Our 2016 pizza Oscars

2016 was, for sure, the year we tasted the largest number of pizzas, since we were often visiting pizzerias, presenting our book La Buona Pizza (read here) or tasting new pizzas (and the like) in Italy and abroad, so we could present them in our blog pizzaontheroad.eu or in Identità Golose. Here’s an unordered list of those that struck us or surprised us the most, out of the very many we tasted, almost always of the highest quality. We would be more than happy to eat them all again!

1) Pizza in a baking tray, topped with Jerusalem artichoke cream, soppressata (headcheese, the delicious one Renieri makes in Tuscany) and lemon zest, from Graziano Monogrammi at La Divina Pizza in Florence.

2) Una passeggiata al ghetto, a round pizza with smoked anchovies, curly endive, cherry tomatoes and panko from Pier Daniele Seu at Gazometro38 (read our article here), presented at the PizzaChef Emergente 2016 contest: a tribute to Rome, and a fun (and tasty) memory of childhood flavours which the pizzaiolo didn’t appreciate much at the time but later became his favourite flavours.

3) Margherita Romanesca with tomato, sheep’s milk “mozzarella”, pecorino romano and mint from Stefano Callegari and Valerio Piccirilli at Sbanco in Rome. Simple taste, but super flavours. You mustn’t always try to exaggerate in order to surprise.

4) The four-handed pizza from Davide Del Duca and Francesco Martucci from I Masanielli in Caserta, presented at Vinoforum: Pizza Contaminata with buffalo milk mozzarella, piennolo tomatoes and golden cherry tomatoes, marinated mackerel filets, cherries, balm leaves and powdered Wakame seaweed.

5) Vegetariana d’Autunno from ‘O Fiore Mio in Faenza, both in the round version and in the “street food” one (in Bologna), with fiordilatte, pumpkin and other seasonal vegetables that change depending on what’s available from the market.

6) Pizza with cream of courgettes, diced tomatoes and raw prawns from Massimo Giovannini at Apogeo in Pietrasanta: a soft and crispy base, a perfect balance of sweetness and acidity in the ingredients.

7) Pizza in a baking tray with pancetta porchettata and ricotta from Garfagnana from Andrea Morini of pizzeria Da Cecio, with the fantastic dough made by Gabriele Bonci (helped by Stefano Vola, a young pizza chef from Langhe): an exclusive for Salone del Gusto 2016 in Torino.

8) Pizza with burrata, anchovies, hazelnuts and thyme from Enrico Cappuccini and Carmine Piano, aka PizzeVaganti, tasted in Fregene at Remigio alla Baia’s summer kiosk.

9) Pizza del territorio (limited edition) from Franco Pepe made only with products from Upper Caserta: Grano Nostrum flour, pomodoro riccio, buffalo milk mozzarella, extra virgin olive oil from Caiazzana olives and oregano from Matese. And as of 2017 there were will be many news regarding this pizza.

10) Pizza maritata from Angelo Rumolo at Grotto Pizzeria Castello in Caggiano, a mix of seasonal wild vegetables, cow’s milk stracciata, sausage from Caggiano (without the fat) and annurche apples. A very successful homage to a poor yet fascinating territory – that of inner Cilento.

11) Pizza Crocché with fiordilatte from Monti Lattari and potato crocché from Peppe Guida: a delicious four-handed pizza with Giancarlo Casa at La Gatta Mangiona during a dinner dedicated to pizza&kitchen.

12) Pizza “da compartir” [to share] at Madre in Roma (read here), especially the Affumicata with smoked provola, potatoes and chorizo.

13) Fried pizza from Ciro Oliva at Concettina ai Tre Santi with ricotta, pepper and lemon zest. Simple and unforgettable.

14) Pizza alla pala – a basic version of Margherita with fresh cherry tomatoes and buffalo milk mozzarella added after baking – from Ribalta in New York, Rosario Procino and Pasquale Cozzolino’s place off Union Square.

15) Pizz’a Selva from Foro dei Baroni in Puglianello (Benevento) with asparagus, fiordilatte, lonzardo, provolone del Monaco and mint. On top of excellent dishes, Raffaele D’Addio also offers superb pizza!

16) Doppio Crunch with a cream of Dijon mustard and caprottino from Lessinia (a goat’s milk cheese made in the beautiful Alpine foothills in the province of Verona and also in parts of the provinces of Vicenza and Trento), GrassFed steak tartare (only from pasture bred cattle) and extra virgin olive oil from the hills of Mezzane. Renato Bosco’s recipe for the Pizza&Chiaretto event at Vinitaly.

17) ‘Mpustarella with cream of pumpkin, provola, season’s mushrooms and buffalo sausage from Enzo Coccia and Eduardo Ore at ‘O Sfizio d’’a Notizia in Naples: it’s a sandwich, rather than a pizza, but the bread has unprecedented fragrance and lightness and the filling is so delicious it deserves a place in our best-of-2016 list.

18) Pizza Lucana from Salvatore Gatta at Fandango in Lavello (Potenza), presenting an entire region on a disc of pizza: piennolo tomatoes, buffalo milk mozzarella made in Basilicata, baked olives from Ferrandina, caciocavallo podolico, zafrano (the local name for the precious red powder made from dried Senise peppers) and a pesto of basil and walnuts.

19) Civico 40, one of the sumptuous “gourmet” pizzas from Marzia Buzzanca at Percorsi di Gusto in L’Aquila (read here) with pork, stewed apples, salad and beer jelly.

20) Gusto Autentico from the new Gusto Madre pizzeria in Alba (Cn) a yeast-less pizza made with spontaneously fermented 100% spelt flour (whole and white), with peeled Agro Nocerino Sarnese PDO tomatoes, tuna from the Ionian Sea, caper leaves and dried tomatoes from Pantelleria.

SEE ALSO:
Marchi, one year in 16 Oscars, by Paolo Marchi
My perfect 2016 menu, by Carlo Passera
Zanatta’s 2016 in 9 photos, by Gabriele Zanatta
A craveable calendar for 2016, by Niccolò Vecchia