Dear {NOMEUTENTE}Last night at Davide Scabin’s Combal.zero in Rivoli, close to Torino, on top of the three new products by Birra Moretti we had the chance to taste, once again, one of the many masterpieces, Davide calls them evergreen, that he’s created here: Zupizza, the soup made of pizza. It has everything the classic margherita has, except for the traditional shape and the texture. It’s a soup that tastes exactly like pizza with tomato and mozzarella. Yet is it still a pizza?
I believe so because I know how it was born, in 1998, and how it evolved. Still, even when I say I’d like a pizza, I certainly don’t mean Zupizza. As long as you know it, misunderstanding and incomprehension can be avoided.
The pairing between this first course of Scabin’s and Birra Moretti Lunga Fermentazione ideally closed a debate that was born earlier in the week, during the meeting with the organisers of a nice French event. They asked us at Identità to think of a moment, an afternoon, that would enhance the essence of Italian food. I thought of first courses, which we adore and which our cousins envy us for.
With an immediate doubt: does it make sense to bring Bosco and Padoan’s gourmet pizza, or Franco Pepe’s territorial pizzas where they would easily be misunderstood? The answer, reinforced by Zupizza, was no. It’s best to move one step at a time. First set the parameters of a perfect authentic pizza, what enhances it and what is best avoided. Start from the basics, not from contemporary literature. By walking and growing, the time will come to serve what’s new, what’s contemporary. Yet if the public don’t know what’s behind everything, you only risk sinking.
Paolo Marchi |
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Bread Religion, the energy of food From the first edition of Bread Religion in Este (in 2013 with 15 chefs, 15 bakers and a stage with music) to our days, many events around Italy have taken place. In 2016 the first one in Florence, within Taste, and now in Barolo for Collisioni. Molino Quaglia’s format dedicated to street food had already attracted the attention of the audience in Barolo in 2014 when they got involved in the street photo shooting "Io difendo l'energia del cibo" (here are the photos).
This year, instead, the new Wine & Food stage with Fabrizio Pagella offered the chance to have a new meeting of bread and music. Renato Bosco, Giorgio Caruso, Massimo Giovannini, Carmine Nasti, Antonio Pappalardo, Massimiliano Prete, Corrado Scaglione, Giuseppe Vesi. Each one of them with a different project, yet always with the same philosophy: expressing real flavours giving life to the energy of food. Which means using ingredients according to the season, understanding their origin, adopting a cuisine that wastes as little as possible, going back and rediscover whole wheat.
The event’s 100+ guests listened to words and music while, in turn, the eight chefs created their idea of Bread Religion live on stage: a basis of focaccia with living mother yeast and Petra flour from Italian wheat, seasoned with each one’s choice of ingredients that would portray the summer: lemon, tomato, buffalo milk mozzarella, even smoked, powdered grapes, anchovies and much more, resulting in light, tasty and healthy snacks to be enjoyed in the street.
If we also consider the over 5,000 portions of stuffed focaccia served at the Bread Religion stand in Piazza Verde by Giulia Miatto, Giovanni Marchetto and Marco Valletta’s young staff, it’s a wonder why even today it’s still so rare to eat well in the streets.
Piero Gabrieli |
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Moreno Cedroni: a pizza chef and I, the perfect pair When asking Moreno Cedroni why he’s passionate about pizza, his first answer is a historic excursus: «I’ve been presenting pizzas, in fact pizzette, for a long, long time in my restaurants. If I’m not mistaken I began in 2002». It was the now classic Pizzetta with mackerel, burrata and cherry tomatoes, created for Squisito! in San Patrignano. «I presented the study and making of a pizza as a training method». The result was this delicious recipe which immediately became part of the menu at La Madonnina del Pescatore. Then when Il Clandestino arrived, it was moved there, and there it is.
Yet why are chefs so fascinated by pizza? «Firstly, because it’s an essential part of our cuisine. Years ago I would complain about the massification of topping ingredients. There were no high quality ingredients». Luckily this is no longer true: the world of pizza is experiencing these days such a growth in terms of quality that chefs pay more attention now, «we can go wild and season pizza with all the delicious products that are part of our heritage. How many recipes are possible? Infinite».
Cedroni speaks about seasoning, because he doesn’t feel he’s experienced enough with the leavening to take personal care of the dough. He loves to work in a duet with a pizza chef, «indeed this is a fantastic combination: a chef and a respectable pizza chef, high quality flour, proper leavening, delicious toppings. The result is an exceptional pizza».
