Pizza

Three months or so ago, I wrote an introductory blog post about my then upcoming trip to Italy. One of my last thoughts in that post was a hope that I would be able to find some food over there that is as good as I can get locally in Arlington, VA at Pupatella. So because I put that challenge for myself out there, my last words about my April 2015 Italy trip are reserved for pizza.

If I had a top ten foods of all time list (I don't, by the way), pizza would surely be high up on that list. I love this stuff. I could literally eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week. And I would if I felt it would be good for me. I don't care what anyone would have to say about it. From the first time I fell in love with the chicken pizza at Pizzaland in England in the late 1970s to Papa Gino's in Connecticut to Cottage Inn in Ann Arbor to Varsity in Syracuse to Pupatella in Arlington, I have always found some pizza that I love. It's taken some work and a lot of taste testing, but I've managed to find some pretty much everywhere I have lived.

Determining a time and place where pizza originated depends totally on your point of view and what constitutes a pizza. People have been eating flat pieces of bread, either leavened or unleavened, for millennia and there is evidence of cultures adding flavorings or toppings to their disks of dough for hundreds and hundreds of years. But if you consider pizza something with that particular name made of leavened bread covered with some sort of tomato based sauce, then you have to look to Naples, just a couple of hours south of Rome by train. So given my love of pizza, the first thing I did in my first full day in Italy was walk and Metro from my hotel in Rome and head south to Naples.

Pizza marinara at L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele.

Why Naples? Well, two reasons really. First and probably of lesser importance, the first recorded use of the word "pizza" apparently occurred there sometime in the 16th century. It was applied to describe a type of galette, a circular flat pastry or bread of French origin, which was regularly consumed by Naples' working poor population as one of their only means of sustenance.

Secondly, and more importantly, this is where those same poor workers elevated what used to be a circular piece of bread into an art form by topping it with a sauce of tomatoes, a fruit introduced to Europe after Francisco Pizzaro's conquest of Peru in the late 1500s and believed for a while to be poisonous. The first popular pizza in Naples was one with tomatoes, olive oil, oregano and garlic taken by mariners based in Naples on their boats to eat while they were fishing. But things really took off with the invention of pizza Margherita by a Neopolitan pizza maker in 1889.

According to legend (and it may be just that), the pizza Margherita was invented to commemorate a visit to Naples made by King Umberto I and Queen Margherita of Savoy. A pizza maker created three different dishes for the Queen to choose from and she selected the one made from tomatoes, mozzarella and basil which she claimed reminded her of the Italian flag. Now there is some significant doubt as the whether this story is really true but there seems to be little debate that the pizza Margherita was created in Naples. And pizza really took off from there.

The crowd outside L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele when we first arrived.

Nowadays of course, there are a TON of pizza places in Naples to choose from. Since I was only planning on being around the city for the better part of a day, and considering the majority of that day was going to be spent in Herculaneum and climbing Mount Vesuvius, choosing a real Neopolitan pizza parlor really became a one shot deal. So I made sure I did all my homework and picked the one I thought would give me the maximum shot at the most authentic experience.

Based on reading a whole series of "best pizza in Naples" lists, I opted to put all my money on L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele, a place that can trace its pizza making heritage back to before the pizza Margherita was invented. In 1906, Michele Condurro opened his first pizzeria in the city after his family had been making pizzas since 1870. The restaurant was moved to its current location on Via Cesare Sersale in 1930 and the place has been run by the Condurro family from generation to generation ever since. Today they make two kinds of pizza: pizza marinara and pizza Margherita. Just those two. Nothing else. No pepperoni, no sausage, no anchovies, no vegetables. Pizza with tomato sauce, oregano and garlic. Pizza with tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil. That's it. Nothing else. Seemed like a can't miss place to me.

The interior of L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele. The pizza oven is the black thing in the middle of the photo.

