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Preserving The Roots of Authentic Neapolitan Pizzas
Posted by GuestPoster in Food & Drink
Pizza is now an international dish, with dozens and dozens of different varieties and toppings. Although its origins are in Naples, its diffusion started directly from New York. According to the most accredited version, the pioneer was Mr Gennaro Lombardi, who opened the first pizzeria in Little Italy in 1905. After more than one-hundred years, pizza is still one of the favorite foods in the United States, although Italians may frown on some of the types of toppings and shapes that follow Americans’ taste, like pizza pepperoni.
If you are a pizza lover and you wish to go back to the very roots, then Naples is the place, and simplicity is the name of the game. In 1984 an organization was founded, called Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, with the aim of formally defining and preserving the exact characteristics of the real Neapolitan pizza.
There are two types of Neapolitan pizzas: Marinara and Margherita.
Pizza Marinara, “Sailor’s pizza” is the real progenitor of all pizzas. The topping is tomato sauce, garlic, oregano and oil. It really doesn’t get simpler than that, and it was very popular among fishermen coming back from the night out at sea.
When the then King of Italy, Umberto I and his wife Margherita (Margaret) of Savoy programmed an official visit to Naples on 1889, they wanted to try a local culinary specialty. The royal baker, Raffaele Esposito, deemed Pizza Marinara too simple, and created a variation: he left out garlic, and on a added mozzarella cheese and basil. The red, white and green were a representation of the colors of the flag of the newly born Italian State. This new pizza was named Margherita in honor of the queen. Still today, one of the oldest pizzerias in Naples, Pizzeria da Michele, only serves Pizza Margherita and Marinara.
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