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of anchovies, strong sheep’s milk cheese like cacio- cavallo and a smattering of bread crumbs make frequent appearances on Sicilian pies. But even within the Sicilian region, there are hyper- local differences in pizza styles. In the province of Catania, scacciata satisfies pizza cravings with a thin dough that has been folded over on itself several times and stuffed with a certain pairing of

Neapolitan pizza is on UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage items

to make pizzas for King Umberto and Queen Margherita of Italy while they were staying at the Royal Palace of Capodimonte in Naples. He (and his wife, Rosa Brandi) made three different types of pies: one with lardo, cheese and basil; one with garlic, oil, oregano and tomato; and a final pizza topped with tomatoes, mozzarella and basil — the colors of the Italian flag. The queen was so enraptured with the final pie that it is said Esposito named it after her: pizza Margherita .

acceptable ingredients (ricotta cheese and onion or tomato and eggplant, for example) to form a loaf-like treat that some refer to as “lasagna bread.” In the province of Messina, a local cheese known as toma and endive reign supreme as toppings. And in the province of Siracusa, there’s the pizzolo , which involves stacking two fairly plain, herb-dusted pizzas atop one another and then stuffing a filling between the two.

This kind of malleability can also be seen in how pizza has taken on numerous forms in cities across the United States, bringing with it a heap of contentiousness and some hotly contested rivalries. There are the thin, Neapolitan-influ- enced pies of the Northeast-at-large: from New York City’s “by the slice” culture, to New Haven’s coal-fired “apizza,” to clam-topped pies. There’s the almost casserole-like deep dish pizzas of Chicago — an All-American construction if ever there was one. Detroit has its own chewy-meets-crispy spin on pizza crust, while St. Louis pledges pizza allegiance to a crust that’s cracker-thin. Above all else, pizza’s simplicity and true timeless- ness are qualities that make it infinitely open to interpretation. And whether you’re eating at the latest high-end pizzeria with a gorgeously

Of course, Esposito didn’t invent the pizza specif- ically for the queen — that part’s a false history. What we now know as the pizza Margherita had been produced at least as far back as 1796, and even described by historian Francesco De Bourcard in an 1866 account of the most common pizzas of the day: “The most ordinary pizzas, called coll’aglio e l’olio (with garlic and oil), are dressed with oil…as well as salt, oregano and garlic cloves shredded minutely. Others are covered with grated cheese and dressed with lard, and then they put over few leaves of basil. Over the firsts is often added some small seafish; on the seconds some thin slices of mozza- rella. Sometimes they use slices of prosciutto...” Today, Neapolitan pizza is on UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage items, and the construction of “authentic” versions of the dish is policed by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana. Among other super-strict guidelines,

Queen Margherita of Italy

tiled, wood-fired pizza oven, or ordering delivery from an old standby neighbor- hood joint while watching Netflix

true Neapolitan pizza dough must be formed by hand without the help of a rolling pin or machine and baked for 60 to 90 seconds in a 905-degree wood-fire oven. And while Queen Margherita didn’t exactly get a pizza made just for her upper-crust taste buds, her affection for pizza saw its popularity flood every region of Italy in a fever pitch for an afford- able working-class food that had suddenly received the royal stamp of approval. Seemingly overnight, almost every region of Italy was eager to offer their own spin on pizza, establishing regional traditions that continue to this day. In Rome, there’s pizza al taglio (“by the cut”), where pizzas bake in a large rectangular pan and are then sliced into whatever size the customer desires. (Much like in a fancy cheese shop, the pizza is weighed, paid for according to weight, and eaten as a to-go snack.) There’s also pizza Romana tonda in Rome — a round pie with a particularly crispy, thin crust — as well as an eclectic mix of pizzas categorized according

in your sweatpants, pizza will continue to strike the perfect balance between being an old friend and an ever-evolving form of oven- baked, edible art.

to size or presentation, like pizza a metro (pizza by the meter) and pizza in pala (pizza served on a wooden paddle). And then there’s Sicilian pizza, which is known for its doughy, dense crust that’s closer to focaccia than the flexible-yet-thin Neapol- itan style. In addition to its distinguishable bready base, this type of pizza is perhaps most recogniz- able for its emphasis on locally sourced toppings: lots

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