Often garnished with creative toppings, the famous pizza of Naples is the most loved by Italians and the most diffused in the world. But for the Neapolitans themselves, “real” pizza is a rite—an ancient tradition that the master pizza-makers guard and hand down generation after generation.
Anyone who sees “Bella Napoli” written over the door of a pizzeria would probably expect to eat a real
Neapolitan pizza. But if you’ve ever had the good fortune to taste the real thing, you’ll soon discover that the offerings in that pizzeria, like in all pizzerias outside the Parthenopean zone of Naples, share nothing but the name.
Pizza made as they do in Naples is simply too good. One might say that this is a generalization, like saying that everyone in Naples speaks the Neapolitan dialect, or that they drive like lunatics escaped from the local asylum, or that they honk their horns more often than they blink, or that they can make coffee like nobody’s business. And though some say that the secret to its greatness lies in the water, the fact remains that Neapolitan pizza is really special! Let’s take a journey to a pizzeria in the historic center of Naples—a place rife with pizza-making tradition and the cooking skills to go along with it—and try to discover the real secret.
The outdoor tables set up along the bustling and boisterous side street, so typical of this city, are jam-packed with expectant diners. A waiter dressed as Pulcinella, the traditional character of Naples, leads us to our table. Images of the great Totò, Prince de Curtis—Italy’s most celebrated actor and the most beloved by his fellow Neapolitans, even forty years after his death—leap out from pictures, statues, clocks, and even the decor in the bathrooms. Scenes of Naples, painted on the walls like great theatrical backdrops, depict crooked lanes, horse-drawn carriages, sun and sea, and mandolins that evoke the distant notes of a serenade…
In this environment even the northern Italians, typically more reserved and aloof than the people of the south, feel themselves pulled along by the breeze of giddy romanticism. The Neapolitans have always been considered great lovers—how many hearts they’ve broken and will continue to break! Surely their natural affability, not to mention the splendid panorama of the gulf with Vesuvius in the background and the sea at their doorstep, must help them quite a bit. But the delicious aroma of pizza certainly can’t hurt their cause, either!
The actual origin of this disk of dough, similar to bread and either stuffed or simply dressed with various toppings, has been lost somewhere in time. Be that as it may, real pizza as we now
know it was born in Naples sometime after the discovery of America when tomatoes from that new land, as yet unknown in Italy, made their first appearance. The delicacy was first introduced as street food for the poor people who wandered the streets of 17th-century Naples. It was not until the dawn of the 19th century that the first local pizzerias sprang up where customers could enjoy their pizza from the comfort of a table. Light and economical, pizza is a dish made with the most typical and traditional of Italy’s agricultural products, those that have made pizza the symbol of Italy throughout the world: flour, tomatoes, extra-virgin olive oil, and mozzarella cheese.
In contrast to other pizza makers in Italy, who use chemical yeasts and expensive flours, Neapolitan pizza makers rely mostly on their hand skills, kneading the dough over and over to obtain the right consistency before flinging it theatrically into the air. And launching the dough isn’t just a show for tourists—the procedure helps the dough get the air it needs and develops the centrifugal force necessary to flatten the center of the disk and ensure that the edges rise to form a bed for the toppings.
But how can you recognize a Neapolitan pizza? It’s all in the mouth: all of the components should be well combined and, except for consistency, indistinguishable from each other. In comparison, fast-food pizza or that of pizza makers who do not belong to the Parthenopean tradition are more deconstructed: the taste of the tomatoes is easily distinguished from that of the cheese, and the olive oil often becomes nothing more than an unwanted greasy mess. In Naples, the pizza melts in your mouth. The tomatoes and mozzarella seep into the dough so that every component becomes part of just one tasty whole. The dough is springy and the basil adds that subtle touch of spice.
The quality of the Neapolitan pizza rests with the dough, both in the essential requirement of a slow rise—obtained with a minimum 48-hour “rest” before kneading—and in the hand skills and experience of the pizza maker. For them, there’s nothing to it: pizza is to Naples like tortellini is to Bologna, Champagne to France, tea to Asia, saurkraut to Germany, and hamburgers to America. Each place has set forth the basic principles of its own speciality. Of course, the two-century head start that Naples had over the rest of Italy and the world in the production of pizza certainly gave them plenty of time to improve the execution.
Recognizing a real 
Neapolitan pizza got a lot easier a few months ago, however, thanks to the new trademark S.T.G. (Guaranteed Traditional Specialty) that was requested in 2004 and finally recognized by the European Union. The standards for such recognition are justifiably rigid: 20 minutes for kneading the dough, two hours for rising, a single-pizza dough weight between 80 and 250 grams, thickness of the rolled dough of 3 mm in the center and of 1-2 cm on the border (the so-called “molding”), and a diameter not over 35 cm.
As for toppings, the guidelines call for 80 grams of crushed peeled tomatoes to be spread on the dough with a delicate spiral movement starting from the center, garlic and oregano for a Neapolitan Marinara pizza, or mozzarella cheese and basil for a Neapolitan Margherita pizza. For baking, a wood-fired oven is obligatory, with a maximum temperature of 485 degrees Celsius. And if the pizza is not served while still steaming, the establishment risks the loss of the trademark. Even the calories count is specified: 149.47 for each gram of Marinara and 188.04 for the same amount of Margherita.
So when in Naples, where they take their pizza very seriously, please spare them those requests for toppings like cream, chocolate spread, frankfurters, and french fries!
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