L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 2021 www.italoamericano.org 26 L'Italo-Americano M y love for p i z z a f r i t t a ( f r i e d p i z z a ) dates back to the years of high school. One of my best f r i e n d s ' d a d w a s f r o m Naples and he would make it quite regularly: tales about how good it was were legen- dary. My friend once told me that the day he would make pizza fritta for me, it meant I was part of the family: need- less to say, I was flattered when that day came. Indeed, his pizza fritta was delicious a n d I l o v e d i t s o m u c h I b e g a n m a k i n g i t m y s e l f , e s p e c i a l l y w h e n I m o v e d abroad: it was a culinary hit a m o n g m y i n t e r n a t i o n a l friends. A s h e e x p l a i n e d t o m e t h a t e v e n i n g , N e a p o l i t a n p i z z a f r i t t a i s d e e p f r i e d pizza dough filled with, tra- ditionally, ricotta, mozzarel- la and salame; you could also use tomato sauce, if you wanted, and anchovies. The secret, he continued, was to keep the dough thicker than you'd do for a regular pizza, so that the final result was f r a g r a n t , c r u n c h y o n t h e outside and soft on the insi- de. P i z z a f r i t t a , a s E r i k a Hobart from BBC Travel w r o t e r e c e n t l y , i s i c o n i c Neapolitan pizza's "lesser k n o w n c o u s i n : " i n d e e d , e v e r y o n e i s f a m i l i a r w i t h pizza Napoletana, not only in Naples and ingredients for pizza were not simple to come by, so Neapolitans used their proverbial creati- vity and found alternative i n g r e d i e n t s a n d c o o k i n g methods to keep enjoying their favorite dish. Pizza was fried instead of baked, and ingredients like anchovies and cheap vegeta- bles like broccoli, both easier to get, became part of the r e c i p e . C i n o t t o s a i d t o H o b a r t t h a t p a r t s o f t h e vegetables one would usual- ly discard, such as artichoke s t e m s , w e r e a l s o u s e d , because — and there isn't greater truth — "whatever you fry becomes palatable." P i z z a f r i t t a b e c a m e a n i m m e d i a t e h i t a n d w a s known as "the pizza of the people." It was sold on the s t r e e t a n d m a n y v e n d o r s would propose the ogge a otto deal, that is, you could get your pizza fritta today and pay in eight days time: a n i n c r e d i b l e a d v a n t a g e w h e n r e s t r i c t i o n s a n d poverty were common. Post w a r p o p u l a r c u l t u r e p a i d homage to pizza fritta, too. In particular, we remember one of the six episodes in Vittorio de Sica's L'oro di Napoli (1954, also known in English as The Gold of N a p l e s ) , w h e r e S o p h i a Loren played a pizza fritta vendor who cheated on her husband. But when it comes to the origins of food, not everyone agrees and this happens for pizza fritta, too. According to food historian and profes- sor Fabio Parasecoli, of the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies at New York University, the World War Two theory may not be t h e r i g h t o n e . W h i l e h e agrees on the fact frying was easier than baking during the war and that, undoub- tedly, people did try and use c h e a p e r i n g r e d i e n t s , Parasecoli underlines that r e c i p e s i n v o l v i n g f r i e d d o u g h a r e p r e s e n t s i n cooking books dating back to the 16th century, a sign of their popularity many centu- ries before the last war. D u r i n g t h e 1 9 8 0 s a n d because it's good, but also because it became, back in 2017, part of UNESCO's World Heritage. The origins of these par- cels of deliciousness are not v e r y c l e a r . A c c o r d i n g t o Simone Cinotto, associate professor of modern history at Pollenzo's Università di Scienze Gastronomiche, and a u t h o r o f T h e I t a l i a n A m e r i c a n T a b l e : F o o d , Family and Community in New York City, pizza fritta — just like another staple of Italian cuisine, carbonara — was born during the years of the Second World War. A l l i e d b o m b i n g s h a d destroyed most stone ovens 1 9 9 0 s w e b e c a m e a l l healthier, so pizza fritta lost some its popularity. Cinotto says its association with the lower classes may also have had a role in its decline in those years. However, it cer- tainly remained in the heart of Neapolitans, because my own first encounter with it, courtesy, as I mentioned, of a l o v e l y N e a p o l i t a n d a d , happened in the late 1990s. Pizza fritta gained its fame b a c k i n t h e p a s t d e c a d e , though: specialized vendors are back in Naples' streets and many Neapolitan pizze- rias, even in other regions of Italy, offer it in their menu today. S o m e c u r i o s i t i e s : t h e name "pizza fritta" should be used only when you make it with two dough disks, one for the base — on which you place the filling — and one for the top; if you use only o n e d i s k a n d t o p i t w i t h tomato and basil after frying the dough, then we call it montanara fritta. If, on the o t h e r h a n d , y o u u s e o n e disk, fill it, close it as a half moon (just like a calzone) and fry it, then you'll have a battilocchio. Pizza fritta Napoletana is n o t t h e o n l y e x a m p l e o f fried, filled dough in Italy, as other southern regions have their own versions of it. The most famous are, perhaps, Puglia's panzarotti, which are traditionally filled with tomato and mozzarella and have a thinner dough shell. FRANCESCA BEZZONE Pizza fritta, one of the best street food you can get (Photo: Roberto Binetti/Dreamstime) LA BUONA TAVOLA RECIPES COOKING TIPS SEASONAL DISHES How good is pizza fritta?

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