It’s hard to imagine a more popular food in the world than pizza. Fragrant, hot, with stretchy strings of cheese, it is loved by everyone. This is a truly iconic product – its long history and unique cooking traditions deserve to be learned a little more about them. Especially if you are going to Italy, the homeland of real pizza.
The world’s first pizzeria opened in Naples
When we say “pizza,” we think “Italy.” But in fact, such food was familiar to the ancient Greeks and Egyptians. In Italy, for a long time, such a simple dish remained the food of the poor – they put literally everything they had at hand into the filling.
The history of Italian pizza changed in the 16th century, when tomatoes became widespread in the country: they were brought from South America. In the 17th century, pizzaiolo began to appear – masters and virtuosos of making pizza. And later, the world’s first pizzeria opened in Naples – L’Antica Pizzeria Port’Alba, which still exists today.Every year in the spring the world-wide Campionato mondiale della pizza takes place in Parma. The best pizzaiolos from all over the world come to it and compete with each other not only in the art of preparing different types of pizza, but also in acrobatic competitions with it.
True, despite the almost triumphant spread of pizza throughout Italy, it still continued to remain food for the lower class. The kings did not favor it: perhaps because the dough was kneaded with their feet before baking, and it was impossible to eat pizza without getting their hands dirty.
Pizza Margherita was named after the Queen of Italy
Officially, pizza remained “outlaw” at the royal court, but the resilient rulers did not lose hope of instilling universal love for it. Eventually they began to knead the dough with a pestle, and eat the finished dish with a four-pronged fork. The path to royal hearts was open! So much so that even one royal lady literally gave the food her name.
According to one version, while in Naples in 1889, Queen Margaret, tired of French cuisine , wanted something Italian. Then she asked a local chef to prepare several types of pizza for her. Among them was one with a very simple filling: mozzarella cheese, tomatoes and fresh basil leaves.
The colors of the products were carefully chosen (red, white and green) to symbolize the Italian flag. The queen especially liked this pizza and was named after her. And today in Italy there are over 2 thousand types of pizza.
World War II helped pizza become popular
Outside of Italy, pizza was known, but not widely. For example, it appeared in the USA at the end of the 19th century, and only because Italian settlers flocked to the country. They brought their favorite recipes with them, but they also cooked only within their community.
The growth of the popularity of pizza in the world was facilitated by the Second World War. While in Italy, Allied troops often ate local food to supplement dwindling rations. Returning to their homeland after the war, the soldiers literally “brought” with them a love for this Italian dish and aroused people’s interest in it. In the late 50s, franchised pizzerias began to appear in the United States, and the popular food began to spread throughout the world.
It takes Italians 90 seconds to bake a pizza.
Around this time, real Italian pizza will be ready in a blazing hot 400-degree wood-burning oven. At such a high temperature, it acquires a characteristic crust, a natural aroma and a little – the smell of a fire. The pizza should be golden brown and crispy, without charred edges and in no case burnt.
The dough for real Italian pizza is light and airy. It is made from special grade flour (thanks to it it does not tear and stretch), water, live yeast or sourdough, and salt. Sometimes olive oil is added .It is believed that the dough should only be prepared by hand – thanks to this, it absorbs the heat of the pizzaiolo’s hands and becomes tastier.
The dough is kneaded by hand and left to mature for 72 hours, after which it is rolled out thinly, to about 0.5 cm (in different regions of Italy, the thickness of the dough may vary slightly). Some cooks toss the rolled out flatbread – this is how the dough is formed, “dumps” excess flour and is saturated with oxygen. However, others believe that this sacred rite is nothing more than a spectacular trick.
And finally the base is ready! It is covered with sauce, the filling is placed on top and sent to the oven. Place the pizza directly on the bottom of the oven and turn it over with a special shovel during the baking process for more even cooking.Fornaio is a special person who maintains a constant temperature in the oven and is responsible for the readiness of the pizza. He must be able to carefully and quickly pick up pizza from the table and just as deftly throw it onto the stone in the oven before it sticks to the shovel.
The classic pizza oven is wood-burning, or “Pompeian”, with a hemispherical arch. This design allows heated air to circulate freely from bottom to top and ensure the best cooking possible. In Italian pizzerias in Rome, a wood-burning oven is usually installed right in the room.
It’s clear how they prepare it, but how do they eat pizza in Italy? It is brought to the table hot and uncut. The wisdom is to cut the pizza into pieces and eat it while it’s still warm without losing a drop of cheese or getting dirty. To do this, you need to carefully wrap the sharp edge of the piece inward with a knife – this way the cheese will not drip. You can make a cut in the crust and fold the piece into a “boat” – voila, and you won’t lose the filling!
But in Italy they eat pizza more often with their hands, although at one time the local nobility tried to assert the primacy of the knife and fork. But, as you can see for yourself, this tradition has not taken root very well in simple pizzerias.
In the United States, October has been National Pizza Month since 1987.
