different direction, equally good.
Gricia
Cacio e pepe plus crispy pork cheek.
Gricia is Amatriciana without the tomato, which sounds like a small change and is actually enormous. Now you have pecorino, pepper, and guanciale fat with no acidity anywhere on the pizza. Everything has to come from the glass.
Danilo pours: A natural Nebbiolo from Piedmont. Nebbiolo is pale and deceptively light looking, but it has serious tannin and very high acidity. That acidity is exactly what this pizza is missing, and the tannin finally has enough fat to soften into.
Also works: A structured orange wine, or Cesanese again if you want to stay in Lazio.
Guanciale
Pork cheek, caramelized onions, provola cheese, Danish apples, balsamic glaze.
This is our most complex pizza and honestly one of Danilo’s favourites to pair. Sweet caramelized onion, sweet apple, tangy balsamic, smoky provola, and rich pork cheek all at once.
Danilo pours: Barbera from Piedmont. Bright acidity, dark cherry fruit, low tannin. The acidity handles the balsamic and the fruit meets the apple without either one becoming cloying. This is a pairing that makes people stop talking.
Also works: A natural Lambrusco. Same logic, more refreshing, and the slight bitterness at the finish is lovely against the caramelized onion.
Vignarola (VG)
Tomato sauce, persillade, crispy asparagus, fresh fava beans, artichokes. Vegan.
Green vegetables are notoriously difficult with wine. Asparagus and artichoke both contain compounds that make many wines taste metallic or unpleasantly sweet. Add persillade and you have a properly herbal pizza.
Danilo pours: Vermentino, or a high acid natural Malvasia from Lazio. Something with green herbal notes of its own that goes to meet the vegetables rather than clashing with them.
Also works: Orange wine. It is the single best category for artichoke, which is one of the reasons Danilo keeps coming back to it. The tannin and savoury character neutralise exactly the thing that makes artichoke difficult.
The Real Answer
If you take one thing from this guide, take this.
Do not overthink it. The best pairing is the one you enjoy. Italians have been drinking whatever wine was on the table with whatever food was on the table for centuries and it has worked out fine. If you are still deciding which pizza to order in the first place, we also have a guide to the Italian classics.
But if you want to be shown something, ask. That is what Danilo is there for. Tell him what you have ordered, tell him what you usually drink, and let him find you something from our list of over 1000 natural Italian wines. He has met the producers. He has walked the vineyards. He is not guessing.
The best pairings at MaMeMi almost always happen when someone says “surprise me.”
Come see us at Mysundegade 28 in Vesterbro. Open Wednesday to Sunday, with weekend lunch every Saturday and Sunday from 12:00. Book your table here.
Francesco and Danilo
MaMeMi is an Italian natural wine bar and Roman style pizzeria in Vesterbro, Copenhagen. Over 1000 natural and organic Italian wines personally selected by our sommelier Danilo. Two minutes from Enghave Plads metro. Book your table or walk in.
