If we start from the refrain of a famous song, then we start from the end: from the sweet (of sugar) at the bottom of the coffee cup.
What is neapolitanity without a cup of coffee? And without the “sfogliatella riccia”? And without the “babà”? They are not an exaggerated custom: they are facts. To taste with eyes closed. And pizza?
The Pizza
Mastunicola, Marinara or Margherita,it's always the pizza of Naples The arrival of tomatoes from Peru at the beginning of the 17th century was an important turning point. A turning point destined to revolutionize the eating habits and the gastronomic traditions also of the Neapolitans, who spent almost a century to make of that fruit, red and flavoured, one of the pillars of their cuisine, especially of the popular. Thus, from the very arrival in the kitchen of the new product, it's possibile to establish a before and an after in the way of cooking and making pizza in the city that conquered on the field the honour of being considered its homeland and that was able to make an excellences of it known all over the world. The genesis of the pizza is not precisely...
This soft disc dough cooked in wood-fired oven, topped by mozzarella or fiordilatte cheese and by basil; or by tomato and oregano, and dressed with amazing fantasy effects and tasty things, we never stop devouring it, everywhere: in pizza restaurant; on the road, “folded” as it was once done; or in a reduced format in the increasingly widespread pizzetterias, a fast food of the brief story and of the future. A pizza which is also fried, which is also a “calzone”, or as a “balloon”, with two soverlapping discs and stuffed with ricotta and pork rinds. It seems difficult to think of something more attractive for the palate. But we are only, in a way, on a kind of appetiser. The Neapolitan culinary universe is truly never-ending, and not so much for gourmands, because… to remember it, pizza and especially macaronis and all the variations of pasta are not enough, but the great raw materials, maritime and terricolous (vegetables, “leaves”,) which complete the menus. Products which border on the sublime and perfectly match the needs not only of the obstinately traditional chefs of the taverns and of “wines and cuisine” but above all, facilitate the conquests of those who climb the international peaks of gastronomy with daring elaborations bordering on art and in design. Remaining concrete , we can remember the golden and fried anchovies and zuppa di soffritto, the Neapolitan style fried fish (fritto misto) and spaghettis with clams; and, again, spaghettis frittata (omelette) and, above all, the rice sartù (Neapolitan rice timbale), the musky octopus in a small pan (pignatiello) and the potato gateau, passing through a pork chop in tomato sauce, by a salad reinforcement, without renouncing- in this approximate list- to a fragrant pastiera. A Neapolitan one, of course.
THE RECIPE
Ragù sauce
The totem dish of the city is prepared with beef or pork meat, onions, tomato purée, lard, extra virgin olive oil, red wine, garlic, salt and pepper, using a terracotta saucepan in which, after having chopped lard and garlic, put the meat tied with a kitchen string together with the chopped onion, oil and a pinch of pepper. Cover it and let it cook on very low heat for about an hour, turning the meat from time to time. Then pour the wine little at a time and, always carefully, after raising the flame a little, add the tomato purée dissolved in very little water and, then, two or three ladles of water. Lower the flame and cook it for a couple of hours, taking care of the quantity of liquid. The secret? The boil must resemble a faint crackle, the Neapolitan “pippiare”, which is a prolonged type of cooking on a low heat. When the meat is cooked, cut into slices, serve separately as a main course.
