Dear {NOMEUTENTE}
We’ve posted the programme of Identità Golose 2017, in Milan from Saturday 4th March to Monday 6th, with many new elements and many established ones, one of which is dedicated to the most famous and popular Italian dish worldwide: pizza.

Identità di Pizza will once again take place on the Monday and will be exclusively dedicated to pizza while in the latest editions its horizons had broadened to include bread and pastry making. And, here’s an important fact, there will be many speakers who follow the Neapolitan school in their pizzerias. This to confirm that quality is made by people and not by labels and rhetoric.

The answer president Giampiero Boniperti gave the journalists who asked him which football player he would buy to get stronger, thirty years ago, is still valid: «Juve will get a good one». See: we’re interested in good pizzaioli and good pizzas. Wherever they were born, wherever they live and work.

Paolo Marchi
 

Pizza as a travel companion

Identità di Pizza 2017 is changing the rules applied in the past. The focus will again be on the main theme for the day created by Paolo Marchi for his most prestigious Congress. No digression (at least not in this edition) to include bread and leavened products in general. In fact there will be a strong attention to what most people consider “true” pizza.

Let’s get closer, once again, to the Neapolitan model, for an “easier” pizza, interpreted in terms of dough, leavening and ingredients, with national variations influenced by the journey in space and time taken by the pizzaiolo. Because the ascent of pizza, from the pit of a tradition that degenerated into habit towards the light of contemporaneity, has the flavour of a journey from which the most wary pizza chefs have drawn important experiences and inputs to change.

Each one of the speakers at Identità di Pizza 2017 will tell a story that is a step in a journey back towards simplicity, which can be experienced through tasting and discussing flavour, the choice of ingredients, pairings, and attention to nutrition and the environment. It’s the story that is repeated cyclically, with moments of provocation alternated with others characterised by returning to the initial simplicity. Each time, however, with greater quality as per people and products.

In the next few months beside them, like every year, Università della Pizza will offer a place to discuss, experiment and test the stage, to prepare a not-to-be-missed event for Italian pizza professionals [in the photo, Piero Gabrieli from the stage of Identità di Pizza 2016, with Francesca Barberini].

With my best wishes for this New Year that has just begun.

Piero Gabrieli
 

All the speakers at Identità di Pizza in March in Milan

The programme of Identità di Pizza, the special section within Identità Milano dedicated to the most delicious leavened disc there is (on Monday 6th March from 10,20 a.m. in Sala Blu2 at MiCo in Milan) is as interesting as ever, if not more.

We’ll have a powerful start with an exceptional duo: at 10,20 Massimiliano Prete, who’s moving higher and higher with his pizzeria Gusto Divino in Saluzzo (Cuneo) – and has doubled in Alba with Gusto Madre – and the chef from Alba par excellence, even though he was born in Lombardy, and one of the greatest interpreters of Italian fine dining, Enrico Crippa from Piazza Duomo.

At 11,10 we continue with Corrado Scaglione, of Enosteria Lipen in Triuggio (Monza e Brianza), a more and more popular place among foodies. At noon we’ll go abroad with Gennaro Nasti, the protagonist of a successful project in Paris, of which we wrote here, and as of a few months ago at work in his new restaurant Popine and now also with a second, more gourmet establishment, Bijou, also in the French capital. The morning will end at 12,50, with a renowned master of dough, “pizza-researcher” Renato Bosco of Saporè in San Martino Buon Albergo (Verona).

After the break, in the afternoon, we’ll stay in Veneto but move to the province of Vicenza, at 2,10 p.m. the microphone will go to talented Riccardo Antoniolo of Ottocento Simply Food in Bassano del Grappa. While a totally urban success, in fact Milanese to be precise, will be presented with Giorgio Caruso of Lievità in Milan, at 3 p.m.

Of course there are also representatives of the world capital of pizza, Naples. Three unquestioned masters will be on stage: Ciro Salvo of 50 Kalò at 3.50 p.m. and Giuseppe and Simone Vesi, father and son, of Pizza Gourmet at 5.50 p.m. In between, at 4,40 p.m., an international guest: Sarah Minnick of Lovely’s Fifty-Fifty in Portland, Oregon (in the photo, one of her pizzas).

