Originally, it was only a flat bread seasoned with different ingredients, according to the availability. But the simple mix of water, flour, yeast and salt has become the basis of one of the most famous foods and appreciated in the world only thanks to the production techniques and improved abilities of the Neapolitan “pizzaoioli” over centuries.
Their unique mastery handed down from generations to generations, due to its particularity and for the cultural value that is has acquired over time, it has been recognised by the Unesco, which in 2017 inscribed the Traditional Art of the Neapolitan "Pizzaiuolo" in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
It had started from Naples, eight years earlier. The candidacy had started eight years earlier. It was the one which, among the various ONU awards, recorded the number of supporters at international level. Precisely two million people, from over one hundred countries, had signed the #pizzaUnesco petition, landed on the table of the 12th Unesco intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of Intangible cultural Heritage, reunited on the island of Jeju, in South Korea, from 7th to 9th of December, 2017. The 24 members, representing as many Countries, unanimously voted positively with the following motivation: «The culinary know-how linked to the production of pizza, which includes gestures, songs, visual expressions, local slang, ability to handle the pizza dough, perform and share is an indisputable cultural heritage. The Neapolitan “pizzaioli” and their customers are involved in a social ritual in which the counter and oven are used as a “stage” during the pizza making process. This process happens in a convivial atmosphere with constant exchanges with customers. Starting from the poor neighbourhood of Naples, the culinary tradition is deeply rooted in the community’s daily life. For many young professionals, becoming a “pizzaiuolo” is also a way to avoid social exclusion.».
The cultural significance of the pizza “phenomenon” has been decisive in the opinion of the Committee in the city where a tradition was born and has developed that has no equal in any other part of the world, although it is now widespread worldwide. This is testified by the international use of the word “pizza”, among the most known and used in the world, accepted without a translation in sixty languages.
The various steps in the manufacturing process have been recognised as deserving a particular protection, each one characterised by the wealth of knowledge it requires, by the particular and ritual gestures, by the use of specific terms, by the ability learnt and the individual creativity which accompanies it and, last but not least, for the exchanges, the interactions and the relationships that it creates, due to the fact that the preparation of the pizza has always taken place in front of those who are the final recipients. Born in the streets of Naples historic centre and in the “slums”, traditional pizza, even when the production moved pizzerias and restaurants, remained rigorously on display, with the full sharing of the public, every time involved in a sensorial experience pleasantly shared.
The pizza masters, the pizzaiuoli and the bakers are the authors of magic that is repeated every time, according to the three different categories, identified for their ability and experience. They are the ones who divide the roles in the four production steps characteristic of the Neapolitan pizza recognised by Unesco. The first is the phase of shaping the dough ball, which takes the name of staglio, and must be done by hand, cutting the single dough from the strips of risen dough according to the technique also used for mozzarella. Then, after the second leavening, we proceed to the ammaccatura (denting), which means that the dough is rolled out by hand to create the crust that must be of one of two centimeters, and thin the central part that must not exceed a quarter of a centimeter. The manipulation of the disc of dough happens with skillful and quick gestures, called schiaffi (slaps) and it is a particular way of Neapolitan pizzaiouli.
Then, there is the dressing. The ingredients must be spread out from the center with a clockwise spiral movement. We start with the tomato sauce and we end with the extra virgin olive oil, poured from the specific agliara, a copper container with a long and thin spout, to ensure a thin and continuous drizzle of oil.
The last and very delicate phase is cooking in a preheated wood oven already warn, at a temperature between 430 and 480 degrees. The pizza is inserted with a square wooden or aluminum shovel. During cooking, which lasts between 60 and 90 seconds, with a smaller round iron shovel, we quickly rotate it, the so called “mezzo giro” (half turn), to ensure the uniform cooking on each side.
An ancient art, which is renewed every time that it is shown, communicated and handed down to the new generations of pizza makers. The masters work for this goal in their “workshops”, in the Renaissance meaning, which is precisely the period when the art of Neapolitan pizza started to take the first steps of an evolution that culminated in the 19th century. When Pizza Margherita was created, the most Italian in colours and inspiration, but also the most famous and enjoyed in the world. With the oldest Marinara, the basic speciality of the true Neapolitan Pizza.Che, con l’apertura della prima pizzeria a New York nel 1905, partì alla conquista del mondo. Since then, the “pizza” has known innumerable reinterpretations and variations, of shape and taste, in line with the gastronomic cultures of other populations and the ingredients of the different territories. But the Art of shaping, tossing, dressing meticulously and cooking to perfection, in one and a half minute, the mother Pizza of all variations is practiced, lived, shared and communicated only in Naples.
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