by Enzo Coccia
In a previous article, I wrote about the birth of the baked Neapolitan pizza. Now, I’d like to talk about another Neapolitan pizza that we Neapolitans simply call “a’ pizza fritta”(deep-fried pizza). Already in 1789, in the Neapolitan-Tuscan dialects dictionary, the abbot Ferdinando Galiani writes about the definition of the various pizzas, as “la pizza...
by Enzo Coccia
I must admit that I liked Cracco’s pizza a lot. But, mind you, I would like to clarify something. I liked it not for its taste and aspect because I’ve never had the pleasure to try it.
But I felt a real satisfaction, a real pleasure when I noticed that all the insiders, the associations, the Neapolitans,...
by Enzo Coccia
The last day of Carnival, as everyone knows, is called Mardi Gras or also Fat Tuesday. That day the lunch is particularly substantial: it starts with lasagna, then it continues with pork chops combined with a genuine Gragnano red wine; and lastly, as a dessert we eat Mardi Gras fritters, the black pudding and migliaccio (Neapolitan...
by Enzo Coccia
If we ask any person when the Neapolitan pizza was born, he/she will answer, without hesitation, that it was invented in honor of Queen Margherita. That fateful day, on June 11, 1889, in the Royal Palace of Capodimonte in Naples, only the name Margherita was born as some historical texts of the mid-nineteenth century describe the...
by Enzo Coccia
After the celebrations by all of us pizzaioli for the UNESCO’s acknowledgement of the art of Neapolitan pizzaiuolo as an intangible heritage of humanity, during these days I asked myself an immense number of questions: how can this important statement be confirmed over time? How can we safeguard this recognition? What are the strategies to...
by Enzo Coccia
Today, I am writing the third article on the “menu saga” because, after having been studied, conceived and proposed to the customers, it is time to make the pizzas.
I would like to make some considerations on how a preparation, in this case the pizza, can become an excellent or an awful dish using the same...
by Enzo Coccia
The Vera Pizza Napoletana Association and the Neapolitan Pizzaiuoli Association proclaimed January 17th “Giornata del pizzaiuolo napoletano” (Day of the Neapolitan pizzaiolo). The choice of the date is not accidental because on this day we celebrate Sant'Antuono Abate, which is considered the protector of the bakers and the pizzaioli who cooked their pizzas, from ancient Greece,...
by Enzo Coccia
I have been thinking about the importance to go back to the past to make progress for a long time. Let me explain myself better: reintroducing those agricultural products, those flavors of the past and proposing them in contemporary recipes again with the hope that this operation will give meaning to our work and the economic...
by Enzo Coccia
The other morning, leaving my home, I met Virginia and Carmela, my two very smart neighbors, which smiled at me and started to talk to me. Virginia said: “Mr. Enzo I saw you on tv celebrating the Neapolitan pizza”. Therefore, I explained that we were not celebrating the pizza but the art of the Neapolitan...
by Enzo Coccia
To reinforce and make the Christmas Eve dinner more substantial with a light menu based on spaghetti with clams and boiled fish, people prepared a salad with steamed cauliflower, sweet or spicy peppers (called papaccelle in Naples), and salt anchovies.
Over the years, this custom has become a real tradition and there is no home in Naples...
