World Pizza Day 2022: 10 champion pizzas to celebrate

Luckily there is pizza: makes us face even the saddest day of the year with a smile. On January 17th, Blue Monday, considered the most melancholy for us inhabitants of the northern hemisphere, is also the World Pizza Day: the world day dedicated to the most famous and loved dish in the world, the same as Sant’Antonio, protector of bakers and pizza makers.

On average – Confartigianato data – they bake three billion pizzas a year, and the figures are constantly growing. For example, in the last quarter of 2021 orders on Deliveroo grew by 70% compared to the same period of the previous year. Because yes, we are passionate about dough at home, we have even become experts in ovens and flours, but the truth is that pizza is an art and that the one eaten in a pizzeria (or made in a pizzeria but eaten at home) is always the best.

Pizza according to a pizza master

It can also be worth the trip if it is prepared by a great teacher. As Francesco Martucci, pizza chef and patron de And Masanielli in Caserta, for three years in a row at the top of the 50 Top Pizza, awarded by critics and the public for the perfect doughs steamed, fried and then baked, gourmet fillings but always pop, ambassador of this dish which – also thanks to masters like him – has no equal will never go out of style.

«Pizza – says Francesco Martucci – has now become part of the global gastronomic culture. Our job is to do pizza culture, telling the tradition, the territory, sharing a story with those who sit at our table. This requires awareness, conscience and study: today’s pizza chef is much quicker to understand the world, and does a lot of research on raw materials, to offer a pizza that is both tasty and healthier at the same time. This has also contributed to changing the way in which pizza is considered, wrongly for a long time considered to be “Serie B”: now nothing is left to approximation, it is also thanks to increasingly more informed customers “.

Seeing is believing: in the 500 square meters of I Masanielli, 180 are dedicated to tables and 320 to the open kitchen where Francesco Martucci and the 40 guys who work with him knead, bake, fry, cook the ingredients with which they prepare thousands of pizzas a week of a decidedly eclectic menu. “I take inspiration from everything: from a toast that I eat in a hurry at home or from the scent of cut grass that I feel when I walk with the dog. It can also be a memory: for example a recipe from the grandmother that gives you a good mood. I really like to go around, taste, discover the world with those who live there in the neighborhoods off the tourist trail. I am curious, I experiment, and I like the customer to do the same: sit down and become curious one bite after another, eager to eat again to understand how I put together the ingredients and savor the doughs that give a new perception each time. Pizza – continues Martucci – it must be like a book to leaf through».

The 10 pizzas for World Pizza Day

A taste are the 10 pizzas that Francesco Martucci recommended to us to celebrate World Pizza Day: 10 sensational flavors that tell of his research, dedication, professionalism, but also of how pizza has changed while remaining pop, faithful to its DNA «Because pizza – says Martucci – is a popular dish and must remain within everyone’s reach. Also in this you can see how good a pizza chef is ».

Where to start? Future of Marinara, Martucci’s workhorse. «It is a pizza – he says – that tells how the world of pizza is evolving: starting from the more traditional taste to take a leap, with a dough in three different types of cooking and research ingredients. For example, wild garlic, which gives a twist of flavor ». Another classic revisited, reinterpretation of sausages and broccoli, by Martucci è Hands of Velvet: cream of broccoli, sausage with a knife tip of pork pelatello Teanese, buffalo mozzarella and pecorino from the Lattari mountains. «We have reduced the broccoli in cream with the water of the buffalo ricotta, creating a new taste never tried, more delicate and easier to eat. For me – says Martucci – this pizza is a bit like the 60s of music: a kind of revolution ». Nostalgia for grandma’s summer snacks with bread and tomato? As it once was is a pizza with wholemeal dough cooked in three different ways, peeled San Marzano tomato, roasted San Marzano tomato, Guanciale pelatello teanese (black pork from Caserta), pecorino cheese, basil: “It reminds me of the stale bread toasted with the tomato sauce that my grandmother gave me he prepared when I was a child ». Are you a simple pizza? There Pink with Agerola provolone, pink salami, courgette chips it is perfect. Do you like to dare? There is Vintage with rocket pesto, mozzarella, veal fillet tartare marinated in rancid raw ham, waffle of pecorino cheese from the Lattari Mountains, lemon zest. «The inspiration – concludes Martucci – came to me looking at a creation with an earth distillate by Jordi Loca (the confectioner of El Celler De Can Roca in Girona, three Michelin stars and one of the best restaurants in the world, ed). I wanted to create a pizza that gave the idea of ​​an ancient book. It was a fixed thought: I’ve been thinking about it for 4 years and then, finally, I found the perfect formula ».

Here are 10 of Francesco Martucci’s unmissable pizzas:

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