Pizza (4.5 / 5)
Value (5 / 5)
Quality (4.5 / 5)
If you HAD to live off it forever, how happy would you be? (4 / 5)
You can imagine my excitement about going to Naples, aka the home of pizza. However, a part of me hoped that I’d find a pizza better than Naples as I really want MYO to differentiate, and not advertise with ‘we serve true, authentic Neapolitan pizza’. Unfortunately Naples didn’t let me down and I can now completely understand why it holds such a highly regarded reputation when it comes to pizza.
To give you a bit of history on pizza…. The precursor to pizza was focaccia, a flat bread known to the Romans as ‘panis focacius’, to which toppings were soon added. From my travels through Italy, it definitely still holds high regard throughout the country, being served next to pizza or as ‘pizza’ in the majority of snack bars. The actual ‘word’ pizza was first discovered in Latin text from a southern Italian town called Gaeta in 997AD but the famous neapolitan margherita pizza that we know and love today wasn’t created until the 19th century. However, it was served as a flatbread in the 16th century and was seen as a dish for poor people, being sold in the street and definitely not considered a dish to be cooked at home. But, on 11 June 1889, it really began to hold star status when the Queen Consort of Italy, Margherita of Savoy came to Naples and was presented with the “Pizza Margherita” – a pizza topped with red tomatoes, creamy mozarella and green basil – all to represent the colours of the Italian flag. And, THAT is how the “pizza” was born! History lesson over…. phew!
I ate at Da Michele, home to the authentic Neapolitan pizza and features in the movie “Eat, Pray, Love” with Julia Roberts. Served with a knife and a fork and on a china plate, I soon realised I needed the cutlery when I attempted to pick up a piece and all the topping went flying. Neapolitan pizza is different in that it’s a lot fluffier, softer and the toppings are more soupier, meaning that the centre of the dough gets slightly soggy, so it’s definitely not a ‘on the go job’, unless you want to walk around dripping tomato sauce. It also tastes completely different to every other pizza I’ve tried in Italy. The dough rises higher, yet is lighter and almost tastes pancake-y in flavour. It is quite simply delicious and I can absolutely see why it is held in such high acclaim.
I made pizza while in the region, in Ischia Island, complete with the traditional wood fired oven. I learnt about the simplicity of ingredients the dough is made with (00 flour, ph7 water, salt and fresh yeast), the proving process (24 hour minimum) and how a wood fired oven works (only taking 90 seconds to cook a pizza). I was shown how to properly stretch the dough, slice it onto a pizza paddle and how to check it’s cooking process whilst in the oven by tapping the base up and down with the pizza paddle, so that the heat is evenly distributed. It was all just an amazingly insightful experience, and it proved to me that the wood fired oven is the key differentiator in the actual taste of the pizza. It also emphasised that if good enough, a simple margherita pizza should be all you need.
In terms of what else Naples had to offer on the pizza and snack bar front – there’s a lot. Although ‘pizza’ wasn’t as advertised as much as I would have thought, with cafes taking more of a centre stage, you would find it everywhere you went. I guess it’s a given that it’ll be served, given that the city is the home of pizza. However, you wouldn’t just find the standard pizza (at only 1 – 2 euros for a whole circular or triangular serving), you’d also find pizza in every way you could think of – pizza wurstel –with sausage and chips on it, deep fried pizza – (folded in half and then deep fried), pizza balls, pizzettes and pizza sandwiches, and these are only naming a few. Most places would also serve ‘fritti’, or deep fried snacks. These would include arracini (rice balls), deep fried polenta, potato, vegetables…. Basically, Naples loves their oil. And, so did I – my stomach not so much though…
Not much effort went into the design of the pizzerias, although each one had a wood fired oven (implying that they can cheaply build them themselves), the plastic tables, cheap brickwork and lack of outside design didn’t offer the best aesthetics. Also, when serving the pizza for ‘on the go’, not much expense went into the packaging. It definitely wasn’t like Rome where you’d get the pizza on a nice cardboard tray, here you’d either get a paper bag or a big white napkin. I guess this either implies that they know it’s good, why do they have to pamper around the edges, or that if you’re paying only one euro, what more do you expect?! I certainly wasn’t complaining, I ate a little too well while in Naples and for next to no money.
So, what inspiration can I take from Naples? Well, there’s a lot – firstly, that the wood fired oven does create a completely different, light, fluffy dough and secondly, that it’s definitely not a pizza for ‘on the go’. However, there are plenty of take-away options you could offer e.g. deep fried, calzone and pizza pies that enable people to have a relatively mess-free meal. It’s given me food for thought about what ‘else’ I could serve at MYO, but made me less confident in the Neapolitan base as a day time, snack pizza.