Naples shared its love of pizza and dry pasta with the world many years ago but something got lost in translation. Rather than eat pasta al dente and pizza soft, in the Neapolitan way, foreigners learned to do the opposite.

Non-Italians at last discovered the pleasures of al dente pasta in the late 20th Century. But only recently have hardcore devotees in the pizza diaspora acquired a soft spot for pizza with a light, pliable crust.

In my video above, “Pizza in Naples is Strictly Softcore”, the master pizzaiolo Enzo Coccia of Pizzaria La Notizia explains why Neapolitan pizza must be so soft and light. (A hint is in the photo of Enzo below).

See my other video starring the great Enzo Coccia: Pizza Master Enzo Coccia Knows his Fior di Latte.

Neapolitans may sing the praises of Mozzarella di Bufala Campana DOP but mostly they eat fior di latte – mozzarella made from cow’s milk – on their pizza.

Any ambivalence about fior di latte , as opposed to buffalo mozzarella, might have something to do with what happens to this essential pizza cheese is passed from or into the wrong hands. In the video above the great Enzo Coccia of Pizzaria La Notizia complains about low-quality fior di latte that gets dry and rubbery in the pizza oven.

But stringy mozzarella Enzo likes. Stringiness, he says, likely indicates that the fior di latte is of good quality, was cut by hand and won’t separate easily from the tomato or other other pizza toppings. And in that there is joy and beauty.

The very first pizza of PizzaTuesday Naples, the young&foodish group tour of the world’s pizza capital, was shaped by the hands of Luigi Condurro at the legendary L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele.

The master pizzaiolo lightly pinched the corners of the uncooked pizza and stretched it over the pizza peel, using the edges of that long-handled wood paddle to hold the flattened dough’s drawn-out shape.

Luigi the virtuoso voiced his love for pizza with his fingertips, even when addressing the question asked and answered in the short video above.

Luigi is the son of Michele Condurro, who gave the pizzeria its name, and the grandson of Salvatore Condurro Sr, who founded the family Neapolitan pizza business in 1870. The Condurros moved Da Michele to its current location on Via Cesare Sersale in 1930.

The crowds at Da Michele are as much a fixture outside as Luigi is inside. The pizzeria turns tables as quickly as its pizzaioli turn pizzas, assembling each Margherita or Marinara, the only varieties available, in one minute and cooking it in another. Though the wait is rarely longer than an hour it can be an excruciating 60 minutes given how good the pizza is.

PizzaTuesday Naples will return in late October for intimate meet-and-eats with Luigi as well as a new generation of Neapolitan pizza greats like Franco Pepe, Enzo Coccio and Ciro Salvo. If your want to try the third-best, second-best and first-best pizzas of your life in 24 hours you’ll want to join us.

Click here to submit a request for more information.

pizza fritta ripieno – “fried stuffed pizza”

 
In Naples a friggitoria is a purveyor of fried foods and snacks. A classic pizzeria e friggitoria such as Di Matteo merges the arts of baking and frying.

Outside the Naples pizzeria-friggitoria Di Matteo on a slow day.

 
Di Matteo was the third stop on my one-day Neapolitan pizza crawl. You can see highlights of that day in my video: 8 Naples Pizzerias in 1 Day & 2 Minutes

To fully appreciate the art and science of pizza in its historic epizzentre you have to explore its surface textures, features and forms.
 

 
THE PIZZA OF NAPLES IN TWO MINUTES, my video compression of the September 25th pizza crawl, traces the topography of Neapolitan pizza, from the stretching of the dough in the practiced hands of the pizzaiolo to his rotating of the crust as it puffs and browns under the torrents of intense heat in the wood-fired brick oven to his unveiling of the finished Margherita, its surface glistening with deposits of molten mozzarella and plum tomato sauce.

The eight pizzerias featured in the video are:

(in order of appearance)

Di Matteo
Pepe in Grani
Trianon da Ciro
Antica Pizzeria Port’Alba
L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele
Europea di Mattozzi
Gino Sorbillo
Regina Margherita

The boast is easily forgiven: The Neapolitans are justly proud of their Mozzarella di Bufala Campana DOP, one of the most prized cheeses in Italy. Five producers in Naples and another 40 in nearby Caserta produce buffalo mozzarella conforming to the strict regulations set by its trademark DOP – Denominazione di Origine Protetta (“Protected Designation of Origin”).

The “DOP” pizza at Princi

When Neapolitans do order Mozzarella di Bufala Campana DOP on their pizza it’s usually set against fresh pomodorini (cherry tomatoes) rather a sauce made from tinned (canned) plum tomatoes. This pizza displays the classic Margherita’s Italian tricolore – basil for green, mozzarella for white, tomato for red – but is listed differently on menus. Often it’s designated as ‘Margherita Extra’, ‘Regina Margherita’ or simply ‘La Regina’ – “the Queen”. Sometimes it takes its name from its description, as in ‘Pizza con Mozzarella di Bufala e Pomodorini’. The Pizzeria Sorbillo in Naples employs the shorthand ‘DOC’, as in Denominazione di Origine Controllata, a distinction Mozzarella di Bufala Campana was granted in 1993. The mozza’s status was upgraded in 1996 from DOC to DOP but the name stuck. London’s Princi is more up-to-date, calling the same pizza ‘DOP’.

The straight dope on Margherita pizza in Naples is, with few exceptions, as follows:

If the mozzarella is from cow’s milk it goes on the pizza atop a layer of red sauce consisting of peeled plum tomatoes taken from a tin. If the mozzarella is from buffalo milk it is distributed over the dough in slices, cubes or torn pieces and then topped with slices of fresh tomatoes whenever good ones are in season and available. We’re talking little tomatoes, usually pomodorini but sometimes datterini (little dates) or fragolini (grapes).

Why fresh tomatoes? Most pizzaioli will tell you they provide buffalo mozzarella with greater stability. If the mozzarella di bufala is fresh and of good quality it is naturally juicy and, when subjected to the intense heat of a wood-fired oven, as molten as lava from Mount Vesuvius. If the flow of milky cheese juice runs over a bed of hot tomato sauce, rather than around fresh tomatoes, the pizza surface gets very runny. Quickly the mix of white and red liquids runneth over. As a pizza cheese mozzarella di bufala thrives on dry ground.

Before Crossrail construction extinguished its brick oven and closed it for business, Spaccanapoli, off Oxford Street, was the most famous London pizzeria. In Naples. It seemed that half the clientele was visiting the UK from Southern Italy. Many had heard that Peppe, its head pizzaiolo, had worked back home at Trianon and had established the house style for his colleagues and successors at Spaccanapoli. Peppe tutored both Paolo and Nicola, two pizzaioli who moved to sister restaurant Santoré and brought their incredibly light touch with them after Spaccanapoli was forced to close.

Santoré’s baked pizzas, with their puffy cornicione, are weightless – in the very best sense of the word. Owner Mimo (no one calls him Dominico) Savarese wouldn’t have it any other way.

That the Spaccanapoli spirit lives on in Clerkenwell should be reason enough to come celebrate on the 23rd of March. But Mimo promises to make this #PizzaTuesday extra special by featuring the signature rotolo rustica – rolled pizza filled with three cheeses and aubergine – on top of a tasting of 4 pizza varieties, including a truly classic Margherita. Other surprise additions to the menu are planned.

Everyone will have the opportunity to visit the pizza kitchen, feel the heat of the oven, meet Paolo or Nicola and maybe investigate if the Trianon connection is true. But in the end that shouldn’t matter when the pizza and pizzeria, though located at London’s Exmouth Market, are so very close to Naples.

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