Dear {NOMEUTENTE}On March 31st Munchies published an interview with Christian Puglisi, the less Nordic of Northern Europe’s talents, as his father is from Sicily and his mother from Norway, and the patron, since five years ago, of Relæ in Copenhagen and pizzeria Bæst. The title given by the editorial staff of Munchies was direct: New Nordic Cuisine is dead. And the future lies (also) in pizza.
It’s worth reading because those who live far away from Italy are less limited, less affected by tradition. Puglisi draws the best from it and pairs it with tiles that are typically Scandinavian. It recalled what I have just written here, after Le Strade della Mozzarella… Enjoy.
Paolo Marchi, content by Carlo Passera and Luciana Squadrilli |
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The connection between pizza and us  An important week is about to start at Università della Pizza. Yesterday, the third and final training module began, which will close, as usual, the three-step journey to enter the continually fermenting world of “gourmet” pizzas. With a nice news: Simone Padoan (in the photo), for the first time and for 4 days will give a seminar introducing to “graduating” pizza-chefs his interpretation of Italian contemporary pizza, which must be the result of the author’s sensitivity and capacity to communicate, rather than a confused mix of recipes with no links with local culture and ingredients.
This is the demonstration of a connection, as without Simone’s vision, fine dining pizza, the way he pulls it out of the oven every day from his open view lab, would have never been born and a course such as the one at Università della Pizza would have no reason to exist. Also on Monday, Paolo Marchi will hold a lesson on the rules of a food communication that channels culture, the testimony of a connection with signature pizza that led him to open the doors of his Identità Golose to offer an international stage to pizza-chefs who demonstrate they know about cuisine too.
Finally, on Wednesday 22nd, the Università della Pizza will welcome 56 young pupils (the 2nd and 3rd grades from Scuola Media Poloni in Monselice) who want to experience directly the connection between earth and table: this time through the experience of kneading and a better understanding of the nutritional processes that transform good ingredients into a healthy diet, which nourishes without wasting. Pupils, pizza-chefs, teachers, together in the coming week will discuss about healthy nutrition with the most popular language, that of Italian cuisine, reinforcing the connection that ties us all to the value of origins.
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Pizza at Identità Expo: the first protagonists  Identità di Pizza “doubles” and gets ready to arrive at Expo Milano 2015, within the vast programme of Identità Expo, with a weekly date on Wednesdays afternoons. This had to be the case since this is one of the most intense sections at Identità Milano, which over the years had the best Italian pizza-chefs involved, telling and sharing the novelties in a field, that of kneading, leavening, bread and pizzas, that is among the most dynamic and innovative ones, as acknowledged with a touch of smiling envy even by a master pastry-maker such as Corrado Assenza.
Identità di Pizza, that is. The leavening of the various lectures moves swiftly, many points are already firm. The debut, on May 6th, had of course to belong to Simone Padoan from Verona, considered the inventor of the “new Italian pizza”, the tasting one. This year he celebrates twenty years at I Tigli (see the following piece). After him, on May 13th, a new face: Simone Lombardi, young chef and pizza chef who was meant to open a restaurant in Mexico City but then in July 2013 was convinced by Andrea Berton to set his roots in Milan, at Dry, in via Solferino. Among his masters, Enzo Coccia and Padoan himself. The following week, on May 20th, it will be the turn of the very great Franco Pepe, who in Caiazzo (Caserta) manages to unite the great tradition of Naples and Campania with the innovative spirit lingering in other parts of Italy, in the best possible way.
The month ends, on May 27th, with another gigantic talent, Renato Bosco also from Verona, who now shares with Padoan the role of lighthouse of the new Italian pizza, the one in “slices” (though he presents many other kinds too…). A short mention goes to the first protagonist in June: on the 3rd, rampant Massimo Gatti will get on the stage: two restaurants, a family one in Borgotaro, and a second more recent one in Parma.
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Padoan, spring and turning 20  Even though tasting pizza took shape a little later, with following steps, it’s been 20 years since Simone Padoan started pulling delicacies out of the oven at I Tigli in San Bonifacio. For this anniversary, a few special nights have been scheduled as well as a long series of spring recipes, the talk of everyone and the enjoyment of gourmands. A few examples? Pizza with Pigeon, pumpkin, puntarelle, goat cacioricotta, raspberries and pistachio, the perfectly cooked bird – confirmed by the legs which have to be picked with your fingers – marries the sweetness of the pumpkin and then fights with the raspberries while the crispiness of the puntarelle leads to peace and balance.
