Report Identità di Pizza 2023: why the revolution also comes this way

'Our revolution is to bring tradition into the Third Millennium'. The fifth generation of cheesemakers, Giovanni Amodio opens Identità di Pizza at the Identità Milano 2023 congress, organised in partnership with Latteria Sorrentina. A congress dedicated to the revolution also taking place in the pizza world.

Seven speakers and six lectures, from North to South, from the recovery of tradition to the most daring innovation. Here is the full report, thanks to Mariella Caruso, Amelia De Francesco, Luca Farina and Nadia Taglialatela. Enjoy reading!

 

DENIS LOVATEL - The pizza revolution starts with respect for nature

Everyone makes their revolutions. Denis Lovatel's (pronounced in the Venetian style, with the stress on the 'e') is 'to lead the new generations towards a healthy and environmentally friendly diet' and to make his territory, the Belluno mountains, known. And he wants to do this through pizza. ‘Making a revolution with pizza is significant because pizza is a pop product,’ explains the owner of Denis, a mountain pizzeria opened a few months ago in Milan, bringing the concept of respect for nature that, he says, he learnt at his own expense. 'When I was young, while free climbing, I fell 700 metres with a climbing partner. We were rescued the next day. That’s how I realised that we must respect the mountains and nature. The same respect I bring to my pizza'. Lovatel's respect starts with the supply chain: putting aside industrial sourcing, he has focused on local farmers and small producers and developed an organisation in local micro-hubs. 'Suppliers bring their products, we transform them into semi-finished products and take them to the pizzeria,' he explains. Of the micro-hubs imagined by Lovatel, there is the bakery for the dough 'prepared with mountain water and flavoured with a mixture of herbs that compensates for the salt'. The result: they’ve moved from 12 to 10 shifts, decreased the environmental impact and Lovatel can devote himself to his very thin and crispy pizza with a crust that gathers all the ingredients. At the lecture, Lovatel brought two seasonal pizzas on Denis's menu. The first: Verticale di broccolo with broccoli from Torbole in different variations: flowers steamed at 120°C for 10' and sautéed in a pan, fried leaves, a sauce of stem hearts and black garlic, and the end of the stem grated onto the pizza (paired with Billecart-Salmon Blanc De Blancs Grand Cru). The second: Brividi Intensi with Fea di Lamon sheep sausage (at the heart of a project to revalue its meat), dandelion, fried leek and sheep's milk fondue. (Mariella Caruso)

 

CICCIO VITIELLO - This is how Caserta opened up a revolutionary path for pizza

In the village of San Leucio, a few kilometres outside Caserta, the kings of Naples established their silk factory at the end of the 18th century, a small first artisanal then industrial revolution. Today it is the site of Ciccio Vitiello's revolution, who left his historic pizzeria in Tuoro in 2022 - where he had begun to work differently ten years ago by introducing a dough menu - to open Cambia-Menti. A new chapter - in fact, he is back at full strength after almost three years of sabbatical - and also an opportunity to legitimise new ways of making pizza. ‘Remember this number: 083. The telephone prefix of Caserta, the city that opened a revolutionary road to pizza. We have worked a lot and finally there are no longer the cultural stakes of the past, we are free to experiment and then to experiment again,' says Vitiello. At Identità Milano 2023, he offers a taste of a pan pizza whose dough is 35% butter and is cooked twice: first steamed for 22 minutes, then baked in an electric oven. In between, the risen dough is turned upside down to allow the dough to develop in height. At the end, the pan is chilled, vacuum-packed and stored, ready to be regenerated. ‘Another revolution is the one we owe to technique. In a profession that sacrifices us, with gruelling hours and shifts, having an organised workshop allows us the freedom to manage our time. And to offer a replicable product of the highest quality,' continues Vitiello. The pan, part of the tasting at Cambia-Menti – 7 courses off the menu, only available for 10 people per evening - is completed with burrata, fried basil, Corbara semidry tomato, red prawn and orange oil. It is called Regno delle Due Sicilie (Kingdom of the Two Sicilies) and is paired with Billecart-Salmon Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Sans Année champagne from Velier. (Amelia De Francesco)

