3Voglie, research and novelties, and a heart in Battipaglia

On one hand, there’s the desire to continue to experiment and to find new roads, even by adding different influences and processes; on the other, there’s the connection with one’s roots and territory, enhancing the history, the products and places.

These are the – different, but not antithetical – paths that 30-year-old pizzaiolo Valentino Tafuri is following in his family restaurant called 3Voglie in Battipaglia (Via Serroni 10/14. Tel. +39 0828 370533, www.3voglie.com) – he’s also the coordinator of the pizza department of the new In Cibum school in Pontecagnano. After following the Neapolitan pizza tradition for a long time – which in the province of Salerno doesn’t come automatic – Valentino recently took the road that is leading him to work on different types of dough and leavening, thus in a way getting closer to the pizza of Cilento (which is more like bread, and is slightly less smooth) but in an original way, and with positive contaminations.

Having studied the art of boulangerie in France, he now also bakes perfect croissants and delicious loaves – for which he uses Petra Evolutiva flour, which is the perfect fit for his philosophy and research on taste – available on Wednesday and Saturday after 6 pm. And now his pizzas are also inspired by bread making.

The new “base-dough” – which Valentino uses for most of his classic pizzas as well as for the calzoni, tronchetti (shaped like a baguette) and racchetti (half pizza, half filling) – is made with mother yeast (the solid one, which he called Anna, after his mother) and a blend half “0” and half “type 1” flour with a small percentage of barley flour. It is baked in a wood oven at 350°C, so the texture is crispier and very light. As an alternative, you can order the whole-wheat dough pizza, (with type “1” flour and 30% whole wheat flour), while the menu also includes the Pizza Cilentana 2.0: a new take on the classic pizza nel ruoto, made with mother yeast (in this case, the liquid one, called Lucio, after his  dad), “type 1” flour plus 10% whole wheat flour, and a double baking, first in the electric oven, and then in the wood oven, depending on the seasoning. Finally, there’s the Tripla lievitazione dough, with “type 1” flour and 10% barley, which starts from the poolish of mother yeast and has a triple leavening and a double baking, as in the case of Cilentana 2.0.

Starters include the new organic Bio Focaccia, halfway between a pizza and a salad; dedicated to the 90th anniversary since Battipaglia was founded, blending the best food tradition of the Piana del Sele and of Campania, including lettuce in the shape of an extract added to the dough, which gives it an unusual and nice natural green colour. It’s topped with buffalo milk mozzarella, sauce of yellow date tomatoes, mixed salad and prosciutto crudomatured 27 months from Benevento.