About Our Ingredients
Our Dough
Our dough is made from high quality Canadian 00 pizza flour, using old-school basic ingredients (flour, yeast, spring water and sea salt) and is cold fermented to maximize flavor and texture for 48 hours. After fermentation our dough is hand-stretched into a thin crust that once baked in our stone deck oven, is crispy, chewy, and flavourful.
Our Tomato & Herb Pizza Sauce
Our tomato & herb pizza sauce is made in small batches using high quality Italian tomatoes, infused with Cape Breton Atlantic sea salt, herbs that are locally grown and dried, garlic, shallots, and a few other twists derived from family recipes, then slow cooked before cooled and makes it to your pizza pie or slice. This sauce is all about flavor and delivers a bold semi-sweet taste that dances with Italian herbs.
Our Garlic & Olive Oil Pizza Sauce
Our garlic & olive oil pizza sauce is made with quality cold pressed extra virgin olive oil infused with garlic, shallots, a hint of local rosemary and Himalayan salt, then simmered on a low heat. This is a light aromatic sauce that is full of savory flavor.
Our Cheeses
Our cheeses are simply the best, and all freshly hand shredded in house. Our premium Canadian-produced mozzarella has a stretchy texture, golden bubbly exterior and buttery finish when baked. Our Italian hard cheeses are dry-aged and have a balance of nutty, salty, and savory flavors. Our cheese curds, produced locally at Skye Glen Creamery, melt into mild, slightly tangy, creamy pockets of flavor.
Our Meats
Our meats are all high quality and hand cut in house, includeing our dry aged Italian Salami. Our Sausage is sourced directly from a local farm and cast iron cooked with Cape Breton Wildflower Honey and fennel. Our Montreal Style Bacon is thin, crispy and full of flavor. We offer two types of pepperoni; a dry aged Shredded Pepperoni and a bold, crispy Cup and Char Pepperoni.
Our Mushrooms
Our mushrooms are grown from our own little farm during the summer months with varieties ranging from Shiitake, Italian Oyster, Chestnut and Lions Mane, and during the off-season sourced from a local indoor gourmet mushroom grower. If you want some fresh forest cultivated Ascente Mushrooms for you can purchase them directly from the pizzeria by the pound or half-pound. Great in a risotto or pasta!
Our Veggies
Our veggies are bought weekly in the summer from Mabou or Antigonish Farmers’ Markets, and during the off-season, are carefully selected based on distance of origin and quality.
Our Herbs & Salts
Our herbs & salts are sourced locally from our dried herbs for sauces and finishes, or fresh herbs grown onsite or from community gardens. Our salts are a combination of sea salts, Himalayan salts, and a local infused red wine Atlantic sea salt that is used in our signature red sauce.
Inspiration Driven
At Pizzeria Ascente, we are inspired by the Island and our community. We are dedicated to working with local farms on the Island and mainland Nova Scotia that produce high quality, environmentally responsible food. We also pull ingredients straight from our onsite farm that produces forest cultivated gourmet mushrooms, garlic and fresh herbs. When we cannot source locally, quality and distance of origin is always considered.
Our passion and mission as a small rural pizzeria, is to bring high quality craft pizza to Port Hood and surrounding communities of Western Cape Breton Island. We believe that quality, care, and craft matter and that everyone should be able to enjoy a really good slice or pie.