 

GIACOMO DEVOTO and GIANMARCO FERRANDI - The comfort-provocation of pizza made in Lunigiana

Following the course of the Magra river, we discover Lunigiana, a middle land that touches part of Tuscany and Liguria. A reality that is still united by dialects, traditions and, needless to say, cuisine. A common thread, a regional trace to write a theme dedicated to the cuisine (and leavening) of Giacomo Devoto and Gianmarco Ferrandi. We are talking about Locanda de Banchieri, in Fosdinovo (Massa Carrara), and Le officine del cibo, in Sarzana (La Spezia). Direct and down-to-earth, Devoto takes the stage at Identità Milano 2023 and starts with Ferrandi, the man who is much more than his right-hand man. The theme of their talk is pizza and the match of the two is a winner: the chef and his leavening expert, in favour of leavening and challenging cooking techniques and then toppings that have all the nuances of fine dining. So here they are on stage expressing the pop-comfort of their offer, with a rock edge that quickly makes them irresistible. Above all, complementary. Ferrandi is meticulous, precise, technical. Devoto brings out all his culinary appeal, the perfect narrator of their fine dining philosophy, with simple ingredients and territory. Gastronomic identity, with an ideal balance of ideas and incisive flavours. We spot complexity in their creative process, but there is so much desire to get straight to people's hearts that the storytelling is captivating. With leavening as their beating heart, they begin to provoke by telling us about a cornicione, 'when eating pizza, many tend to leave it on the plate. We decided to do it justice, working on a sort of 'sfilatino' that takes up the characteristics of the cornicione of the real Neapolitan pizza'. Next comes the gluten-free, steam-cooked dough. A blend of buckwheat, rice and Artemide rice, mixed with egg white, resulting in a dough that is impossible to manipulate by hand and will require a very long rising time. What we taste is a cloud (gluten-free, it bears repeating) that they call Che cavolo di pizza, in other words, a quintessence of cabbage, 'we worked on a single ingredient and, with zero waste, we came up with crispy leaf, black cabbage ragout, cabbage butter made with dried fruit, marinated stem, and finally black cabbage extract to add piquancy' (paired with: Billecart-Salmon Rosé). Cooked in a pan, it’s tall and fluffy. The taste is formidable, an admirable work on the very light and fragrant dough. Driven by a topping worthy of fine dining. Devoto and Ferrandi, a splendid trade d’union between two worlds that, when they converse in such a careful manner, offer bites of pure joy. (Nadia Taglialatela)

 

SALVATORE SALVO - Pizza revolution as a cultural product and a return to tradition

Salvatore Salvo, with elegant simplicity, dominates the stage at Identità Milano 2023. He also represents his brother Francesco and their two pizzerias: the historic one in San Giorgio a Cremano and the more recent one, opened in Naples in 2018, on the Riviera di Chiaia. The Salvos are Neapolitan pizza. Despite the expanding edges and all the noise of the contemporary pizza world, they still focus on credibility, in the truest sense of the term. Like a few others, they have managed to change only where necessary: making the traditional dough digestible and paying attention to toppings. Neapolitan pizza, which, in their case, means a classic and overflowing 'wagon wheel' but also light, and with the added value of local farming products. Tomatoes are undoubtedly among the most celebrated ingredients. This vegetable allows a tour of Campania without leaving the table. 'In our pizzerias, we offer seven types of Margherita, which are tributes to the various tomatoes of our region. The Salvo family treats pizza as a cultural product, 'we have toured, studied, now it is time to draw the conclusions and close the circle. For us, the real revolution is going back to tradition, exactly where we started from'. A job, theirs, that gives breath to local production, a virtuous circle that leaves no one out, including the small farmers who, today, survive thanks to the work of professionals like the Salvo family. During his talk at Identità di Pizza, Salvatore Salvo lets us taste a signature pizza, one of those that doesn't need special effects to 'knock you out', but heart. It is Provola e pepe, a classic pizza, always very popular (it was paired with Billecart-Salmon Rosé). ‘Neapolitans eat pizza up to three times a week, it is a visceral, sacred relationship, that is why there is a strong expectation of quality. With my brother, I know I have to offer not just cheap food, but food that, in its democratic nature, rises to a high level of experience. So, excellent dairy products, but also research on the perfect pepper, or rather, on the blend capable of unlocking lashings of sensations, but harmonious, pleasantly fragrant ones'. Those who are fans of the Salvos know that their pizzerias are daily taken by storm. ‘Teamwork is everything, with our rhythm. It's fundamental. To our staff, we pass on the ability to replicate a recipe moment by moment, pizza by pizza. And then there is the room to complete the work, fast, attentive, empathetic'. A few words, carefully chosen, to ensure that Neapolitan pizza has all the charm it deserves. (Nadia Taglialatela)

