# Italian Pizza



## John Delaney (Jan 25, 2006)

Hi,
How do cooks in Italy make their version of pizza? Does anyone know? Thanks, Teri


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## MJ (Jan 25, 2006)

John Delaney said:
			
		

> Hi,
> How do cooks in Italy make their version of pizza? Does anyone know? Thanks, Teri


I can't help you with that question, but hopefully Urmaniac13 will see this post - Licia resides in Rome...


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## John Delaney (Jan 25, 2006)

Hi,
Thanks for your reply.  
Teri


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## buckytom (Jan 26, 2006)

the only true italian pizzas that i know of are called pizza margherita, margherita bianca, and pizza alla romana. i'm sure there are more, but i'm not sure when it becomes a topped foccacia and not a pizza. i'll have to ask the local goombatz that go to italy every year to visit familia.

pizza margherita it is the standard crust, with a good coating of fresh tomato sauce. the sauce varies from completely raw chopped tomatoes with herbs and evoo, to lightly simmered tomato/herbs, but not the usual thickened reduced sauce cooked a long time. then it is topped with just a few spots of cheese, so that the cheese doesn't cover everything edge to edge, and areas of sauced crust are visible. it is cooked and when it is removed from the oven, pieces of torn fresh basil leaves are sprinkled over top.
add a little diced anchovies, and you have pizza alla romana.
remove the sauce and fish, and you have margherita bianca, or white pizza.

a local pizza joint by me makes these as their regular pie, and boy are they good. their secret, i think, is adding the herb savory to their sauce instead of killing it with a ton of oregano.

from what i've heard, it was named after the queen of italy circa 1890, margherita de savoia, because it represented the colors of the italian flag.


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## ironchef (Jan 26, 2006)

I agree with BT. The standard Pizza al Margherita that I learned had only tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and fresh basil on a thin crust. From what I learned, pizza is not usually served as a meal in Italy, unlike what we're used to. I think pizza originally started off in Naples as a bar-type snack food. When it was brought to America by the Italian immigrants it then took off in popularity.


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## Ishbel (Jan 26, 2006)

Pizza is traditionally cooked in a wood-fired oven and is served as a thin crusted base.  It originated in Naples as snack food.

One of my absolute favourites is served in a little bistro, near the station in Florence....   Last time I ate one there, Firenze were playing in the Italian football league and the waiters were all huddled round a tv set near the door.  Let's just say that the base was 'well-fired'


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## Michael in FtW (Jan 26, 2006)

Ishbel said:
			
		

> Pizza is traditionally cooked in a wood-fired oven and is served as a thin crusted base."


 
Ah - the advances of modern technology ... no longer do we have wood fired ovens - they are now either electric or gas. But, there was a new pizza place that set up shop in Golden, CO just about a year before I moved back home that was making wood fired "brick oven" pizza ... it was to die for!


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## buckytom (Jan 26, 2006)

grrr, i hate that expression. your country and your family are the only things to die for. 

but i would kill for a brick oven pizza!   

there are a few wood fired brick ovens in my area. like michael said, there's no comparison. oddly enough, the best one was shut down recently because it was located in a residential neighborhood, and the neighbors hated the smokey smell wafting about all year long.


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## urmaniac13 (Jan 26, 2006)

Hi John & Teri, finally the late arrival from Rome... yes of course, just about every pizza chef here has their secret and "authentic" recipe of their own. I live in Rome where their style is very thin and crispy, but the classic Napolitana is much thicker. So also depending on the region, their style can also differ. But all in all, pizzas in Italy taste quite different from what you are used to abroad, the most important key is the quality, fresh ingredients and the wood burning oven, where you can cook the pizza at very high temperature very quickly. 
Here are a few particulars in Italian (or at least Roman) custom when it comes to pizza...

-they don't have a ready made "pizza sauce", they just use the crushed tomatoes or passata(tomato sauce) with herbs sprinkled on.
-sometimes at the restaurant they may ask you if you want your pizza red or white, which means with tomato sauce or without.
-white pizzas, without tomato sauce, are equally popular, also there are sweet pizza versions, too.
-at restaurants, they don't make enormous pizzas to be shared with multiple people, each person order their own pizza. At takeaways, they do make large reclangular pizzas and sell them by slices, people tend to fold them in half, make a sandwich of it and eat it.
-some of the popular items outside Italy, such as pepperoni, hamburgers, doner kabobs, "canadian bacon & pineapples", BBQ chicken etc. are utterly unheard of as pizza ingredients, though they can get very creative in their own way.

Here is some interesting info and story about Italian pizza...
Also I posted our own pizza recipe some time ago, which is located here....

If there is further questions, feel free to ask me!!


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## GB (Jan 26, 2006)

buckytom said:
			
		

> oddly enough, the best one was shut down recently because it was located in a residential neighborhood, and the neighbors hated the smokey smell wafting about all year long.


Man I would have paid extra to live in that neighborhood


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## John Delaney (Jan 28, 2006)

*Pizza*

Hi,
Wow, I am going to have to try some recipes.
I love that brick oven.
Thanks,
Teri and John


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## Chief Longwind Of The North (Jan 29, 2006)

For those prescious few of us without the conveniance of a brick oven, the flavor of a brick oven pizza can be approximated by using a covered, kettle barbecue.  Use natural charcoal and just a touch of a fruit-wood such as apple or cherry.  Get the charcoal very hot before adding the water-soaked wood and the pizza.  Cover and cook for between 8 to 10 minutes.

Yum.

Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North


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