Then Battuto & battuto, that is to say minced beef with minced tomatoes and capers, olives, oil, basil and oregano, a more immediate and veracious pleasure, pure impulse and freshness, as if the finely and fragrant disc were the bread on the side of a perfect carpaccio with tomato salad. The daring starts again, and strongly, with Scallop carpaccio with yuzu, fior di latte, bitter radicchio, pistachio and caper cream, powdered beetroots (see photo): here bitterness dominates, it seems to overwhelm the sweetness of the mollusc which is saved by the help of the fior di latte.
The following latch gives a more domesticated slice, Raw red prawns, fior di latte, rapunzel, lime, cucumber and gin tonic, the sweetness in the background goes to the seaside and meets, on the beach, citrus and aromatic notes. A robust end with Pork fillet with smoked tea, fior di latte, salsola soda and caramelised golden onion, embarrassingly delicious, rich in persistent notes – the smoke of the Lapsang Souchong, the bold fattiness of the meat, the sweetness of the onion, the sourness of the salsola soda…
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Three promising openings in Campania  The pizza scene in Campania continues to be sparkling, with various interesting openings outside strictly urban areas. We point out two in particular, both part of the GMA Import Specialità Pizza Gourmet project, which selects excellent products (including Slow Food presidia and POD products) for those who want to aim at quality in the pizza sector too, from Petra flour to tomatoes from Orto di Lucullo and Sapori di Corbara not counting extra virgin olive oil and soft drinks.
Restaurant and pizzeria Falernum in Pomigliano d'Arco recently opened its doors, not far from Naples. The contemporary setting doesn’t lack in warmth and is well paired by the family running on behalf of brothers Angelo and Vito Mazzacane (respectively pizza chef and chef) with brother in law Gabriele in the dining room, and by the high quality offer, with excellent pizzas in Neapolitan style yet prepared with type 1 flour and delicious dishes matched with a good selection of wines. After all, the restaurant is named after the ancient and precious Falernum wine.
Pizzeria Dodici (photo) instead, is located in Aversa, Caserta. Opened by friends Giancarlo Fernandino, Giulio Tasquir and Giuseppe Girone (the latter is also the pizza chef, the former two were already at work in the restaurant and culinary sectors) Dodici matches excellent pizzas with a tasty traditional cuisine from Campania based on genuine products and high quality raw materials.
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Patrick Ricci and the “impossible” rye «Of course today I also present what was lost in the past. But don’t speak about tradition, please: it doesn’t exist, we’ve always innovated. What my grandmother cooked was different from what her grandmother prepared. Try eating a pizza today the way they would make it in the 18th century: you’d spit it!».
Patrick Ricci (to the right in the photo) of Pomodoro & Basilico in San Mauro Torinese is an independent character, a passionate pizza-chef, a mind free of preconceptions. A loose cannon at the service of leavened products, his great love, together with natural products, «we start from Mother Earth, from grains they way they were bestowed onto us and then were modified by man: cultures have improved, we have had many benefits and a few negative aspects. I love working with grains and making good and digestible dough».
He speaks about grains, plural, because his research is also focused on grains that do not come from “banal” wheat. Spelt, for instance, or rye. He doesn’t mix them. His 100% rye dough (if you want to taste it, you need to book it in advance) is a blast. To make it, Ricci had to work hard: «It was a challenge. It is low in gluten and elastic fibres, it was almost impossible to work». He made it in the end: «I studied how the people from the North would do, they are the traditional masters in the art of bread making, we are just pupils and not very talented ones either. This is how I discovered bizzo, a sort of pizza (it appears this very familiar name comes from that) that the German people would season like us, that is to say with what they had at hand. They used various kinds of flour: made with spelt but rye too».
The result was a very interesting dough, not suitable to be matched with sauces or mozzarella, but perfect with braised meat, stews, cheese creams, vegetables: «Having found the way to use rye means being able to approach all sorts of grains now», indeed Ricci now enjoys making bread even with very ancient grains.
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Da Ezio, pizza with bubbles  «Ezio, does you son really know how to prepare it well?». He stretches out his arms, he’s not prone to compliments, and says: «Well, you know, he’s not bad…». In fact, Lovatel senioris proud of Lovatel junior, whose name is Denis, born 1975, a passion for cooking he first expressed by dining in good restaurants in Milan and then, when he returned home, by continuing the pizza-restaurant activity his father began in Alano di Piave in 1977, adopting, first of all, his dough, which today is the same as then, though with some light correction.
At Da Ezio you have an apparently classic, round pizza, with a dough made with a poolish and a blend of ancient wheat varieties, slow leavening with mother yeast. During the cooking, the gluten structure breaks and crispy “bubbles” appear on the surface. The result is a fragrant and thin disc, with hills full of air, here and there: absolute lightness dominates, confirmed by numbers: «usually, the dough of a pizza weighs between 250 and 300 grams. In my case it never exceeds 180 grams». Lovatel sometimes accelerates on creativity. We tasted a delicate Burrata and Prawns (burrata from Andria, tartare of blue prawns from Caledonia and pistachios from Bronte), very elegant and nice, as well as a very vigorous I Frutti della Terra (macadamia nuts, a selection of gorgonzola and certosino cheese, cheek lard made with Cinta senese pigs, pears poached in cabernet wine), with a strong character that is delicately softened by the brilliant touch of the fruit, aromatised with wine.
However, the masterpiece is, in our opinion, Colori Gustosi (tomatoes, heart of burrata from Andria added at the end, taggiasche olives, confit date tomatoes, toasted almonds), a true triumph of flavours dominated by the incredible powerful aroma of the confit tomatoes (soon all of these will also be available for tasting in the new restaurant the Lovatel family will open in Treviso).
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Giacomo Guido, from Ischia to London  In little over a year spent in London, young pizza-chef Giacomo Guido has transformed Hampstead, London’s elegant but placid residential neighbourhood, into a destination for pizza lovers. Though locations for a good pizza were not lacking in the English capital, with his arrival, Antica Pizzeria (the restaurant only opened a few years ago, but so much so) has quickly climbed the charts and received the ultimate consecration winning the number one position in the list compiled by Daniel Young, British pizza guru.
At just 23 years Giacomo’s mind is clear, he has the right skills but also the humility necessary to go far, «I started three years ago, in Ischia, staying close to the oven in order to learn - he says – and once I had gained familiarity, I wanted to experiment and try to do something new but it is very difficult to do so in Naples. If you do anything different they think you’re not capable». So, like many in his age group, he went to London and arrived in a restaurant opened a couple of years ago by Luca de Vita and Alessandro Betti. Here he fine-tuned the dough which he defines "Neapolitan Doc" but with his mark (65% hydration and long leavening) and really makes no one regret the Neapolitan ones.
Despite the great success, Giacomo continues to experiment with flour and dough varieties and recently visited some pizzerias in Campania for some fourhanded events – at Di Matteo – and to greet those he still calls “maestri”.
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An electric oven like a wood one  Franco Pepe says: «The day I tried Scugnizzo, in Naples, I didn’t expect such a performance». Scugnizzo is an electric oven for pizzas made by Izzo forni, a small business in Naples with 15 employees. Scugnizzo is now their top product: the public debut was in December 2013 after a gestation of around one year, from project design to the creation of the first prototypes. In fact, it was a rather quick birth, «because it is the evolution of ovens we have always produced, with the objective of getting closer and closer to the performance of a wood oven», says Giuseppe Carlo Russo Krauss, sole administrator of Izzo Forni, the son in law of Salvatore Izzo, who founded the company in 1951.
Now it seems they have reached this goal, Krauss is enthusiastic. And besides Pepe, he mentions other "important names" who prove the excellence of Scugnizzo: from Davide Civitiello, world pizza-champion in 2013, to his successor in 2014 Valentino Libro (both under 30), and the more expert Guglielmo Vuolo, and Salvatore Salvo... The merit goes to its technical characteristics: a nice ancient-looking hand-made copper-front, the cooking base made with "biscotto di Sorrento" refractory brick, the ceiling of the cooking chamber made with ribbed refractory bricks... It can cook six pizzas at the same time, in around one minute, as traditional, because it keeps an average temperature between 450 and 470°C, often the weak point of electric ovens: «Neapolitan pizza regulations impose 440-450°C. This means we do better, we equal a wood oven in its best conditions».
With some further advantage: inside the Scugnizzo no place is occupied by embers, all the space is available. Heat is evenly distributed. Finally, there’s no soot, no smoke, no combustion remainders.