 

JACOPO MERCURO - He makes pizza with pineapple, bacon, angostura and chinotto

Jacopo Mercuro made the first revolution in his private life, when in 2017 he decided to open a pizzeria al taglio, leaving behind his law studies as well as the family law firm. The following year Mercuro launched 180 G - from 2021 in a new location - a homage to the traditional Roman pizza, a prerogative of the city's classic pizzerias, those of his childhood, but deserving in his opinion to be the protagonist of a revolution, a step forward in contemporaneity. 'If we talk about revolution, we must talk about people: we are not a team, we are a family. We spend so much time together that it was natural to create a healthy and positive environment, where people enjoy themselves and where everyone stands out for their merits'. But they also look ahead with technical choices and in fact the pizza presented at Identità Milano 2023 is, in this savoury version (there was already a sweet Pineapple Express), a novelty: it is a fluffy dough, it’s been on the menu for some time, but only used to create dessert pizzas. A fluffy inside and crumbly outside, reminiscent of a puff pastry - thanks to the approximately 40 per cent butter, milk and eggs - then filled with pineapple pastrami and natural bacon. 'Talking about pineapple and pizza is starting to be accepted even in Italy,' jokes Mercuro, who tells how, to obtain a particular texture, the fruit is pickled for a day and then cooked at a low temperature and finally smoked. The filling is completed with an angostura and chinotto sauce and hydroponic misticanza (paired with Billecart-Salmon Blanc De Blancs Grand Cru). ‘A product like this, cooked down and stored in negative, is a seemingly technical choice, but it also allows us to organise our work better and... get rid of some of the work. Because in our opinion it is also from here that the revolution of the coming years will pass.’ (Amelia De Francesco)

 

FRANCO PEPE - Terra Felix, Land of work

Revolution, for Franco Pepe, is in the stratification of ideas, research, products, and evolutions, all aimed at enhancing the concrete expression of a territory. From the stage of Identità Milano 2023, the master pizzaiolo immediately points out: 'My revolution began on the 14^th of October 2012, when Pepe in Grani opened. The Alto Casertano was called Terra Felix, the province of Caserta Terra di Lavoro. Over the years, however, it had inherited the nickname of Terra dei Fuochi (land of the fires), which was not a globally applicable definition. I had to do something to give it back its dignity and clear it of this ill-fame'. This is how Pepe started to act as an ambassador for local producers from the Matese to Vesuvius areas, promoting their offer, thanks to the use of their delicacies on his pizza. Franco has created a virtuous economy, where this disc of pasta has become a business card for discovering the beauties of Caserta and its surroundings, thanks also to interactive projects such as Pizza Hub, an all-around digital guide. Franco Pepe's revolution does not stop at 'geography', but lives in the pizzas: from Marinara to Ritrovata, from Capricciosa to Acquerello Capriccioso, from Margherita to Margherita Sbagliata and today... Dolce Sbaglio. He tells of its genesis: 'It would have been too convenient to bring a new pizza to the congress: where would the revolution have been? So, considering that my lecture would be in the late afternoon, we proposed a sweet pizza'. It is baked in the oven, with a base of buffalo cheesecake, tomato riccio jam, basil reduction and evo oil (paired with Billecart-Salmon Rosé). It has an overwhelming and surprising taste, fresh and vividly coloured, like the mind of this pizza maker who is making a difference in the pizza world, like a gallant leader whom it is impossible not to follow. (Luca Farina)

Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso