In Italy, pizza is...
In Italy, pizza is not a meal for sustenance, but a lot more. It is an affordable tradition. It is a special moment with family and friends. It is a fresh beer. It is quality ingredients. It is simplicity. It is work of art.
My wonderful former country finds sublime expression in food, in the infinite combinations of precious and unique ingredients, cooked with love, imagination and creativity, qualities that distinguish us in the world. We Italians are able to create in the kitchen creations as complex as they are exquisite, inimitable artistic works to be appreciated with the eyes, nose and palate. When abroad they think of Italy and they cannot help but dwell on food, on flavors, on that great skill we have in working the ingredients creating appetizing and inviting dishes. However, at the table it is often not the complexity that makes a dish great, but the quality of the raw materials and the simplicity with which they are treated. It is no coincidence that the best Italian dishes, famous in the world and able to bring up our tricolor, are all represented by simple dishes made with a few and genuine ingredients.
And Pizza is among these dishes the Queen! Water, salt, yeast, flour, olive oil, tomato, mozzarella and basil, the miracle is accomplished, excellence is served! Pizza is the pure expression of Italy because it is a simple product that knows how to satisfy all the senses, puts joy and desire together, it can be prepared with high school culinary mastery or improvised at worst, and whatever the result;
A Pizza is always a Pizza!
Because Pizza represents us
Pizza is Italy, with its infinite ways of being, with its nuances, its values, its wonderful contradictions. Its countless condiments make it a food that goes perfectly with each of us; Everyone can find the combination that best suits him, that best represents him, that can best convey that unique pleasure given by eating an exquisite food. The Pizza is Campania, Lazio, Tuscany, Calabrian, Sicilian, Lombard, Piedmontese, Sardinian, Emilian, Marche, Puglia, Molise, Abruzzo, Ligurian, Trentino, Venetian, Valle d'Aosta, Umbria, Lucania and finally Friulian (Italianness). And each has its own particular characteristics and its special ingredients, deriving from the place and traditions, but all have one thing in common: goodness. In Calabria it is tasted with the 'nduja of Spilinga and the red onions of Tropea, in Lombardy with gorgonzola or taleggio, in Naples with buffalo mozzarella and fresh basil, in Sicily with eggplant, in Umbria with black truffle, in Liguria with pesto. Each region has its variations, its little jewels to embellish one of the most important culinary inventions in the history of humanity.
But the deep Italian character of this dish also lies in its ability to become a powerful social vehicle: it unites people, brings them closer, smoothes the differences in the hierarchy of society and becomes everyone's favorite food, without exception. In fact, Pizza belongs to workers, garbage collectors, bank managers, painters, business managers and their secretaries, nobles and the poor, VIPs and strangers, those who command and those who execute; the Pizza is round but also square, poor or rich, sober or exaggerated, as we Italians are precise or confusing, programmed or improvising, the pizza is salty or is seasoned with freshness, like each of us who seeks flavor in life and also beauty. Italy is reflected in a perfect food, in tomatoes, mozzarella and basil, admires red, white and green, those same colors that make the chest swell, to be proud of so much beauty, of a unique goodness that the whole world envies us and greedily appreciates.
Pizza is Italian but knows how to unite people from all over the world. It has ancient origins, already the Romans used focaccia in the kitchen not unlike the current Pizza, while at the time of the splendors of Pompeii and Herculaneum, in the popular neighborhoods, the Pizza was cooked in wood-burning ovens, conceived as a "single dish", nutritious and balanced, rich in inviting flavor, to be eaten hot and strictly with the hands. Its preparation has been perfected with the passage of time until the birth of the famous Pizza Margherita, in 1889, when the chef of Naples, Raffaele Esposito, named his Pizza in honor of the Queen of Italy Margherita di Savoia. Today Pizza is widespread worldwide, always with the same name, regardless of whether it is purchased in a Neapolitan pizzeria or in a street kiosk in New York or Montreal, in a pizzeria in Rome or in a supermarket in Paris. Perhaps this is what makes Pizza the most successful product of Made in Italy, the strength to be profoundly Italian but at the same time profoundly international.
And finally a reflection: we Italians are special in many areas, from the work sector to the recreational one, from food, to art, to music, to sport, and the economic crisis and values that the world is experiencing in recent years is putting a strain on many of our skills and attitudes, making us lose those certainties that we once had and of which we were proud . But this phase is destined to end and as in the past we have been able to pull ourselves out of the darkness of the Middle Ages with a rebirth, today we will be able to do the same.
And the restart can start right from Pizza!!!
We Italians are the best in the world and it will be enough to taste a slice to always remember it ...!!!
Pizza in Lazio, whose origins are really ancient and can also reveal themselves in a rather surprising and interesting way. After all, all the implications of Italian culture, linked to cuisine, are extremely rich in history; Whereas there are recipes handed down by the ancient Romans.
