(CNN) – What comes to mind when you think of Italy?
For some, it will be Renaissance art on display in every corner of the country. For others, it will be ancient Rome, perhaps the magnificent Colosseum. But for many, it will be another big, round and eminently photogenic Italian icon: a pizza wheel.
Colorful, comforting and infinitely tasty, it’s no wonder pizza is one of the world’s most beloved dishes. It is a food that has transcended its Italian origins to find new dishes, from pineapple pizzas to Chicago-style deep dish cakes.
No wonder he has spent whole days around the world, from World Pizza Day in January to National Pizza Day, which takes place in the United States every February 9th.
But even though we think of it as a global phenomenon of the 20th century, pizza didn’t just start traveling when it crossed the Atlantic. In fact, he made his first intercultural journey about 2,000 years earlier.
“The ancient Greeks had ‘pissa’ or ‘pita’ and a recent study linked the term ‘pizza’ to the various ‘pita’ that exist throughout the Mediterranean. So the concept is very old, but [ancient pissa] it was bread, sometimes fried and sometimes baked, possibly with condiments on top. “
Food reappeared (this time as “pizza”) in 997 CE. A document renting a house in Gaeta, north of Naples, promised to pay the owner pork and pizza, but even then, according to Zancani, the mysterious “pizza” would have been pieces of bread.
It progressed rapidly until 1570 and the Pope’s head chef had a recipe for pizza, but it was “essentially a cake,” says Zancani, made with almonds and sugar.
When pizza became pizza
Pizza: Samuel Morse was not a fan.
Pizza School and AVPN
Finally, 700 years after its debut as a rental negotiation chip, savory pizza arrived in Naples in the early 18th century. But its initial form: bread baked with lard (and later olive oil) with cheese on top, doesn’t seem like the kind of food the world could conquer.
Introduce the humble tomato. In 1760, fresh tomatoes arrived in Naples, and what we know as pizza took to the streets.
Visitors to the city began to spread this new street food. Alexandre Dumas, author of “The Three Musketeers”. he wrote excitedly about the different covers, while Carlo Collodi, the creator of Pinocchio, faced them. Samuel Morse, inventor of the Morse code, hated pizza. Although it appears to have been a minority, the Bourbon king of Naples, Ferdinand, even had a brick pizza oven installed in his summer residence. “It was a meal for the poor, but he obviously liked it,” Zancani says.
Then came that important moment that we’ve all heard about. The king and queen of newly unified Italy visited Naples in 1889 and Queen Margaret was willing to try the local specialty.
“He contacted the best pizzaiolo [pizza-maker] in Naples and offered him three types: white with lard, caciocavallo cheese, and basil; olive oil and anchovies; and tomatoes, mozzarella and basil, ”says Zancani.
“History says the queen chose the third because it reminded her of the Italian flag.”
Margherita pizza was born.
“Then, it took quite a while,” Zancani says.
Naples, still in the center of the pizza
The best pizzaioli have a magical touch.
Pizza School and AVPN
The dish has not only come out all over the world, but has placed Naples on the map for countless visitors who want to eat a “real” pizza.
“As I like to say, Neapolitan pizza has no inventors, parents or owners; it arises from the ingenuity of the Neapolitan people. Pizza is Naples and Naples is pizza.”
“Pizza belongs to Naples,” he says, comparing the Neapolitan art of making pizza to the football skills of Maradona, who famously played in Naples from 1984 to 1991.
“He didn’t have the technique per se, but he had football inside him: he was a genius with a magical touch. In Naples, the pizzaioli [pizza-makers] they have the same magical touch “.
Immigration made him travel
Italian street food has become globalized.
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Once it got the royal seal of approval, the pizza was officially here to stay, but instead of being Queen Margherita who caused the global trend, it was the poorest immigrants in Italy who popularized it in all the world.
At the beginning of the 19th century there was a massive migration from southern Italy to the United States. And, of course, they took their recipes with them.
“Americans say pizza was created by the Neapolitans, but the Americans gave it to the world. I agree,” says Diego Zancani.
Compare the evolution of pizza in the US with the movie “Big Night”, in which two first-generation Italian immigrants (played by Tony Shalhoub and Stanley Tucci) open a restaurant on the Jersey shore and disagree about whether they adapt their foods. to American tastes.
