Maradona, coffee, pizza. These are things that are not joked about in Naples, untouchable sacred monsters of tradition, marble capitals of local culture that no one can even try to move a millimetre. Spaghetti, too, and puff pastry. And the pastiera that is prepared only at Easter. They are not stereotypes: the fact is thatand food, in Campania as elsewhere in Italy, is an integral part of cultural rootssomething identifying, and must remain the same if the goal is to continue to have an identity.
So, for some, pizza with pineapple becomes an insult, an abomination, but so is Carlo Cracco's pizza, which ended up at the center of social controversy for its price and for being so “different” from the traditional one. He is therefore surprised that a super Neapolitan chef already from the name, indeed, perhaps the most famous of contemporary Neapolitan chefs, has decided to touch the fetish of fetishes of his land: pizza.
He called her «It's not a pizza» Gennaro Esposito, two Michelin star chef at Torre del Saracinoa wonderful restaurant overlooking the Gulf and Vesuvius, and former face of Masterchef Junior. The idea, probably, was to get our hands on this one “pizza” is very light and crunchy (and good, it must be said, helped by the chef's tomato sauce, which is phenomenal) which he serves in some of his establishments (at the Apogée Courchevel, in the French Alps, at the Gennaro's restaurant in Capri and at the Centumbrie bistro in Umbria). It's not a pizza, but something different, which however has an interesting history.
The history of Gennaro Esposito's thin pizza
«We inherited this way of making pizza from the old Da Gemma restaurant in Capri», explains Gennaro Esposito. «In a documentary on pizza in Naples from 1967 (which can also be found online) we had seen this historic Gemma pizza chef prepares a very thin pizzaand we took over the recipe.”
A historical recipe, therefore, traditional even if perhaps not as successful over time as the classic Neapolitan pizza. Which, however, Gennaro Esposito wanted to recover, also as a tribute to that very famous place. The reason for this choice, however, is also gastronomic. «We wanted to make a product that had all the taste, flavor and aroma characteristics of pizza, but which was not a single dish: in this much lighter format, pizza becomes a snack, an aperitif» continues the chef. «It is also very light and digestible, because in the way we make it the activity of the yeast is almost eliminated».
To do it, the classic pizza dough (with a minimal quantity of yeast compared to usual) is rolled out very thin, and then the pizza is cooked at a lower temperature than normal. So it stays crunchy and low. «It is still a pizza that winks at typicality – says Gennaro Esposito – but the important thing is that we do not propose it as a pizzeria product, but as an element that completes a restaurant experience». And he specifies: «It absolutely does not want to be a substitute for pizza: we have not invaded that field, nor do we want to desecrate it».
Source: Vanity Fair
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