Pizza in LazioJust at the time of ancient Rome; The peasants had the mastery of knowing how to cross different types of spelt. The term flour therefore derives from "far", which in Latin means spelt. They kneaded the ground wheat flour with water, herbs and salt. The result was a round focaccia that cooked on the hearth. This is how the embryo of pizza was born. Nevertheless, we find the term "pizza" in an ancient document of Gaeta that dates back to vulgar Latin. We are in 997 and there is talk of a fee for a lease of a mill located in the territory of the current Municipality of Castelforte. The word "pizza" then returns in another contract dated 1195 and drawn up in Penne, in Abruzzo. Then in another lease of 31 January 1201 in Sulmona. We find anocorous the term in documents of the Roman Curia of 1300, where it speaks of "pizis" and "pissas".
These are bakery products, especially in Abruzzo and Molise. Then we arrive at the sixteenth century in Naples with a crushed bread, clearly called pizza; resulting from the distortion of the word "pitta". In 1535, the poet and essayist Benedetto Di Falco says that the "focaccia, in Neapolitan is called pizza". During the sixteenth century instead; Olive oil gradually begins to take the place of lard, and cheese with aromatic herbs is added. Finally, basil makes its triumphal entrance. In 1600 we can say that we are in the middle of the modern history of pizza. We are talking about bread dough baked in wood-fired ovens, seasoned with garlic, lard and coarse salt. Or, in the "richer" version, with Caciocavallo and basil. With the discovery of America by Columbus, the tomato also arrives in Italy and everything changes the taste. The tomato in the kitchen is used as a cooked sauce with salt and basil.
In the nineteenth century mozzarella arrives and pizza arrives on the tables of the modest classes. But also of the nobles; so much so that it ends up on the tables during the receptions of the Bourbons. Ferdinand IV had it baked in the ovens of Capodimonte. This is not a marginal aspect, since for the first time a dish breaks down social differences. It is a real revolution, if we think that the sumptuous dishes have always distinguished the powerful from the poor, accustomed to frugal meals and simple foods. In any case, the first recipe for pizza as we know it today, is in a treaty of 1858 in Naples. At the time, Francesco De Bourcard in "Uses and customs of Naples and contours described and painted"; cites the forerunner of pizza Margherita with mozzarella and basil. The tomato, then, is something still optional. Finally, at the end of the nineteenth century pizza arrived in America with emigration to New York's Little Italy. Canada's first pizzeria opened in 1948, Pizzeria Napoletana in Montreal.
In Italy, pizza is not a meal for sustenance, but a lot more. It is an affordable tradition. It is a special moment with family and friends. It is a fresh beer. It is quality ingredients. It is simplicity. It is work of art.
My wonderful former country finds sublime expression in food, in the infinite combinations of precious and unique ingredients, cooked with love, imagination and creativity, qualities that distinguish us in the world. We Italians are able to create in the kitchen creations as complex as they are exquisite, inimitable artistic works to be appreciated with the eyes, nose and palate. When abroad they think of Italy and they cannot help but dwell on food, on flavors, on that great skill we have in working the ingredients creating appetizing and inviting dishes. However, at the table it is often not the complexity that makes a dish great, but the quality of the raw materials and the simplicity with which they are treated. It is no coincidence that the best Italian dishes, famous in the world and able to bring up our tricolor, are all represented by simple dishes made with a few and genuine ingredients.
And Pizza is among these dishes the Queen!
Water, salt, yeast, flour, olive oil, tomato, mozzarella and basil, the miracle is accomplished, excellence is served! Pizza is the pure expression of Italy because it is a simple product that knows how to satisfy all the senses, puts joy and desire together, it can be prepared with high school culinary mastery or improvised at worst, and whatever the result;
A Pizza is always a Pizza!
Because Pizza represents us
Pizza is Italy, with its infinite ways of being, with its nuances, its values, its wonderful contradictions. Its countless condiments make it a food that goes perfectly with each of us; Everyone can find the combination that best suits him, that best represents him, that can best convey that unique pleasure given by eating an exquisite food. The Pizza is Campania, Lazio, Tuscany, Calabrian, Sicilian, Lombard, Piedmontese, Sardinian, Emilian, Marche, Puglia, Molise, Abruzzo, Ligurian, Trentino, Venetian, Valle d'Aosta, Umbria, Lucania and finally Friulian (Italianness). And each has its own particular characteristics and its special ingredients, deriving from the place and traditions, but all have one thing in common: goodness. In Calabria it is tasted with the 'nduja of Spilinga and the red onions of Tropea, in Lombardy with gorgonzola or taleggio, in Naples with buffalo mozzarella and fresh basil, in Sicily with eggplant, in Umbria with black truffle, in Liguria with pesto. Each region has its variations, its little jewels to embellish one of the most important culinary inventions in the history of humanity.