Ristaino also mentions another key community in the popularization of pizza: American troops.
“When the Americans came to Italy at the end of the war, they found that they loved pizza, so they brought it to the United States,” he says.
“Before, it had been located mainly in Italian-American culture, but after the war it became a dish that other people would eat. The different types of pizza in the US developed due to the needs and population of the different “There are different New York City populations in Chicago. The Italians took pizza from Naples and adapted it to the people in the area. People have a lot of talent for adapting.”
They also have a knack for innovating. Zancani, who remembers eating pizza while studying in London as “the cheapest way to survive,” says the American innovation of freezing pizza dough in the 1950s was what brought food around the world. He believes that, despite being Naples, Dean Martin’s 1953 hit, “That’s Amore,” helped consolidate it as a completely American food.
Foreign pizzas are “transvestites,” but that’s okay
How do you like yours?
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But while pizza conquered the world, there was one country where its appeal was more limited: Italy itself.
“Pizza remained a Neapolitan thing for many years: before World War II it was barely known in northern Rome and was not an immediate success. It came with the internal migration of the 1950s and 1960s,” says Zancani. .
Today, of course, this has changed: pizza is as popular in Italy as everywhere else, with the Roman variant (a finer base) rivaling the original from Naples.
And if you think Italians are horrified by the global bastardization of their creation, think again.
“That’s what happens with all foods: they adapt to local tastes,” says Zancani, who admits his favorite is the Neapolitan original.
“The American style is different, just like with the ingredients. Hawaiian pineapple pizza is a weird concept, but if you like it, okay. Yeah, it’s a scam somehow, but most food somehow it’s a farce. “
And not even AVPN’s Antonio Pace gets mad at deep-sea pizza.
“I can’t help but respect anyone who makes any kind of pizza with dedication and sacrifice,” he says.
“We have never said that Neapolitan pizza is the best; we just reiterate that it is different.
“Our strong point is simplicity and we are pleased that in recent years, various types of American pizza have evolved from products rich in ingredients and not always well put together, to a product with high quality and well-selected ingredients.”
How to make an authentic Neapolitan pizza
AVPN has been training pizza makers since 1984.
Pizza School and AVPN
If you want authentic Naples-style pizza, the AVPN will help. Since 1984, they have been training and examining pizza makers around the world, proving that their products are authentic in the style of Naples.
“At that time, pizzerias in the rest of Italy and abroad were beginning to develop, and we realized that their product was very different from ours. Our fear was that the fact that this type of pizza spreading around the world could forget the original Neapolitan recipe. “says Pace, who loves traditional cutlery, such as marinara and his favorite, Margherita.
Your solution? Found the association and impose strict rules for pizza made by its members.
Today, the AVPN’s rules for making a true Neapolitan-style pizza extend to 14 pages and range from the flour and temperature of the water entering the dough, to the fermentation time. , shaping the pizza, instructions for obtaining ingredients and cooking only 60-90 seconds on a slab of 380-430 C, or 716-806 F.
Future pizzaioli should also submit videos of their pizza making process from start to finish, from making and modeling the dough, to adding toppings and baking. Once the first stage is over, a certified instructor or pizzaiolo mysteriously buys them, posing as a regular customer and tasting them.
To date, 854 pizzerias in 52 countries are part of the association. “We’re particularly proud of the latest affiliation – a pizzeria in Egypt run by a former student of ours,” says Pace. “It’s the first in Africa and it means we’re now present on all five continents.”
Go to Naples and you’re likely to be told that no pizza outside of the city will taste the same, which has to do with air, they say, or water. But while Pace suggests that visitors come to Naples and wander the alleys of the historic center, smelling the freshly baked dough in the air (and even taking a pizza course for a day with the AVPN), says that popular belief is not is not correct.
“A Neapolitan pizza is basically made with simple ingredients: water, flour, salt and yeast, without added fats or sugars. It must be left to stand for at least 12 hours and baked in a wood-fired oven for 60-90 seconds.
“We’ve always said that the quality of a real Neapolitan pizza is not related to the dialect or the nationality of the pizzaiolo, but to a production method that has no secrets, although many people would like you to think so.” , he says.
So if you’re out of Naples, don’t worry. This too can be love.