Pizza

With a Pedigree

---

---

There is pizza - and there is Pizza Napoletana . The two, connoisseurs say, have as much in common as virgin olive oil has with generic cooking oil. Now, authentic Pizza Napoletana has joined the elite group of European Union-certified food and drink products - like Scottish Farmed Salmon, Spanish Melon from la Mancha, and English Blue Stilton cheese. In order to qualify for this list, these food products had to meet very strict criteria.

Once a product is granted Guaranteed Traditional Specialty status, other similar products are not allowed to use the same name. If your Champagne doesn't come from that particular region of France for example, you can't call it ‘champagne’. But be warned: it takes longer to read the EU specifications for ‘real’ Pizza Napoletana than it does to make one. To be labeled ‘Guaranteed Traditional Specialty’, the pizza mustn't be over 35 centimeters in diameter and the crust mustn't be more than two centimeters thick. The ingredients must include type 00 flour and up to 100 grams of San Marzano tomatoes applied in a spiraling motion. And the cheese has to be fresh ‘Mozzarella a di Bufala’.

Pizza has a long history in Italy. The word ‘Pizza’ first appeared in an AD 997 manuscript from Gaeta, a southern Italian town. A millennium later, in 1997, political groups in northern Italy tried to boycott pizza - it was a symbol of their rivals in the south. Perhaps they should accept that Pizza Napoletana is here to stay now. Happily, you don't have to know anything about history to enjoy an authentic Pizza Napoletana!

source: Life inetrmediate British Counicil textbook

Learn more on wikipedia Try it Now