Pizza and Italians
Our wonderful country finds sublime expression in food, in the infinite combinations of fine and unique ingredients, cooked with love, imagination and creativity, qualities that distinguish us in the world. We Italians are capable of creating creations that are as complex as they are exquisite in the kitchen, inimitable artistic works to be appreciated with the eyes, nose and palate. When abroad they think of Italy they cannot help but focus on the food, the flavours, on that great ability we have in working the ingredients to create appetizing and inviting dishes. However, at the table it is often not the complexity that makes a dish great, but rather the quality of the raw materials and the simplicity with which they are treated. It is no coincidence that the best Italian dishes, famous throughout the world and capable of carrying our flag high, are all represented by simple dishes made with a few genuine ingredients. And the Pizza the Queen is among these dishes!! 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 satisfies all the senses, brings joy and the desire to be together, it can be prepared with high-school culinary mastery or improvised as best as possible, and whatever it is then the result: Pizza is always Pizza!
Because Pizza represents us
Pizza is Italy, with its infinite ways of being, with its nuances, its values, its wonderful contradictions. Her countless condiments make her a food that goes perfectly with each of us; everyone can find the combination that they like best, that best represents them, that best conveys that unique pleasure given by eating exquisite food. Pizza is from Campania, Lazio, Tuscany, Calabria, Sicilian, Lombardy, Piedmontese, Sardinian, Emilian, Marche, Puglia, Molise, Abruzzo, Ligurian, Trentino, Venetian, Aosta Valley, Umbria, Lucania and finally Friulian (Italianness). And each has its particular characteristics and its special ingredients, deriving from the place and traditions, but they all have one thing in common: goodness. In Calabria it is savored with 'nduja from Spilinga and red onions from Tropea, in Lombardy with gorgonzola or taleggio, in Naples with buffalo mozzarella and fresh basil, in Sicily with aubergines, in Umbria with truffles black, 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 profound Italian nature of this dish also lies in its ability to transform itself into a very powerful social vehicle: it brings people together, brings them closer, smoothes out 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, company managers and their secretaries, nobles and the poor, VIPs and strangers, those who command and those who execute.; Pizza is round but also square, poor or rich, sober or exaggerated, as we Italians are precise or confusing, planned or improvising, pizza is salty or seasoned with freshness, like each of us who seeks flavor in life and also beauty . Italy is reflected in perfect food, in tomato, mozzarella and basil, admire the red, white and green, those same colors that make your chest swell, to be proud of such beauty, of a unique goodness that the whole world envies us and greedily appreciates us.
Pizza is Italian but it knows how to unite people all over the world. It has very ancient origins, the Romans already used focaccias in the kitchen not unlike the current Pizza, while at the time of the splendors of Pompeii and Herculaneum, in the working-class neighborhoods, Pizza was cooked in wood-fired ovens, conceived as a "single dish", nutritious and balanced, rich in inviting flavour, to be eaten hot and strictly with your hands. Its preparation then continued to improve over time until the famous Pizza Margherita was born in 1889, when the chef from Naples, Raffaele Esposito, named his pizza in honor of the Queen of Italy Margherita of Savoy. Today, Pizza is widespread worldwide, always with the same name, regardless of whether it is purchased in a Neapolitan bakery or in a street kiosk in New York, in a pizzeria in Rome or in a supermarket in Paris. Perhaps this is precisely what makes Pizza the most successful product in the world Made in Italy:, the strength of being profoundly Italian but at the same time profoundly international.
And the pizza recipe?
Obviously there is an ancient Neapolitan recipe, but also countless variations and reinterpretations, up to the present day with a specification ofAssociazione Verace Pizza Napoletana which sets the guidelines to be respected when preparing a real Pizza. But the beauty of this wonderful food is that everyone is free to follow their own recipe, developing and enriching it, following your tastes and indulging your culinary preferences. However, it must be said that you have to be truly diabolical to prepare a Pizza that is not pleasant to eat. It is first of all necessary to underline that in its preparation only extra virgin olive oil coming from cold pressing must be used, since it is the one that alters the physical, chemical and organoleptic characteristics of the food less than any other and which undergoes the least alterations during cooking. other condiments such as lard or seed oil. The other pillar to be respected is obviously represented by the dough which must be made strictly by hand. Without going into the specifics of the recipe which will be reported elsewhere, it is essential to underline the importance of leavening. If done correctly this allows the Pizza to be light and easily digestible. This is why Pizza can only be Italian. We have our own times and the dough needs plenty of time to mature correctly (connoisseurs speak of at least 8 hours...). Can you imagine an American or an Englishman preparing the dough? For them, an hour of leavening would be an infinity...
And finally a reflection: we Italians are special in many areas, from the work sector to the recreational sector, from food, to art, to music, to sport, and the economic and values crisis that the world is experiencing in recent years is putting many to the test. of our abilities and aptitudes, making us lose those certainties that we once had and were proud of. But this phase is destined to end and just as in the past we were able to pull ourselves out of the darkness of the Middle Ages with a rebirth, we will also be able to do the same today. And the restart can start right from Pizza!!! We Italians are the best in the world and just tasting a slice will always remind us of this...!!!
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