L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 2018 www.italoamericano.org 28 L'Italo-Americano M odern pizza rhy- mes more with evolution than tra- dition. After its re- cent appointment to the UNESCO Intangible World Heritage List, the dish symbol of the Made in Italy and of Italian his- tory and tradition all around the world, starts looking at the future. Just as it happened to the world of cuisine, pizza has been going through an evolution -indeed, al- most a revolution - that makes of research, attention to ingredients and knowledge of local traditions and produce the very core of the pizzaiolo profession. It is a process of radical innovation that created gourmet pizza. The first Italian chef who be- lieved in this new interpretation of pizza was Simone Padoan in 2007. In San Bonifacio, a small hamlet in the Verona area, Padoan started playing around with different types of flours, rising agents and top- pings, becoming a pioneer for a new generation of pizzaioli. His baking philosophy soon spread all over the country, from North to South, from Verona to Naples. In Italy, you can find gourmet pizze- rias in Turin, Milan, Florence and even in Alba, a sign we're truly dealing with a new trend born thanks to the union of pizzaioli's baking art and chefs' haute cuisine expertise. The result is a gourmet dish born off the hands of specialists of the leavening process, well versed in the many secrets of the stone ovens and Mediterranean ingredi- ents they rigorously use for their creations. But also off the hands of chefs who, on a perfect, natu- rally leavened base, balance each and every flavor to create a unique harmony. This new concept usu- ally comes in good company: completing this amazing gastro- nomic experience are artisan beers, selected wines and fancy bubbles - from Lambrusco to Champagne - matched to pizzas that are, at once, both mirror to the tradition and terroir they belong to, and re- sult of nation-wide search for high quality ingredients and production techniques. Where can we find, though, this new, modern version of pizza, the queen of Italian street food? We asked Enrico Trova, chef famous for his restaurants in Beverly Hills and Asti, where he proposes dishes typical of the Piedmontese and Ligurian culinary tradition. Trova has also recently opened Crust, a name that evokes the crunchiness and fragrance of Pizza Napole- tana. "Pizza made it into the world of high end cuisine; it's the result of pizzaioli's will to become am- bassadors, just like famous chefs, of the culinary tradition, ingredi- ents and baking methods typical of their area, while giving it a per- MANUELA CARACCIOLO Colors: what looks good chromat- ically, it's good for the palate, too. So, what's on the menu? We'll begin with some simple starters, made with ingredients you can find also among the pizza top- pings. Then we'll pass on to piz- zas, in all their varieties. In alter- native, one can choose a four course tasting menu where pizzas are served by the slice. Our Margherita is made richer by bur- rata or buffalo mozzarella, for in- stance. Excellent is our pizza with mortadella di Prato, grigio di Casentino and Bronte pistacchi's pesto. Or the most Piedmontese of them all, that brings together Roc- caverano DOP robiola, cardo gobbo, and pancetta rosticciata. We have a pizza topped with peas, lime and tequila guacamole and salmon, or the Wolfgang Puck, named after the creator of the first gourmet pizza and chef for the LA Academy Awards, who introduced it to be served to Hollywood stars. The pizza we dedicate to him is topped with sockeye salmon, mar- inated in beer infused salt. Tell us something about the food and beverages pairings We propose a wide selection of beers all served in teku 3 glasses created by Le Baladin, one of our suppliers. We have Ipa, Weiss, Apa, Tripel and they are all pre- sented on the basis of their fra- grance and after taste, not only their typology. Very interesting is also our Alta Langa bar concept, unique in the world at the moment, where we propose a selection of wines from the Alta Langa wine Consortium paired specifically with our pizza creations. From street food to ingenious base for gourmet recipes, today's pizza 2.0 is the evolution of a sym- bol of Italian gastronomy around the world, worthy to represent not only history and tradition, but also creativity and the desire to exper- iment with it. Don't worry, though: there's no need to "understand" gourmet pizzas, you just need to eat them. If you are in Italy, you can find gourmet pizzas at: Stefano Vola's Bontà per Tutti in Santo Stefano Belbo (CN); Simone Padoan's I Tigli in San Bonifacio (VR); En- rico Trova e soci's Crust in Asti; Matteo Tambini and Davide Fiorentini's 'O Fiore Mio in Faenza; Marzia Buzzanca's Per- corsi di Gusto and Stefano Calle- gari's L'Aquila Tonda in Rome; Franco Pepe's Pepe in Grani in Caiazzo (CE); Enzo Coccia's La Notizia in Naples; Angelo Ru- molo's Grotto Pizzeria Castello in Caggiano (SA); Salvatore Gatta's Fandango in Scalera (PZ) and Massimo Bosco's Pizzeria Bosco in Tempio Pausania (OT). Pizza is a simple dish steeped in tradition, but gourmet versions are becoming more and more popular sonal twist. Certainly, Simone Padoan's pizza is gourmet pizza at its best. Not many others do it as well as he does. His philosophy involves trying more than one type of pizza, made using ingredients of the highest quality, pizzas to be shared among many diners sitting around a table. In other words, gourmet pizza is the one that comes already sliced, as thick as focaccia, with its more or less pre- cious toppings perfectly distrib- uted on each slice to offer a perfect bite to all." Which type of scents and im- ages are evoked by this dish which, it seems evident, is quite different from a simple, regular pizza? Gourmet pizza is a gastronomic trip through Italian delicacies and quality ingredients, most of which are Slow Food recognized: from Mazara's red shrimps to Nizza's cardo gobbo, from Mora Romag- nola's pancetta to Ariccia's porchetta, all the way to the buc- cularu di suino nero dei Nebrodi. For the past year, my team and I have been travelling in search of high quality, very traditional prod- ucts including patanegra ham, Spanish chorizo, wild salmon va- rieties, with the aim of offering to our customers a pizza that is as authentic as the original Margherita, but that is also able to transcend its simplicity. Beside its toppings, in what is a gourmet pizza different from a traditional one? We don't only use fresh, sea- sonal ingredients, but also accom- pany our pizzas with high quality wines and beers, more than thirty in fact, all selected among the pro- duction of Piedmont micro-brew- eries. A perfect product is obtained by keeping alive the ties with local tradition, by using live lievito madre (natural yeast occurring from dough's fermentation), by letting the dough rest and bake for longer than a regular pizza. It is essential the pizza base has well balanced flavors, too: when you eat a piece of pizza, flavors are quick to mix with one another in your mouth, yet some tend to be more persistent than others, bit- terness for instance. To be well balanced, a dish needs to have a bit of bitter, a bit of acidic, a bit of sweet and a bit of savory. Another way to pick the right ingredients? Pizza shows its moder n version... and don't call it simply Margherita! Ingredients like cardo gobbo, buccularu or the mortadella di Prato are among the new, gourmet ingredients used on pizza LIFESTYLE FASHION FOOD ARTS ADVICE

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