The principle of the pizza seems as old as the world, just like the bread whose dough is the unchanging element of the recipe. From antiquity, we find analogies with focaccia - flat bread - even if the said cake was certainly not the composition we know today. As the tomato was not eaten in Europe until the 16th century, after having been discovered in the Americas, it is therefore a “ bianca ” pizza , which has become so trendy nowadays, which was tasted until then.
This fashion change, we undoubtedly owe it to Italy and even more to the city of Naples to engrave forever the fate of pizza. The best known is obviously the Margherita which would have been created in tribute to Queen Margherita di Savoia when King Umberto I went to Naples in June 1889 to rally the city to its cause of national unity. The tomato, the mozzarella - buffalo - and the basil symbolize the three colors of the Italian flag, but are just as much emblematic foods of the territory of Campania, just like the common wheat which makes the flour (00 - double zero) for the dough.
Read also: Pizza, the best guide to Naples
From Naples to New York
La Margherita offered by the Parisian pizzeria Bijou. Azzurra Motta / Photo press jewel
For a Neapolitan, pizza is therefore certainly born here. Unlike the thin and crisp Roman pizza, the Neapolitan has a very soft and swollen dough around the edge. It cooks in just 1 minute in ovens heated to 500 °. Average price: between 5 and 8 € in one of the 3500 pizzerias in the city. This means that we can easily let ourselves be tempted by this delicacy which here has a unique taste. Some addresses also offer it fried: a very typical local recipe which is in fact a calezone cooked in a bath of boiling olive oil.
During the second half of the 19th century, Naples was one of the main ports of Italian migration. We are talking about some 26 million Italians crossing the Atlantic, not counting those who left by land across Europe. So many reasons to widely disseminate this dish of which the indigenous peoples will quickly become fans. According to certain comments found in the documentary series Ugly Delicious by chef David Chang (Netflix), the pizza owes everything to New York and to the Italian-Americans who allowed it to evolve and become what it is today. As if the very principle of pizza was intended to give free rein to creation.
Back to basics
As at Ober Mamma in Paris, today pizzaoili redouble their efforts to use high quality products. Clémentine Philippon / BIG MAMMA press photo
Besides, even in Italy, do we not cross specialties a bit divergent but established for a long time in uses such as pizza al taglio (cut) cooked on large rectangular trays and sold by weight or even the pizzetta, small in size, made with a puff pastry.
In recent years, however, pizza has imposed a certain return to basics (Margherita, Napoli, Marinara, etc.), not to mention respect for values and methods. The time of the semi-industrial pizzas delivered at home, heads pizzaoili redouble their effort to use high-quality products, favoring local sourcing, and work revenue, including the making of a better dough and therefore more digestible , or even gluten-free. And this deployment of know-how to attract an audience ready to queue several tens of minutes before being able to obtain a table. If there is an advice in the choice on a menu: play the card of a simple garnish, 3 to 4 elements maximum, in order to be able to appreciate the taste of each of them.
Good pizza addresses in Figaro
IN ITALY
Concettina ai due santi, Via Arena alla Sanità 7 Bis, Naples. Phone. : +39 081 290 037.
Sorbillo Via dei Tribunali 32, Naples. Phone. : +39 081 446 643.
La Gatta Mangiona, Via Federico Ozanam, 30/32, Roma. Phone. : +39 06 53 46 702.
IN FRANCE
Bijou, 10, rue Dancourt, 75018 Paris. Phone. : 01 42 57 47 29.
( Due to the confinement, the pizzeria currently offers takeaway " contactless ")
Ober Mamma, 107, Boulevard Richard Lenoir, 75011 Paris. Phone. : 01 58 30 62 78.
Metà e Metà, 47 Rue du Capitaine Dreyfus, 93100 Montreuil. Phone. : 01 48 32 50 99.
( Due to confinement, the pizzeria currently offers delivery with Deliveroo and Uber Eats )
La Bonne Mère, 16, rue Fort-du-Sanctuaire, Marseille. Phone. : 04 91 58 22 05.
Also: Libertino, kitsch pizzeria from the Big Mamma group