Like the one pulled out of the oven the other day at I Tigli in San Bonifacio, with the participation, on top of Cedroni, of patron Simone Padoan (here’s a close-up in the photo, while Cedroni is next to the oven) and Teo Musso, with his Baladin beers. Three important people who collaborated for a unique tasting event: dough with barley malt, topping with tuna belly and beer vinaigrette, «that’s as gourmet as it gets with pizza!».
With a trivia fact: «I cooked the tuna belly as with a pizza, turning it with the oven shovel. Simone cooked the dough as if it were fish, on the barbecue».
Carlo Passera |
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Pizzetta with mackerel, burrata and cherry tomatoes Moreno Cedroni’s pizzetta is now a classic (it’s from 2002!), and always has a place in the menu at Il Clandestino.
Ingredients
250 g 00 flour
125 g water
2.5 g salt
5 g di brewer’s yeast
500 g mackerel
100 g salt
20 g sugar
1 g white pepper
100 g extra virgin olive oil
5 g balsamic vinegar
1 burrata weighing around 250 g
30 g cream
Method
Knead 250 g of 00 flour with 125 g of water, 2.5 g of salt and 5 g of brewer’s yeast. After the first rising, which will last around half an hour, roll out the dough so it is only a few millimetres thick, then cut it with a 10 cm pastry cutter. Leave it to rise for 20 more minutes, punch it with a fork and bake at 180°C for 8 minutes: it’s important that the edge starts to turn golden. Clean 500 g of mackerel into filets, carefully removing the bones. Mix 100 g of salt with 20 g of sugar and 1 g of white pepper. Cover the filets with this mixture for 2 hours; wash the filets, remove the elastic film stuck to the skin of the mackerel and slice them. Put the filets in a marinade with 100 g of extra virgin olive oil and 5 g of balsamic vinegar for 15 minutes. Then drain and keep in the oil. Take a piece of burrata cheese weighing around 250 g, cut it into small pieces and add 30 g of cream to make it creamier. Place the mackerel slices, a tablespoon of burrata and the cherry tomatoes previously seasoned with extra virgin olive oil and a few drops of balsamic vinegar on the fragrant pizza. |
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Acciaio’s Pizzerie Gourmet. Quality... in Italy and abroad Sometimes the best ideas come from a strong desire to find something that was lost. This is what happened to Campanian Giuseppe Acciaio (in the photo, in the middle), general manager at Gma Import Specialità in Pompei, a company that presents carefully selected products across Europe. He’s the founder of the Pizzerie Gourmet brand. «The project was born from my need to go back to the true flavours of the old days», which he knows well as he was born in the back shop of a delicatessen. «My intention with Gma was to give continuity to this life concept, especially these days when junk food seems to be dominating more and more».
Together with his sons Luigi, Gilberto and Massimiliano he paired Gma’s excellent products with the GastroPub format, very popular in Campania, and now with Pizzerie Gourmet. The latter was born with the goal of training pizza chefs in terms of raw materials, dough techniques and pairings, up till the creation of a franchisee restaurant.
Flour has the main role, «it’s no longer the double 0 but a type 1 or 2 which are not whole wheat – says Acciaio – but are whole, respecting the wheat germ [Petra’s Molino Quaglia]. This way we safeguard the nutrient component of the wheat, its taste emerging in terms of aroma and taste. Without forgetting the importance of the ingredients for the topping: red and yellow POD piennolo cherry tomatoes from Vesuvius, POD San Marzano tomatoes and Slow Food Presidium Miracolo di San Gennaro, Corbarini in water and salt or in sauce, papaccelle from Vesuvius, olives from Caiazzo, anchovies from Menaica (Slow Food presidium), tuna and mackerel from Cetara».
The Pizzerie Gourmet format is a success, with people joining from Italy and abroad. You can already find it in London, Geneva, Helsinki and Romania. It is also expected to arrive soon in the US and Spain. There are two gems, both in Paris: pizzeria Senatore Caffé off the Eiffel Tower and Popine run by the brilliant pizza chef Gennaro Nasti.
