CHIAVARI,
Italy – Ahhh, Naples, the Mecca of Pizzalandia. It’s a place where they take their food very seriously.
So seriously they even got the European Union to pass a law
stipulating how a pizza must be made, and what it must be made of in order to
be called a Neapolitan pizza.
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| Pizza Neapolitan Style |
The number one qualifier is the crust; it has to
be soft and light. To get to that quality of texture the dough must be made the
day before and allowed to rise for at least 10 - 15 hours. Then it’s up to the
pizzaioli, or pizzaiuoli in Neapolitan dialect, to work his magic. It is a
craft that must be learned. In most cases it takes at least two to three years
of apprenticeship just to learn how to handle the dough. It’s not as easy as it
looks.
Neapolitan pizza is not finger food. The centers
are goopy, slightly undercooked, and you need a knife and fork to eat it. Pizza served in Italian pizzerias are about 8
or 9 inches across, individual size, and even if they don’t have a goopy center
Neapolitan style, you still eat them with a knife and fork. The only pizza you
pick up and eat is the pizza you buy on the street. And even then, it comes
wrapped in paper so your hands never have to touch the slice.
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| The Queen of Pizza, Margherita |
Under the pizza law, unless a pizza is cooked in
a wood-burning oven, it can’t be called a Neapolitan pizza. But then again, no self-respecting
Neapolitan pizzeria would cook their pizza in anything but a wood-burning oven.
Pizzas cooked in that blazing heat cook fast, 60-90 seconds, and taste
better. It’s a very old method of
cooking food and the traditional wood-burning ovens you see today are based on
designs handed down from the Romans.
It’s hard to believe now, but for a long time tomatoes
were thought to be poisonous and were only used as ornamental plants. But
somehow the pomo d’oro, which eventually morphed into pomodoro (tomato), found
its way into pasta dishes and toppings for the flat breads that were already
being sold in the streets of Naples.
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| Pizza Delivery Neapolitan Style |
The pizzas were baked in ovens and then sold by “scugnizzi
pizzaioli”, street urchins, usually poor kids who only went to school when
they had to. They worked for the pizzerias, earning pennies hawking pizzas in
the streets and piazzas of Naples. The
pizzas were kept warm in a tin stove, a “stufa” that they balanced on their
heads.
About that same time, the early 1800’s, the wives
of local fishermen had started making pizzas to feed their husbands before they
set out to sea. Along with tomato sauce the wives would add olive oil, oregano
and salt. If they had a little meat, cheese or sardines they would add those as
well, but the basic pizza was sauce, oil and oregano and it became known as
pizza marinara.
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| Pizzeria and Friggitoria Di Matteo |
In the Pizzaria Brandi there is letter dated June
1889 that has been framed and hung on a wall. It is from the head of the Royal
Household of the House of Savoy thanking pizzaiolo Raffaele Esposito for the
excellent pizza with tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil he prepared for Her
Majesty, Queen Margherita. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Pizza Marinara and pizza Margherita are still made
and sold in Neapolitan pizzarias – and pizzarias
around the world. But it’s a little
unfair to call them pizzarias in Naples for like Pizzaria Brandi, which has
been around since the late 1700’s, they are Pizzarias with a capital P, the
keepers of local traditions.
The 114 year old Starita is another capital P Neapolitan pizzeria.
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| The Perfect Pie |
In 1901 Alfonso Starita opened a cantina and
began selling wine. It wasn’t until 1933 that Guiseppe Starita, one of
Alfonso’s eleven children, started selling food along with the wine. About five
years later, pizza was on the menu. Locals
have always known about the quality of the pizza at Starita, but it was Sophia
Loren, who sold pizza here in the 1954 classic film L’Oro di Napoli or The Gold
of Naples, who introduced it to the rest of the world.
Many of the pizzerias in Naples started out as
friggitori, little fast food places with walk up windows where you buy stuffed
rice balls (arancini) or fried sardines and other fried treats. There are still
plenty of friggitori/pizzerias in Naples. One of the best is Il Pizzaiolo del
Presidente – so named after President Bill Clinton ate there. DiMatteo is
another. One of the specialities at DiMatteo is called a portafoglio – wallet.
It’s an eight-inch pizza with a springy crust folded and re-folded over a tasty
topping.
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| Pizzeria Starita - Worth the Wait |
You’ll also find portafogli on the menu at Pizzeria
Port’Alba, the oldest pizzeria in Naples. It too started out as a friggitori
back in 1738. About a hundred years later it became a pizzeria. If your family
is from Naples, and you are in town, you might want to make a stop at the Pizzeria
Port’Alba for chances are someone in your family ordered pizza from this place
long before they immigrated to America, and it’s nice to carry on family
traditions.
IL PIZZAIOLO DEL PRESIDENTE
Via Tribunali, 120/121Tel. +39081210903
http://www.Ilpizzaiolodelpresidente.it
In the heart of Spaccanapoli, the historic center
of Naples. Signore Ernesto Cacialli, a pizzaiolo since he was 7, invited former
US president Bill Clinton – who was in Naples in 1994 for the G8 – to taste his
pizza. And that is how Signor Cacialli
became known as the Pizzaiolo del Presidente, the President’s pizza maker.
ANTICA PIZZERIA E RISTORANTE PORT’ALBA
Via Port’Alba, 18
Tel +39 081 442 1061)
www.anticapizzeriaristoranteportalba.com
This is the oldest pizzeria in Naples and Italy.
Founded in 1738 as seller of street food, it became a real pizzeria in 1830, and is still run by the same family.
PIZZERIA FRIGGITORIA DI MATTEO
Via dei Tribunali, 94
Tel +39 081
455 262)
Fifty years ago Raffaele Marigliano created an
amazing pizza with alici (anchovies) and cicinielli, tiny fish just past the
larval stage, also known as bianchetti. If you are not a fish eater try the pizza
fritta, a deep fried pizza with ricotta cheese, provola cheese, tomato sauce
and sugna (lard).
PIZZERIA STARITA
Via Materdei 28
Tel +39 081 557 3682
It was in 1933 that Giuseppe Starita, one of Alfonso
Starita’s 11 children, came up with the idea of adding food to the wine cellar
his father had opened in 1901. Giuseppe and his wife Filomena started serving
simple dishes like bean soup, fried anchovies, fried cod and tripe all served
with homemade wine. It wasn’t until 1948 that it became a pizzeria friggitoria.
PIZZERIA BRANDI
3. Brandi on Salita S.Anna di Palazzo, 1- 2
(corner of via Chiaia)
Tel +39 081 416 928
In 1889 Brandi’s pizzaiolo, Raffaelle Esposito,
was asked to make three pizzas for King Umberto 1 and Queen Margherita.
Margherita picked the simple tomato, mozzarella and basil pizza as her
favorite. I’ve often wondered what the
other two pizzas tasted like.
