Article RSS Feed

Pizza Geography

August 09, 2009

Pizza and Geography Connections Coming Soon!

Count the Calories

August 22, 2009

The Pizza-Only Diet?

Pizzas in Naples are much healthier than their North American Counterparts. Tomato sauce has little extra added sugar, mozzarella is less likely to be processed, and there are far more vegetables to be found on Neapolitan pizzas.

But, even with all those healthy aspects of Italian Pizzas, eating 365 pizzas still results in quite a few calories and carbs consumed.See the latest news clip from AFN on eating pizza and losing weight at:

Eat and Run

For pizza eating I try to adhere to the following routine. It is important to run a set distance before you eat pizza since burning calories, and raising your metabolism helps to make you both hungrier for the pizza, and digest it faster. It also has the added benefit of making the pizza taste better. If ‘hunger makes a good chef’ then running makes for good hunger.

Normal Dinner Plate-Sized Pizza:  Run 3 Miles (or about 5 kilometers)

Pizza Al-Metro, One-Meter Pizza:  Run 6 Miles (or about 10 kilometers)

Nutella Chocolate Pizza:          Run 7 Miles (or about 11 kilometers)

A local news organization covered my pizza eating routine for a day, and should have the clips at the following link if you have facebook:

Face Book Pizza Video Link

A short video on eating pizza and exercising should be available shortly

Pizza Law

August 09, 2009

The Three Pizza Laws

After eating over 200 pizzas in Italy, I have learned a few things that can drastically improve your chance of having a wonderful pizza, rather than just an average pizza experience. Here are the pizza eating rules I would adhere to if you are going to hunt for a high quality pizzeria in Italy.

First

Never eat in a pizzeria before seven thirty in the evening. Pizzerias usually begin heating their brick ovens in the later evening to suit the Mediterranean dining time. If a pizzeria is open before seven it can be for one of two reasons; one the pizzeria is so popular it makes business sense to keep the oven open all afternoon, or two, the pizzeria is near touristy clientele or high volume street traffic with customers who are less discerning. I have found more of the latter, sub-average pizza produced for tourists during the early evening, then I have of high quality pizza.

(look to see if there is more staff than Italian diners )

Second

Only eat in a pizzeria that has a decent number of Italians present.This should be self evident. If there is not boisterous conversation and wild gesticulation happening at every table you are probably at the wrong pizzeria. Who would know best as to what a good pizzeria has to offer? The more Italians in line outside and inside a pizzeria, the better the food should be.

(The ‘Acqua & Farina’ pizza at Acqua & Farina Pizzeria)

Third

Always order the pizza named after the restaurant (if they have one). Unless dietary concerns prevent you from eating the ‘Restaurant-named pizza’ You ought to eat the pizza the pizzeria owner was willing to stake the reputation of their whole restaurant on. Sometimes theses named pizzas are designed for multiple persons, so ask for a ‘normale’ if its just for one person, or get some idea idea of how big the pizza will actually be before you order it. Hand gestures will compensate here for any lack of Italian you may have.

Vegetarian Pizzas

August 09, 2009

The Top Vegetarian Pizzas

There is a huge selection of Vegetarian and Pescatarian pizzas in Italy. Many traditional pizzas already are veggie-friendly Of the 200 or so pizzas I have had so far, sixty of them were vegetarian. Margherita, Marinara, Parmigiana, Ortolana and Quattor Formaggi are just a few of the many meat-free pizzas typically on the menu in a pizzeria. Technically a Nutella Chocolate Pizza also counts as a vegetarian option, Nutella being derived from hazelnuts. However you may not want to regularly eat this pizza if you are looking for diverse nutrition…

So, my top five vegetarian pizzas eaten in Italy so far are:

5th

The D.O.C. at La Tana di Paolo in Pozzuoli, Italy

4th

The Quattro Formaggi at Mont Chateau in Pozzuoli, Italy

3rd

The Pizza Re at Pizzeria Ciro in Gaeta, Italy

2nd

The Ferrari Pizza at Ristorante Ferrari in Perugia, Italy

1st

The Parmigiana at Acqua & Farina Pizzeria in Pozzuoli, Italy

Pizza, the old-fashioned way...

August 09, 2009

Posted by Sale Lilly on August 09, 2009|Comments

Old-World Pizza Preparation

Forget your gas-electric ovens! Pizzas and Naples and much of Europe are made in wood-fired brick ovens. For a quick review of how these pizzas are made in two minutes or less see below:

First, ingredients are arrayed on a relatively thin circle of dough which has already been set to rise over 10-12 hours at room temperature. In Naples-mozzarella, basil and a splash of olive oil are standard on most pizza bases, so you will commonly see these toppings. I am also omitting the painstaking work involved in ingredient selection…but I am just focusing on the relatively simple process of baking a pizza.

Second, the pizza is placed in a wood-fired brick oven that is heated to 750 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 400 degrees Celsius. The pizza is turned once, perhaps twice with the pizza shovel or ‘pala’ over the course of 90 to 120 seconds.

Finally the pizza is removed from the oven and allowed to cool for a few moments. The pizza cooks surprisingly fast compared to non-traditional gas-electric ovens.

Then you eat the pizza. No instructions here, right…? Actually no, you would be wrong if you tried to eat a Neapolitan pizza the way you might in the United States (or you would discover this quickly on your own). Although Neapolitan pizzas are not as simple to eat as their fast food derivatives at major pizza chains…forks and knives are usually required in Naples since the crust is usually too thin in the center to stay vertical while you hold the pizza slice. But that is no criticism on my part, that is just how you eat a good Neapolitan pizza.

blog comments powered by Disqus

Pizza #1 Capricciosa, Capo Landing

May 14, 2008

Pizza #1 Capricciosa, Capo Landing

Posted by Sale Lilly on May 14, 2008|Comments

Ingredients

mozzarella, tomatoe, basil

Review

Well, this is my first pizza in Italy (I’m writing this afterwards because it has taken me a while to type my written notes). I started out just eating at the pizzeria that was closest to my hotel, and working through their menu. I was impressed at the time by the authentic brick oven, and didn’t realize until I started eating at more pizzerias that not only was this standard pizza preparation in Italy, but anything short of a wood-fired brick oven, is unacceptable to most Italian diners. It would be like thinking microwave ribs were in any way equivalent to slow roasted, mesquite bar-b-q’ed , ribs. There is no similarity. So the electric oven, Domino’s and Pizza hut- pizza experience is over.

I was told Capricciosa means ‘the capricious’. I’m not exactly sure what that has to do with the toppings (typically ham, black olives, and a variety of other vegetables that creates a very crowded pizza) , but the pizza is good and the edge of the crust, where the dough has room to rise is also good bread in its own right. We’ll see if my standards for pizza change rapidly, but I give this pizza a 5.5 for toppings and a 4 for crust.

blog comments powered by Disqus

Pizza #2 Melanzane, Pozzuoli (unknown pizzeria)

May 17, 2008

Posted by Sale Lilly on May 17, 2008|Comments

Ingredients

Melanzane: eggplant, mozzarella, tomato sauce

Cost

€ 3.00

Review

While looking at different rental properties here in Naples (particularly the coastal town next to Naples, Pozzouli) I was able to find about 8-10 pizzerias all along prime sea front views. My real estate agent was taking me around different properties and stopped at a small pizzeria that was selling eggplant pizzas by the side of the road. She bought me a whole one, probably hoping I would not switch agents if I didn’t like the properties or the prices. Eggplant here is one of the best foods I have tried here in Italy. Much different from the way I’ve tried eggplant before (sometimes fried), this eggplant has a super-sweet taste to it, that has thickness (like a mushroom) but has enough natural sugar to taste like a fruit. This particular pizza has salty dough, and way too much grease, but from a side-street pizzeria was probably typical. And, I decided not to use this agent either, but not because of the pizza. This was one of my first pizzas, and before I decided that I wouldn’t hit up any of the street vendors, and instead go for larger, better baked pizzas inside Pizzerias. On a scale of one to ten I give the toppings a 3 and the crust a 3