New openings are coming up in Italy too: on 24th July in Moncalieri (To) with pizzeria Come era… è, in late September in Salerno with pizzeria Capperi… che pizza!!! and in late October in Milan, the name is still top secret
Tania Mauri |
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Marzia Buzzanca: new location, new pizzas In the 7 years since the earthquake in Abruzzo Marzia Buzzanca has been the emblem of those who “bend yet don’t break”. She was sure it was best to keep alive the open air building site of the historic centre, where she continued to work despite bureaucracy, closed streets, dust and lack of water and gas.
In February, however, she had to give up and moved her Percorsi di Gusto as, due to a town hall decree, the building needed maintenance. Two years of halt, at least.
Six months after the recent opening in Via della Croce Rossa 40, outside the centre, Marzia can sigh of relief and assess how it’s going: «It was hard at first. I felt like an uprooted tree. Today I can say that, thanks also to my clients who have always supported me, I’m happy and full of fresh enthusiasm. Getting here is easier and clients have increased».
In her restaurant, Buzzanca has a large kitchen where she will be able to move easily and experiment with her new sous chef Simone, a young 23-year-old from Abruzzo. This has allowed her to widen the menu and add other pizzas inspired by tradition, such as Cacio e pepe with saffron or Amatriciana, the Duomo pizza, also known as Norcina with mozzarella, ricotta, thyme, sausage added during the cooking and powdered sausage. Or the Vegetariana (in the photo) dedicated to her beloved daughter Dalila, with raw vegetables, cow’s milk robiola and a blend of spices created by her friend chef Francesco Apreda.
«I’m very happy with how it’s going. I don’t miss Via Leosini at all, even though it wasn’t easy for me to abandon the centre. Yet this event has helped me understand that after all, the city is everywhere».
TM |
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Five Tuscan pizza chefs in Pietrasanta for Lieviti d'Autore After the successful first edition, Lieviti d’Autore is back. On 25-27 July, at pizzeria Apogeo in Marina di Pietrasanta, celebrations will return with the products of the most famous Tuscan pizza chefs and a careful selection of international beers.
L’AcquaBuona – an online wine and food magazine born in 1999 - and pizzeria Apogeo, a point of reference for high quality pizza thanks to the passion and skills of Massimo Giovannini are the organisers of the event.
«This festival was born form the need to give value to high quality pizza in Tuscany – says Giovannini to Identità Golose – Today there are many successful establishments in my region, and their chefs’ talent is acknowledged by guides too. This is why we chose to widen the programme, from two to three days, and to include the participation of five famous pizza chefs. It will be a chance to confront ourselves and work together».
On top of Giovannini, the other featured pizza chefs will be Paolo Pannacci (Lo Spela di Greve in Chianti, Fi) and Giovanni Battiloro (La Kambusa di Massarosa, Lu) on Monday; Graziano Monogrammi (La Divina Pizza, Firenze) and Giovanni Santarpia (Santarpia, Firenze) on Tuesday. On Wednesday the five pizza chefs will all work together.
«We’re very happy about the programme, I’ll have a chance to work side by side with four great pizza chefs. We’re united by the fact we use Molino Quaglia flour. Apart from that, confronting our different styles of work will be very useful». Giovannini also told us his current projects: «I’m still researching on dough. I’m trying to make it even tastier, easier to digest and healthier and I pay lots of attention to diet issues. I can state this without false modesty that my dough has never been better».
The tasting at Lieviti d’Autore will be open to the public. The entrance will be free, tastings will be available through tokens, starting from 1 euro. Gates will open at 6 p.m. Info: www.lievitidautore.it
CP |
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Madre opens and Di Giacinto offers many gourmet toppings When you arrive at Madre – Ceviche Spirits & Pasta Madre, the new establishment in Rome behind Piazza Venezia inside the Roma Luxus Hotel, what strikes you at first is the beauty of the place, smart and pleasant, which recalls a tropical forest. A choice inspired by the menu, which ranges from Italian to South American tradition, with some Iberian influences too.
What stands out, what with cocktails and ceviche, carne cooked on the parilla and savoury maritozzi, is most of all the range and the quality of the pizza, very tempting. Pizzas are served already cut into slices and ready to be tasted. This is chef Riccardo Di Giacinto’s idea. His varied experience abroad also includes working as a pizza chef in London. At Madre the only possible carbohydrate is indeed made with mother yeast.
The dough is made with a blend of flour from ancient wheat varieties that the chef selected himself, with mother yeast, water and salt and at least 48 hours of leavening. There are two pizza makers working in turns in the preparation of the pizza and their baking. The oven is one, a large wood one.