As it turned out, it seemed like a can't miss place to a lot of other people too. The walk to the Pizzeria from Napoli Centrale train station takes about 25 minutes or so and it's pretty much a straight walk west. When we turned the final corner to finally see the place, what we found ourselves faced with a whole mob of people just milling about in the street, leaning on parked cars, smoking cigarettes and just generally looking like they were waiting for something to happen. In true Italian fashion, there was no organized line, no instructions or anything to let you know what was going on. So we waited and watched for a few minutes.

Every couple of minutes, the door to the Pizzeria opened and a guy slightly but uncannily resembling Freddie Mercury who looked like he really didn't want to be bothered with any of this read a couple of numbers off some colored tiny pieces of paper and led three or four or five folks inside. Presumably to get some food. They didn't come out any time soon. So we scooted inside and got a number from Freddie (not knowing what else to call him) and waited in the mob, trying to stay out of the street and away from the smokers. After about a 35 minute wait, it was our turn.

Pizza marinara in the foreground; a brand new pizza Margherita in the rear.

We walked through the door and found a small crowded two room restaurant with a few folks making pizza in the rear of the store next to a large pizza oven. We were escorted quickly with little time to take anything in to the second room of the restaurant to the right and placed in two of the empty seats at a four person table. As soon as they could get to us, our waiter walked up to us and said (in English) "two Margheritas?" I'm assuming from this question that most people order the Margherita pizza, eat it as fast as they can and then go on their merry way. We said no. We wanted one of each type of pizza and also ordered a bottle of water and a beer. Despite the enormous Peroni mirrors on at least three of the walls of the place, Peroni was not a beer option. Go figure!

Cooking time for a thin pizza in an over whose temperature can easily top 600 degrees is not that long so we got our food pretty quickly. First the marinara then the Margherita a couple of minutes later. Each pizza was about 12 inches in diameter which filled and more the plates that they were served on. Neither was sliced but we received knives and forks to take care of this. Whether we did this correctly or not, I have no idea. We just did to the pizza what would have been done for us in the United States.

I sampled the marinara first and found the crust light and soft but with a little too much char. The tomato sauce was sweet with a slight acidic tang and the flavor of the whole thing was very oregano forward which was great. The garlic, which consisted of two thin slices of a single clove in one quarter of the pie was not really noticeable at all as a contributing flavor. The reviews we had read of da Michele maintained the pizza would have a soupy center. We didn't find that to be true necessarily, but maybe because the pizza we get at Pupatella is soupier (and oh so good). Overall, we found this pizza to be successful and delicious. I would come back again for this. If the mariners in the 19th century got to eat pizza like this every day, I'd sign up for a fishing boat.

Next up was the Margherita, which arrived before we finished the marinara so we were able to taste both together. The crust on the Margherita was better cooked (i.e. not burnt) and was obviously the same dough. As was the sauce. The cheese on the pizza was concentrated at the center of the pie along with the single piece of basil placed almost dead center. We found this pizza also worthy of a return trip, although we were disappointed that the cheese was not super creamy (probably not buffalo mozzarella) and would have appreciated a few more basil leaves. The basil adds a wonderful floral taste which would have been welcomed. For the record, we found this basil deficiency was not reserved for L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele; we had the same issue with another pizza we had in Herculaneum earlier the same day.

The whole thing was over in about 40 minutes and it cost us 14 Euros. With the dollar to Euro exchange rate being super low this past April this meal ended up costing us a little less than $16. Two 12" pizzas, a bottle of water and a beer for $16. Are you kidding me??? I'm not sure how I could ask for more. This place could have jacked the prices up a while ago but has decided not to. Kudos to them on that. These pizzas are truly excellent. Of the four pizza meals we had in nine days in Italy, these things were the best and I would return in a heartbeat.  Go here for some pizza if you are ever in Naples.

Now…as for my musings in my initial Italy post, I have to say Pupatella's Margherita pizza is better and this is not a homer pick. The difference is in the super creamy cheese and the abundance of basil. If you live in the Washington, D.C. area, make your way over to 5104 Wilson Boulevard in Arlington and get yourself a pizza one day. Get the Margherita. Just trust me. Be prepared to wait in winter but it's worth it.

Going in for the first bite of da Michele's marinara.