blog comments powered by Disqus

Pizza #5 Al Crudo, San Marino The Micro-Nation

May 24, 2008

Posted by Sale Lilly on May 24, 2008|Comments

Ingredients

Pizza Al Crudo: prosciutto, tomatoes, mozzarella

Cost

€ 8.40

Review

I took a weekend trip to San Marino, the only city-state in Italy not to be unified into the nation of Italy during the 1860’s. Most of the city is on the mountain that makes up San Marino, and is pretty touristy, catering to people who want to see the micro-nation (like me) and apparently stamp collectors who want to buy limited edition stamps produced by the San Marino post office. Other than the postage and the license plates, San Marino is exactly like Italy. There are restaurants at the top of the mountain San Marino is on, and the view and the pizza combined make for a good dinner or lunch. The pizza by itself is average, and probably doesn’t need to be anything else considering that the main clients of the restaurant I was at were French school students, German and Japanese tourists, and me. So no critical Italian gourmands here.

The pizza I had, Al Crudo, as the name implies, was several layers of uncooked prosciutto over baked tomatoes and mozzarella. The prosciutto was very good, although the rest of the pizza, including the crust was just average. If you are in San Marino, they seem to be much better at novelty liquors (lots of Che Guevera and Lenin Beers) than they are at pizza. On a scale of one to ten I give the toppings a 5 and the crust a 4

blog comments powered by Disqus

Pizza #6 Margherita, San Marino The Micro-Nation

May 25, 2008

Posted by Sale Lilly on May 25, 2008|Comments

Ingredients

Margherita Pizza: tomatoes, mozzarella, basil

Cost

€ 2.00

Review

I think I have found further evidence that San Marino does not have any specialization in Pizza. Not much to say about this Margherita pizza except that most of the meals in San Marino come with great views and mediocre food. The tomato in this pizza seemed to be from canned paste and the mozzarella was more a film over the tomato paste rather than melted and warm, which makes me think the pizza had sat for awhile outside of the oven. I still don’t have the address for this place since I was not very good about recording address’ of pizzerias I visited, however you shouldn’t worry too much, just try to avoid eating pizza in San Marino and you should be fine. On a scale of one to ten I give the toppings a 1 and the crust a 1.

blog comments powered by Disqus

Pizza #7 Margherita Pizza, Piazza Garibaldi Train Station Pizzeria

May 30, 2008

Posted by Sale Lilly on May 30, 2008|Comments

Ingredients

Margherita Pizza: tomatoes, mozzarella, basil

Cost

€ 3.50

Review

If Joseph Conrad’s novel ‘Heart of Darkness’ was written about any other place than the Congo in Colonial Africa, then it could have been set in Piazza Garibaldi in Naples. I received no less than five warnings regarding Piazza Garibaldi before coming to Naples’ main train station. Most of these warnings concerned the presence of thieves, pickpockets, muggers, police impersonators, and scam artists. The square is full of men selling electronics and watches, which are sometimes secretly substituted with an equivalently weighted rock, once you have handed over your money. So you certainly do not want to buy electronics here. However, there are quite a few restaurants and pizzerias in this square that look worth visiting-just in broad daylight. I made the least ambitious choice, and visited a pizzeria actually within the massive train station itself. I will save a trip farther out for a brighter day and a better understanding of Naples.

I ordered a margherita, and got a pizza with good crust and greasy mozzarella. On a scale of one to ten I give the toppings a 3 and the crust a 5. Unlike later pizzas, I didn’t always get a photo of my pizza, so that explains the absence of graphics. Like most margheritas that can be described as pedestrian, the location you eat the pizza in, is probably more interesting than the pizza itself. In the case you find yourself in Piazza Garibaldi, hold on to your belongings, avoid buying a suspiciously cheap cell phone, and walk confidently to the nearest pizzeria.