From our blog enAsunción.it
The true Pizza, in Paraguay is located in the Villa Morra district of Asunción. In this district, founded by the Italian - Foggia - Francesco Morra) is the pizzeria and restaurant Pulcinella. In addition to the Neapolitan "DOC" pizza, you can taste a glorious puttanesca or an amatriciana, sip Italian wines, season with chilli pepper and strictly tricolor extra virgin olive oil as well as San Marzano tomatoes - whose seeds come from the slopes of Vesuvius - like everything that can be found in the room, oven and cruet included. Even the mozzarella cheese it is own production.
Pasquale Maione defines himself as a "globetrotter". He is a merchant, but probably his deepest vocation is that of the pizza maker.
For some years, after a life in Germany, he has lived in Asunción del Paraguay. It imports Ferrari, Fiat, Ducati, Benelli… but here it is known more than anything else as “el dueño (the owner) de Pulcinella”. This is the name of his pizzeria, perhaps the only one where you can eat authentic Neapolitan pizza in Paraguay.
Pulcinella, the pizza according to Pasquale Maione
Pasquale Maione arrives for the first time in Asunción in 2005. He comes to visit Santino, a dear childhood friend. He comes back several times, on vacation. Born in Naples, Maione grew up in Germany where he then dedicated himself to the importation of cars and motorcycles. At the same time, he responded to the "call" of the vocation that his grandfather, a baker in Borgo Sant'Antonio, sent him.
Learn the art ...
“Learn the art and put it aside”, his grandfather said to him when he, at the age of 5 or 6, helped him in the bakery. And in fact, “with the art I learned I earned what I needed to study”, Pasquale says. Besides, he learned how to make pizza! Already in Germany, while selling cars, he had opened a restaurant (and then two others), and for this reason he studied cooking. worked with Michelin star chefs. “In 2011”, Maione tells italiani.it, “I was a bit bored in Europe. I am a globetrotter… I liked Paraguay. I was thinking of staying for fifteen days and I stayed for eight months ”. In 2012 he was convinced, and moved to Asunción, where he continues to market cars while also practicing gastronomy.
The taste he couldn't find
“When I arrived, I was going to eat in different places, but I couldn't find the flavor I was used to. Then I thought: 'Let's open a pizzeria and make known the taste of real Neapolitan pizza' ". Said and done. Even if it wasn't easy. “The flour here is not the same”, explains Maione, “it has a protein content of 6-7%, while the Italian one has 12-13%. We have to integrate it with natural additives, and with an ingredient that I cannot reveal here ”, he concludes with mystery.
With his pizza chef, they work as their grandfather taught them. “In 25 kg of flour, people here put about 1 kg of yeast. We take three to five grams per kilo of pasta ”, he explains. The secret is in the "maturation" of the dough, which must "rest for at least 24 hours and acquire the optimal elasticity to be worked without 'tearing'", and is cooked in a wood oven at over 300 degrees for about a minute. Maione recalls that "the art of Neapolitan pizza chefs" is Unesco's "intangible heritage of humanity", as is the Mediterranean diet.
Pasquale Maione's trattoria and pizzeria
In Pulcinella everything is Italian. You can taste a risotto with porcini mushrooms, salted cod Neapolitan style, pumpkin ravioli, tagliatelle with truffles ... or cured meats such as Bresaola della Valtellina, speck from South Tyrol and, of course, the Parma ham and San Daniele. Tomatoes grow in his backyard. Pasquale cultivates them in containers that he can expose or remove from the open air, in order to "manage" the amount of rain and sun they receive. It is curious how this vegetable, native to the American continent, is better in Italy, in terms of taste and acidity.
100% organic
“The vegetables we use are 100% organic”, explains Pasquale Maione. "AND production of a couple of Italians who then decided to move to the countryside and produce with Italian seeds ". With pride, he points out that a great variety of plants is preserved in the Bel Paese. “In the world there are 1.227 varieties of apples, and in Italy, 997. France, a great producer of wines, has 200 different qualities of grapes. In Italy there are 1.800 ”.
Why Pulcinella?
Pulcinella is a character from the Neapolitan commedia dell'arte based on a certain Puccio D'Aniello, a peasant who joined a theater company. “When you tell a person that he is a 'Pulcinella', it means that is a friendly, cheerful person ... that name reflects my personality a little ", comments Pasquale.