The USA is the second homeland of pizza, and here there are their own versions of its preparation, which do not completely coincide with the original recipes. Let’s reveal the secret of how Italian pizza differs from American pizza?
In Italy, the dough, as a rule, is rolled out very thin (maximum – up to 1.5 cm), literally stretched, and they never make fluffy “sides” – the latter is typical in the USA. The filling always contains a minimum of ingredients. For example, Italian pizzaiolos will never mix different types of meat: bacon, chicken, pork, ham, as their American colleagues do. The ingredients in classic Italian recipes must be traditional and must be combined with each other so as not to burden the stomach.
There are no strict rules for American pizza. The dough is fluffy and thick (sometimes its thickness can reach up to 6 cm), and the dish itself is more filling and high-calorie. That’s why they bake it longer than Italian, and the temperature is much lower – only 220-280 degrees.
There are no “forbidden” ingredients for the filling – Americans add whatever they have on hand, so the pizza often becomes like a pie. By the way, it was in the USA that they came up with the idea of combining meat and pineapples in the filling. Olive oil is freely replaced with vegetable oil, almost any cheese is used, while Italians prefer mozzarella.
And finally, the key difference is the sauce. In America, they use classic red tomato sauce for pizza, but many pizzerias come up with their own original recipes. In Italy they are true to traditions and natural tastes. Here, the pizza sauce is made from fresh tomatoes, garlic, oregano and olive oil.Spicy pepperoni sausage is the most popular pizza topping in the United States. But in Italy, under the similar name peperone, ordinary sweet pepper is hidden.
The most delicious pizza is Neopolitan
If you ask in Italy which pizza is the most delicious, most likely they will answer you: Neopolitan! After all, Naples is considered the birthplace of Italian pizza, it was here that the world’s first pizzeria was opened, and it is the local recipe for the dish that is considered the oldest.
Pizza napoletana is the calling card of Naples. It has the status of a traditional branded product (TSG), which is manufactured according to certain standards. In Naples, since 1984, there is even a special organization Associazione Verace Pizza napoletana – it preserves the traditions of preparing the legendary Italian dish and certifies establishments that prepare it according to ancient recipes.According to accepted standards, there are only 2 types of pizza: “Margherita” (tomatoes, mozzarella, basil) and “Marinara” (without cheese, but with garlic and oregano).
The dough uses 4 ingredients: water, sea salt, live yeast (or a starter made of honey, water and flour) and the flour itself. Before becoming the basis for pizza, the dough must rest for at least 8 hours. It is stretched entirely by hand and cooked in a wood-burning oven for 60 to 90 seconds.
The finished Neapolitan pizza should fold easily, be smooth, golden, and have a minimum of bubbles and “burns.” Its crust is fluffy, but no more than a couple of centimeters in height (for comparison: the dough in the middle is only 4 mm). The diameter of the pizza is a maximum of 35 cm, and the aroma is an amazing combination of the smell of freshly baked bread, tomatoes, cheese, spicy notes of olive oil and garlic, basil and oregano. Nutritional value of pizza napoletana using 250 g of dough: 800 kcal (Margherita) or 550 kcal (Marinara).The Italian art of making pizza napoletana is officially included in the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage.
Setting out to find out where the most delicious pizza is in Italy, tourists can visit dozens of establishments, but the most iconic is L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele. And not because a scene from the acclaimed film “Eat, Pray, Love,” in which Julia Roberts’ character ate the famous Neapolitan pizza, was filmed here. The signature Italian dish has been prepared here since 1870 and they do it simply fantastically.
The menu includes only “Margarita” and “Marinara”. They can be ordered in three versions: normal (4 €), medium (4.50 €) and maxi (5 €). And if you want to eat your pizza like a true Neapolitan, don’t forget to drizzle it with a little olive oil before cutting, and leave the crusts on the plate at the end of the meal. Surprisingly, they are not eaten in Naples.
The most expensive pizza in the world has a diameter of 20 cm and costs 8300 €
It is called Louis XIII and is prepared in the Italian city of Salerno. It takes 72 hours to prepare a special dough, then the chefs with a set of products come to the client’s home and create a gastronomic masterpiece in his kitchen. The unique pizza contains ingredients such as Norwegian lobster, several types of caviar, lobster, and shrimp. The price includes a set of exclusive utensils and dishes, as well as Remy Martin Louis XIII brand cognac, which is poured over the dish during the cooking process.No less interesting is how much pizza usually costs in Italy. In a traditional pizzeria the price starts from 4-5 €, in restaurants it can reach up to 25 €.
A common way of selling pizza – in square slices (pizza al taglio or pizza al trancio) – was invented in Rome. In this case, the cost of food depends entirely on the weight of the portion you choose and its filling, and the price is indicated per 1 kg or per 100 g. For example, in the Italian capital at Pizza Florida (Via Florida 25) 100 g of pizza costs only 1-1.50 €.