There’s more: as a testimony of the fact the world of contemporary pizza has now the same standards as fine dining, at Identità Milano there will also be Franco Pepe, of Pepe in Grani in Caiazzo (Caserta), voted number one pizzaiolo according to Daniel Young’s Where to Eat Pizza guide. He’ll have the honour of speaking from the stage of the main auditorium, the one for the best chefs on the planet: his speech will be on Sunday 5th at 6 p.m. He will be joined by Sarah Minnick.
CP
 

Good dough, and healthy too: the battle of Riccardo Antoniolo

If there’s something characterising Riccardo Antoniolo, that’s the original blend of technique and science on the one hand, and product and attention to naturalness (and healthiness) on the other. He aims for a successful synthesis of all this, and this is why he has defined an original journey that granted him a part in Identità Milano, where he’ll be one of the speakers in the next edition of Identità di Pizza, as mentioned above.

Born in Bassano in 1975, he’s been (and is) first a chef, then a pastry chef and now a pizzaiolo: in other words, pizza is not the relaxing trampoline, but a (partial) goal within a journey inside the world of delicacies. And – as mentioned above – of healthy food: after having learnt to work in the kitchen and by the oven, after a lengthy study of the chemical and physical implications of cooking, Antoniolo’s new frontier – he’s one of those people who are never satisfied and are always looking for their Far West – is «researching the relationship between what we eat and what happens in our metabolism. A modern cook, and this also applies to pizza or pastry chefs [he sums up all three] is not just that of presenting the Good and the Beautiful, but also of finding a connection with a correct impact on the metabolism. A challenge for the next 50 years». He calls it the “functional cuisine”.

It’s a new battle, whose principles in embryo Antoniolo was already applying to his Ottocento Simply Food, opened in 2008 in Bassano del Grappa (Vicenza).

Today he presents a selection of dough «resulting from intersecting panettone and ciabatta techniques», but to make pizza. They must follow scrupulous fermentation, maturation and leavening steps. He uses different types of flour, type 2 mainly «but also spelt, rye, buckwheat, oats, whole spelt…». He has fun and never forgets that Ottocento is a restaurant seating 150 people (which will become 110 in a few months’ time) with 20 employees, «I must set standards easy to repeat».

Carlo Passera
 

Vesi, father and son, among the speakers in Milan

Father and son will soon be on the stage at Identità di Pizza. We’re referring to Giuseppe and Simone Vesi, third and fourth generation of Neapolitan pizzaioli. They have pizza running in their blood. Giuseppe himself learnt from his father, who used to work for others and would earn some extra money in restaurants at the weekend. After working in various pizzerias in Naples, he opened his first restaurant, Pizzeria Vesi, in Via Tribunali and today owns two Pizza Gourmet places in Vomero and on the seafront.

Simone, 18, was born among dough and ovens, and after attending catering school and Università della Pizza, became passionate about sourdough and dough maturation and leavening.

Today they work separately and together in the two restaurants, offering a gourmet Neapolitan pizza: tall edge and large air bubbles, thin disc and baking at the highest temperature, as per tradition. A rich menu based on two types of dough: classic with Petra 3, made with poolish, water and salt; whole wheat with Petra 9. As per the topping, they prefer selected products with a strong local connection, as with the Fantasia di colori e sapori with Corbarino tomatoes, Piennolo tomatoes, and yellow tomatoes from Vesuvius, mozzarella fior di latte from Agerola and buffalo milk ricotta from Campania, extra virgin olive oil from Cilento and basil. They’ll present their story and techniques on 6th March 2017 at Identità Milano.

Tania Mauri
 

Chef and pizza – The rustic one, gourmet that is, by Gilmozzi

«It’s simple, after all: you cannot be a great pizzaiolo without being an excellent chef, because you need to have the knowledge of the latter so as to present toppings of the highest quality. It is in the meeting of these two aspects that one can find the common points between the two roles» says Alessandro Gilmozzi, at the helm of the multi-awarded kitchen of El Molin in Cavalese. But he also joins the long list of chefs “with their fingers in the pie” as for a long time he’s been presenting a gourmet pizza in his second restaurant, pizzeria Excelsior in the same town near Trento.

This is a historic place in Cavalese, opened in 1962 and always run by the Gilmozzi family. First Alessandro who worked there with his brother Stefano: «He had chosen for Excelsior a format based on good quality and large numbers. As form me, having taken care of the restaurant since 6-7 years ago, I added to a good quality pizza with Molino Quaglia flour, another one, which I call “rustic pizza” and not gourmet pizza because this word is a little intimidating for the people in the valley».

