To successfully make pizza, one must toss the proper ingredients into a concrete mixer, wait for the mixture to harden, and then drop in a few sticks of dynamite to blast slices from the drum walls. Today’s Groupon leaves delicate pie creation to the professionals at Ciao Pizza in Springfield. Choose between the following dining options:

• For $14, you get $30 worth of pizza, pasta, and other dinner fare. Dinner is served from 3 p.m. to close. View dinner menu here.
• For $9, you get $20 worth of pizza, pasta, and other lunch fare. Lunch is served from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. View the lunch menu here.

Born and trained in Italy, Maurizio Paparo opened Ciao Pizza as an authentic Italian pizzeria where saucy circulars are built from the dough up, adorned with fresh ingredients, and fire-kissed in a classic wood-burning oven. More popular on plates than extreme close-ups in soap operas, the Diavola pizza dazzles tasters with bold bites of caramelized onions, roasted peppers, spicy italian sausage, and mozzarella (8-inch lunch serving, $8.25; 12-inch dinner serving, $13.95). Ciao’s lunch and dinner menus also boast bountiful salads ($4.75+), crispy calzones ($7.95+), and freshly made artisan pasta dishes served with focaccia bread ($6.95+) to deftly satisfy appetites of all sizes and astrological signs. Conduct a lunchtime fork foray into ravioli carciofi with tender artichokes and a roasted-pepper crème sauce ($7.50/regular, $10.95/large), or sample an evening selection of meat-laden lasagna classica ($13.75). Choreographed by talented pastry chef “Mama” Milka, the Excelsior cheesecake serves as a triumphant finale to a flavorful feast, topped with a red curtain of raspberry sauce ($5.75).

Reviews

Five Yelpers give Ciao Pizza a four-star average and 93% of Urbanspooners recommend it:

• Ciao Pizza has awesome atmosphere. You almost feel like you're in some café in Europe. They have very Italian-style pizza. Nick T., Yelp, 8/29/10
• love the pizza, real fresh ingredients, and hot and tasty, great wait staff, and always clean and nice. – Josh Mayner, Urbanspoon