by Enzo Coccia
Several years ago, I started thinking about a book dedicated to deep-fried pizza when, during one of my master classes at a cooking school, the people who took part in it asked me an infinity of information. The questions were certainly different and concerned the history, the doughs, the cooking, the manipulation technique and so on.
However, although the project appeared immediately interesting, I left it out because in the meantime I began to devote myself to writing the scientific book on the Neapolitan pizzawith Prof. Paolo Masi, then Head of the Department of Agriculture at University Federico II of Naples in Portici, and with Annalisa Romano, PhD and director of the Caisial at the same Department.
It took two years to complete that very important scientific project and things, as often happens, come in quick succession. I remember that I could not even complete the various book launches that, in 2015, I literally plunged into the birth and management of my third place ‘O Sfizio d’a Notizia, a format focused on the tasting of deep-fried pizzas and ‘mpustarelle (a typical Neapolitan poor breakfast) combined with bubbles.
Finally, last year, I decided, resolutely and seriously, to resume my purpose and to start writing a book about deep-fried pizza. Alongside with the publisher Guido Tommasi, we decided to make it accessible to different readers (housewives, employees and insiders).
Pizza Fritta, a simple, but direct title, is a work that collects notes about the history of fried foods, the origin and localization of the pizza in the city of Naples, the preparation of the pizza dough, the temperature of the oil, the filling with 30 recipes and also the mistakes to avoid. Finally, it was born and now I’m involved in a number of presentations around Italy. Posterity will judge it.
In the meantime, we are waiting for the book orders to increase, or rather, the dough to rise and… let’s fry it!