Hence the dough is made with Petra 9 flour, sourdough and a leavening of at least 36 hours. The style is a “new take on classic” with a hint of Neapolitan tradition but something more: «I’m inspired by the work of Franco Pepe». The dough is rolled out by hand on the shovel, half cooked, topped and then fully cooked.

It’s not a “Padoan-style” pizza. The dough is not thick and cut into slices. «The goal, however, is still that of having a balanced and easy to digest disc». The extra is given by the toppings, «we select the best Italian products, from Piennolo tomatoes to anchovy colatura from Cetara, to Radicchio di Treviso PDO». There’s a creative recipe every week, «for instance pizza with Scallops, black truffle and roasted leeks». In other words, Gilmozzi takes the best from El Molin and conveys it in the topping for the leavened disc. «I have great fun. Since I have a fine dining restaurant, everyone’s expectations are high. But it’s fine: people must understand that even in a pizzeria you can enjoy a gourmet experience».

Before Gilmozzi, other great chefs told us their relationship with pizza: Ugo Alciati, Moreno Cedroni, Nino Di Costanzo, Andrea Mattei, Peter Brunel and Nobuya Niimori.
CP
 

Giorgio e Chiara in Vicenza with three special toppings

In Vicenza, pizza lovers must stop at restaurant-pizzeria Giorgio e Chiara (Via Ca' Balbi 377, tel. +39.0444.911004). It is named after its two owners, Giorgio and Chiara Marchesan, partners at work and at heart: he works in the kitchen, as a “jack-of-all-trades” when necessary, she’s in the dining room, taking care of clients.

Clear ideas and few frills: pizza is pizza. This is Giorgio, a chef born in the business with a long experience in Italy and abroad, especially in big hotels such as the Four Seasons in Milan.

Their pizza is made with only one type of dough, with Petra 3 and Petra 9 flour, very little brewer’s yeast – they used sourdough but it was too hard to handle for this restaurant – and 48 hours of leavening with poolish. This results in three types of pizza: Italian, Neapolitan and gourmet.

«I love pizza and I believe the ingredients, mostly Italian and local excellences which I select and process personally, must be added before baking, even for gourmet pizza» says Marchesan, who over the Christmas holidays presented three special gourmet toppings: Santa Lucia, with a sauce of artichokes and saffron from San Gavino, local mozzarella fior di latte, sautéed sliced artichokes and turbot filets cooked on the pizza; San Nicola, with a cream of turnip tops with a very lively colour, mozzarella fior di latte, turnip tops and, after baking, Scottish salmon and cow’s milk ricotta; finally Befana, with sauce of chards, mozzarella fior di latte, chards and scampi and lard added before baking and, finally, drops of scampi bisque (Giorgio e Chiara’s motto is: “Use 100% of every ingredient”).

Their favourite pizza? Of course a Neapolitan base with a thick edge, San Marzano PDO tomatoes, anchovies from Cetara, buffalo milk mozzarella from Campania PDO, lemon zest before cooking and finally, in the final 20 seconds of baking, a few drops of anchovy colatura.
TM
 

Thanks to Il Capitano, pizza is a serious business in Dubai too

The photo was taken in early November in Dubai, during the first edition abroad of PizzaUp. Meet Fortunato Ostacolo, chef and pizza chef from Torre Annunziata in Campania who will turn 44 this coming May. He has worked abroad at length. In 2002, for instance, he was in Sydney, then New York, then Panarea in the Aeolian Island where he met, while he was in the kitchen and the latter in the dining room, the person he still calls Il Capitano.

We’re speaking of Fabio Cannavaro, the captain of Italy when the team won the World Cup in Germany in 2006. «He would come to the Aeolian Islands on holiday, on his boat, and visit my restaurant. Nine years working in the business and in the autumn of 2013 I arrived in the Emirates thanks to him. Here people are strong supporters of Juventus and this is where he, Il Capitano, was working as a trainer». Like saying that two plus two is four: «He wanted to eat an authentic pizza margherita and asked me, since he had a share in the Lounge Cafè Italiano, to organise the work. The plan was to stay 3 months, but I’ve been working and living here for 3 years already». In fact it was Cannavaro that left Dubai and moved to China.