The outcome is excellent: full of taste, a basis both crispy and soft. The pizza can be “white” [without tomato sauce] or “red”. For every pizza Di Giacinto designed intriguing and well-researched toppings, selecting excellent raw materials. There are four red pizzas, classic or more creative, such as Calabria with tuna filet preserved in oil, onion from Tropea and ‘nduja from Spilinga (in the picture). Among the white ones, a total of seven, there’s Costiera with Barlotti stracciatella, Nardin anchovies and organic lemon carpaccio, Meravilla with hand sliced Pata Negra and organic figs, Blanca with Barlotti stracciatella, red prawns marinated with pink pepper and date tomatoes baked with Bourbon vanilla.
For those with a sweet tooth, there’s a sweet pizza as well. It’s called Pizza della mamma della Madre, with apples, pine nuts, custard cream and icing sugar, a different take on the traditional Torta della Nonna, with a delicate savoury note.
TM |
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Mino Dal Dosso, the beginner went places... «Calling me a pizza chef would be inappropriate: I’m passionate about this profession, but today I’m a food entrepreneur, I have 85 employees…», says Benigno (Mino) Dal Dosso, born in 1976. He’s created many successful restaurants in his area: since 1998 there’s Dal Dosso Salamensa in his hometown Montichiari, which now also includes a bar; a few months ago he won a tender notice for the renovation and management for 18 years of a nice place on the beach of Padenghe sul Garda where he opened ice cream shop Copelia, on the beach, and on the top floor Dal Dosso Miralago, with the same menu of Salamensa, and the same attention paid to the making of “gourmet” pizzas.
Let’s start the story of his adventure from here, then: «I come from a family of entrepreneurs in road transport. I’m passionate about wine and food, that is what changed my life… ». 2011: Dal Dosso discovers Simone Padoan and his masterpieces, «he told me about PizzaUp, I try to enrol and am admitted». A fish out of water: «I was sitting beside masters such as Renato Bosco or Beniamino Bilali, while I had only been studying leavening for 4 months. I asked naïf questions. One day I said: I rolled out the dough in the baking tin but it shrunk. Why? “You do leave it to rest before rolling it out, don’t you?”, they asked. I was a real beginner».
Yet he had a strong desire to learn. Today in his restaurants they serve high quality pizza with the same dough, made with Petra 3 and 9 flour, a poolish made with brewer’s yeast, and then a new kneading with mother yeast, a total of 36 hours of leavening, a pre-cooking («So I can chill the discs as well») and then in the Rational electric oven. There are six variations: the one with Sant’Ilario prosciutto matured 30 months, stracciatella from Apulia, fiordilatte mozzarella and basil, the one with Nardin anchovies from the Sea of Cantabria, La Motticella tomato, buffalo milk mozzarella from Campania, capers and oregano from Pantelleria, or the one with raw red prawns from Sicily, fiordilatte mozzarella, powdered carapace and basil (in the picture). They serve them in scorching cast iron plates, so that they are finely baked and remain hot.
CP |
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Roberta Esposito, having fun with starters Pizza is female. Roberta Esposito, 33, of Neapolitan mother and Tuscan father (an ex banker with a passion for the restaurant industry), took her first steps in the kitchen when she was only 13, when the family decided to change life and take over a restaurant-pizzeria in Aversa, La Contrada (piazza Marconi 14, tel. 081 8111700). At first she works beside her siblings and family. She then starts to spy on the work of pizza chefs because she feels «strongly drawn to their daily work». However, she senses something is missing, so she decides to enrol in a course with master Luigi Acciaio.
She starts to work with stone milled flour, Petra 3 and Petra 9, and “plays” and experiments with it: every morning she kneads only flour, 70% water, very little yeast powder, a pinch of salt and no added fat. She leaves it to rise for at least 48 hours. Paying attention to the clients’ needs, she creates very hydrated gluten-free dough with Molino Quaglia’s Glutinò flour, with extra virgin olive oil. The result is a light and easy to digest baking tin pizza.
She cooks all pizzas in a wood oven. They have a puffy edge, yet not overly so: it is tall and holed. In the last 8 months at La Contrada pizza has become more and more popular, so much so numbers have doubled: «I’m very happy with the work I’m doing with the other pizza maker who’s helping me. The affinity with the kitchen staff is strong. I collaborate and confront myself with them every day. I feel pizza is a game: once a month I present a recipe out of the menu, adding a different and special ingredient to the dough, such as turmeric or squid ink».