But the deep Italian character of this dish also lies in its ability to become a powerful social vehicle: it unites people, brings them closer, smoothes the differences in the hierarchy of society and becomes everyone's favorite food, without exception. In fact, Pizza belongs to workers, garbage collectors, bank managers, painters, business managers and their secretaries, nobles and the poor, VIPs and strangers, those who command and those who execute; the Pizza is round but also square, poor or rich, sober or exaggerated, as we Italians are precise or confusing, programmed or improvising, the pizza is salty or is seasoned with freshness, like each of us who seeks flavor in life and also beauty. Italy is reflected in a perfect food, in tomatoes, mozzarella and basil, admires red, white and green, those same colors that make the chest swell, to be proud of so much beauty, of a unique goodness that the whole world envies us and greedily appreciates.
Pizza is Italian but knows how to unite people from all over the world. It has ancient origins, already the Romans used focaccia in the kitchen not unlike the current Pizza, while at the time of the splendors of Pompeii and Herculaneum, in the popular neighborhoods, the Pizza was cooked in wood-burning ovens, conceived as a "single dish", nutritious and balanced, rich in inviting flavor, to be eaten hot and strictly with the hands. Its preparation has been perfected with the passage of time until the birth of the famous Pizza Margherita, in 1889, when the chef of Naples, Raffaele Esposito, named his Pizza in honor of the Queen of Italy Margherita di Savoia. Today Pizza is widespread worldwide, always with the same name, regardless of whether it is purchased in a Neapolitan pizzeria or in a street kiosk in New York or Montreal, in a pizzeria in Rome or in a supermarket in Paris. Perhaps this is what makes Pizza the most successful product of Made in Italy, the strength to be profoundly Italian but at the same time profoundly international.
And finally a reflection: we Italians are special in many areas, from the work sector to the recreational one, from food, to art, to music, to sport, and the economic crisis and values that the world is experiencing in recent years is putting a strain on many of our skills and attitudes, making us lose those certainties that we once had and of which we were proud . But this phase is destined to end and as in the past we have been able to pull ourselves out of the darkness of the Middle Ages with a rebirth, today we will be able to do the same.
And the restart can start right from Pizza!!!
We Italians are the best in the world and it will be enough to taste a slice to always remember it ...!!!
Pizza in Lazio, whose origins are really ancient and can also reveal themselves in a rather surprising and interesting way. After all, all the implications of Italian culture, linked to cuisine, are extremely rich in history; Whereas there are recipes handed down by the ancient Romans.
Pizza in Lazio
Just at the time of ancient Rome; The peasants had the mastery of knowing how to cross different types of spelt. The term flour therefore derives from "far", which in Latin means spelt. They kneaded the ground wheat flour with water, herbs and salt. The result was a round focaccia that cooked on the hearth. This is how the embryo of pizza was born. Nevertheless, we find the term "pizza" in an ancient document of Gaeta that dates back to vulgar Latin. We are in 997 and there is talk of a fee for a lease of a mill located in the territory of the current Municipality of Castelforte. The word "pizza" then returns in another contract dated 1195 and drawn up in Penne, in Abruzzo. Then in another lease of 31 January 1201 in Sulmona. We find anocorous the term in documents of the Roman Curia of 1300, where it speaks of "pizis" and "pissas".
These are bakery products, especially in Abruzzo and Molise. Then we arrive at the sixteenth century in Naples with a crushed bread, clearly called pizza; resulting from the distortion of the word "pitta". In 1535, the poet and essayist Benedetto Di Falco says that the "focaccia, in Neapolitan is called pizza". During the sixteenth century instead; Olive oil gradually begins to take the place of lard, and cheese with aromatic herbs is added. Finally, basil makes its triumphal entrance. In 1600 we can say that we are in the middle of the modern history of pizza. We are talking about bread dough baked in wood-fired ovens, seasoned with garlic, lard and coarse salt. Or, in the "richer" version, with Caciocavallo and basil. With the discovery of America by Columbus, the tomato also arrives in Italy and everything changes the taste. The tomato in the kitchen is used as a cooked sauce with salt and basil.
In the nineteenth century mozzarella arrives and pizza arrives on the tables of the modest classes. But also of the nobles; so much so that it ends up on the tables during the receptions of the Bourbons. Ferdinand IV had it baked in the ovens of Capodimonte. This is not a marginal aspect, since for the first time a dish breaks down social differences. It is a real revolution, if we think that the sumptuous dishes have always distinguished the powerful from the poor, accustomed to frugal meals and simple foods. In any case, the first recipe for pizza as we know it today, is in a treaty of 1858 in Naples. At the time, Francesco De Bourcard in "Uses and customs of Naples and contours described and painted"; cites the forerunner of pizza Margherita with mozzarella and basil. The tomato, then, is something still optional. Finally, at the end of the nineteenth century pizza arrived in America with emigration to New York's Little Italy. Canada's first pizzeria opened in 1948, Pizzeria Napoletana in Montreal.
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