Offering high quality here is not easy, between desert and skyscrapers. For the Margherita he only uses PDO ingredients but it’s hard because everything’s expensive, even low quality products. And everything basically arrives through French distribution channels and they obviously first distribute made-in-France products and then, eventually, made-in-Italy. The same applies when it’s time to ship: if there’s some empty space left, they’ll ship Italian products too. We’d do the same, if only we had a different attitude and organisation.
pm
 

A calendar with the top Neapolitan chefs, for a good cause

“L’unione fa la forza” [Many hands make light work] is a saying inspired by an Etruscan symbol adopted by the Romans, a bundle of branches tied around an axe. It shows that when many people or elements are united for the same goal, this is easier to achieve. Now, for the first time, nine of the best pizzaioli from Campania have met and together, in the name of pizza, have presented a new project on Thursday 15th December, in the famous Museo di Capodimonte: Calendario One Pizza.

Their names are Antonio Starita, Enzo Coccia, Guglielmo Vuolo, Ciro Salvo, Attilio Bachetti, Franco Pepe, Gino Sorbillo, Francesco and Salvatore Salvo, great names often considered great enemies and antagonists. Instead, during a friendly evening, they have shown they are colleagues and friends with a strong desire to work together at joint projects to give strength to the group, in the name of the most beloved street food from Campania around the world.

So half joking half not – try picturing them imitating the Beatles in the famous cover of Abbey Road, with their shovels at hand – they posed far away from the oven for twelve portraits taken by Salvio Parisi, presenting ingredients and tools, profession and passion, method and discipline, as well as teamwork, roots and the cooking culture of the South. They share the same passion for their work and for supporting each other, but they’re also together for a good cause: Calendario One Pizza supports the “Re-Life” project which will renovate the intensive care wared at Santobono hospital in Naples, collecting in special piggy banks free donations for the one thousand available copies of the calendar, distributed in the eight pizzerias of the group, during the Christmas holidays. Could we wish for more? (For more info, read Paolo Marchi’s article).
TM
 

Aniello Falanga’s holiday pizzas at Haccademia

Haccademia (via Panoramica Vesuvio 8 in Terzigno. Tel. +39081.3624016) is an unusual name for a pizzeria, so much so if it’s located in the warm heart of Campania, on the foothills of Vesuvius. Yet it wasn’t given by chance and in fact it has precise meaning as its owner and pizza chef Aniello Falanga tells us: «We want to offer the culture of pizza and of the products we carefully select. We’re lucky enough to be in a beautiful area, full of excellent raw materials. Why not make use of what we have at hand?»” Aniello, is in fact a pizzaiolo from the Alleanza Slow Food as he follows the “good clean and right” principles both when selecting products and in his way of working.

They offer traditional Neapolitan pizza and Falanga paid lots of attention to studying leavening and maturation techniques so as to make the pie light and easy to digest. Moreover, twice a week – on Thursday and Friday – he presents pizza made with ancient Italian wheat varieties, mostly from the area of Benevento, such as Romanella, which he cooks in the “ruoto” in the electric oven. These pizzas recall those made in the old days at the neighbourhood bakery: «they’re even better when cold, the following day».

The pizzas at Haccademia – a family run business (wife in the kitchen, daughter in the dining room and young Nicola with his dad at the counter and by the oven) change according to season and to the available ingredients.

During the Christmas holidays, Falanga presented three “Christmas style” pizzas, with products that come from Neapolitan festive tradition. For instance pizza Vesevo, with salted codfish, often used this time of the year and particularly popular among the people of Vesuvius, scorched on the grill and paired with Giagiù grilled yellow tomatoes, which are delicate and tasty, fior di latte from Tramonti, olives from Gaeta and capers from Salina; Torzella, dedicated to Vesuvian torzella (an ancient headless cabbage, it’s just made of leaves, with an intense flavour) with sausage from Irpinia and provola, as per tradition, and Calzone al forno ripieno di scarola, a calzone baked in the oven and filled with endive, with fior di latte, black olives, capers, and piennolo del Vesuvio cherry tomatoes on the outside (the latter was made during the Advent and is often given to friends and family as a sign of affection and good wishes).
TM
 

Franco Pepe’s lecture at San Patrignano

On Tuesday 20th December, Franco Pepe did not prepare and bake pizzas in his restaurant, Pepe in grani, in Caiazzo, in the province of Caserta. Franco was in a completely different region, Romagna, telling his story so as to set an example for the people at Comunità di San Patrignano near Rimini. There were lectures and meetings and then in the evening everyone was at SP.accio, the restaurant-cum- pizzeria created by the rehab facility. A very important day for those who live there and fight to build a happy future for themselves.