The menu is updated twice a year, following seasonality. Among the classic recipes, a whole selection of pizza Margherita stands out: it changes according to the available tomatoes; there are also the gourmet pizzas and the seafood ones... a total of around 30 versions.
The specialty? «Pizza with buffalo milk mozzarella from Campania, green tomatoes from Sarno, steamed salted cod and fresh parsley. Following tradition, the green tomatoes add a nice acidity which recalls that of pappacelle tomatoes».
TM |
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Pizzerias around the world: Sugo in Rotterdam Pizza in Rotterdam? As Daniel Young explained in Where to Eat Pizza (Phaidon, you can buy the book here), these days you can find high quality pizzas all over the world, even in this very modern Dutch city.
Following the guide, we find a quite respectable pizza baked in the baking tin at Sugo, with a clear Roman influence. The offer is varied, every day they pull out of the oven over twenty types of pizza, most of which are vegan or vegetarian, and they even try some original and intriguing pairings: caramelised onion, walnuts and mascarpone, or pumpkin cream, pancetta and Grana Padano. The fresh products are locally sourced and cooked on the same day, while tomatoes, flour, meat, cured meat, cheese and coffee all come from Italy.
The dough is rich in proteins and fibres, made with a blend of GMO free organic flour – from wheat and spelt –very little brewer’s yeast and 72 hours of leavening. The open view pizza station allows guests to see all the various procedures and toppings: from when they roll out the pasta [and the tomato] with their hands on the large baking tins, to the cooking in the electric ovens.
The pizza is good, crispy and tasty, be it the simple Margherita or the one with Mediterranean flavours with goat cheese, dried tomatoes, Kalamata olives and red onion. Or the more Nordic variation with pancetta, sour cream and mushrooms.
A plus: they use 100% renewable electricity.
TM |
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Pizza will be the protagonist at the International Firedancing Festival Pizza will be the protagonist in the food section of the 9th edition of the Teatro del Fuoco - International Firedancing Festival (which Forbes included in the list of twelve international festivals for which it’s worth travelling, and is officially acknowledged by the Italian President of the Republic as an «innovative territorial marketing tool»), scheduled on 29-30 July at Villa Filippina in Palermo.
Pizza Teatro del Fuoco is a tribute to the creative combination of natural, Mediterranean, simple ingredients: dough without yeast, cherry tomatoes, mozzarella; carrots, songino salad, courgettes from Genoa marinated in chilli pepper, ginger and dry tomatoes are added after the baking. This recipe was created by chef Salvatore Chiappara and pizza chef Giovanni Lavandera from restaurant è cotta in Palermo. It will be possible to taste Pizza Teatro del Fuoco as of Thursday 14th July. |
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La Buona Pizza, ten stories for a craveable Italian tour  La Buona Pizza is a book written by Tania Mauri (a contributor to this newsletter) and Luciana Squadrilli with photos by Alessandra Farinelli. It was published by Giunti Editore (you can buy it here) and was presented on 11th July (read here).
La Buona Pizza is a collection of stories of ingredients, territories and pizza chefs through ten pizzas, from Piedmont to Basilicata, and ten food artisans who present their personal story and their territory.
It features the following pizzerias:Stefano Vola’s Bontà per Tutti, Santo Stefano Belbo (Cn); Simone Padoan’s I Tigli, San Bonifacio (Vr); Matteo Tambini and Davide Fiorentini’s ‘O Fiore Mio, Faenza (Ra); Marzia Buzzanca’s Percorsi di Gusto, L’Aquila; Stefano Callegari’s Tonda, Rome; Franco Pepe’s Pepe in Grani, Caiazzo (Ce); Enzo Coccia’s La Notizia, Naples; Angelo Rumolo’s Grotto Pizzeria Castello, Caggiano (Sa); Salvatore Gatta’s Fandango, Scalera (Pz), Massimo Bosco’s Pizzeria Bosco, Tempio Pausania (Ot).
La Buona Pizza - Storie di ingredienti, territori e pizzaioli - Giunti Editore | 224 pages | 22 euros |
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Zupizza, Davide Scabin’s pizza soup Zupizza, Davide Scabin at Combal.zero in Rivoli (Torino), on Wednesday 20th July 2016. A dish created and presented in 1998 when Combal was still a trattoria in Almese at the beginning of Val di Susa. |
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