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Enzo Coccia and the Amici di Capodimonte Who said “low culture” – as food was always considered, especially the popular one – and “high” culture could not meet? This meeting was made possible, in a very concrete way, by young Neapolitan pizajuolo Enzo Coccia, who has always been sensitive to social and cultural themes and to all that regards the knowledge of pizza. For about one month now, in the two restaurants he owns in Naples there’s his new Pizza Capodimonte, with Mozzarella di Bufala Campana Dop, San Marzano tomato pacchetelle and buffalo sausage from Consorzio Alba. Simple yet delicious products, for a pizza everyone can enjoy.
Available in the menu for 9 euros, for every Capodimonte pizza he sells, one euro goes to the renovations of a painting by Vincenzo Gemito kept inside the Museo di Capodimonte, an unknown Neapolitan jewel. Enzo himself had never seen it until a few years ago. Captured by this incredible historical and cultural place, Coccia become a member of charity Amici di Capodimonte and holds it very dear. It is not by chance that in this very place some scenes from the short film born from his idea, created by director Alfonso Postiglione and sponsored by Banca Intesa were shot, so as to bring the Neapolitan gastronomic history to Expo, with an excursus in the popular Neapolitan food in the days of Maria Carolina Bonaparte and Gioacchino Murat.
So after being the first pizzeria mentioned in the Michelin Guide, La Notizia will also enter a museum, with a memorial plate under the renovated painting.
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People in France eat more pizza than we do... The –rather unexpected - news arrived a few weeks ago: in France, people eat more pizza than in Italy. Just to tease the proverbial, friendly competition with our cousins the other side of the Alps, they now also beat us in a record we would think could only belong to us (at least in Europe, since the largest world consumers are the Americans).
Instead, according to a yearly research on the pizza market by the Gira Conseil institute, the French beat us with 809 millions pizzas in 2014 (especially margherita and quattro formaggi, the research notes) that is to say around 5 kilos per person, +1.20% versus 2013. According to Fipe instead (see the news below) in Italy in 2014 600 million pizzas were served, even though this number only refers to pizza with waiter service and doesn’t include take away ones while the French study includes all “distribution channels”.
In any case, the French will have to fight on the occasion of the second edition of Cultur-al, the festival of Italian food culture scheduled in Paris from April 25th till the 27th, which has, among its Premium Sponsors, Petra flour too. Among the many Italian guests there will be pizzaiolo Simone Padoan, baker Martino Faccin and chef Vitantonio Lombardo, all of whom were among the protagonists of Identità di Pane e Pizza in the Milanese congress in 2015. (Illustration by Chudomir Tsankov)
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…but we can’t feel the economic crisis Fipe – Federazione Italiana Pubblici Esercizi – recently published the data collected by its research centre on the pizzeria sector in Italy. A sector that doesn’t seem to be too affected by the economic crisis, thanks to accessible prices (the national average price of a pizza+drink ranges between 7 and 11 euros, with an average variation of the prices, in the last three years, below 2%) but also thanks to the great versatility of pizza (8% of consumption is for breakfast, 17% for lunch and breaks, and as much as 75% for dinner, where pizza remains the dish most chosen dish) and professionals who are particular careful to clients’ new needs and new trends: specific, innovative formats are indeed increasingly popular, with particular attention to food allergies. There’s an ever-growing connection between pizza and crafts beer, another great protagonist among Italy’s consumers.
The 25 thousand pizzerias with waiter service in Italy – to which one needs to add as many take-away ones – generate a turnover of around 9 billion euros employing 240 thousand people. Finding skilled employees – especially pizza-chefs – remains one of the critical aspects in this sector: already in 2013 Fipe had denounced there were 6 thousand pizza-chefs “missing”. New numbers confirm that every year businesses look for 2 thousand qualified, non-seasonal pizza chefs and almost twice as many seasonal ones, but in one out of five cases they cannot satisfy their demand.
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Pizza with basil ice cream: it-could-work! In the photo, Patrick Ricci’s pizza with ice cream, Pomodoro & Basilico, in San Mauro Torinese. It’s a normal margherita, yet the basil is made of ice cream (made by Filippo Novelli, world ice cream champion in 2012. He’s also based in San Mauro) added at the end, as if it were a leaf, at -18°C, so it melts gradually, due the heat of the pizza, giving a double freshness, that of the basil and that of the temperature.
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