Slow Food’s signature pizza handbook offering a wide-ranging perspective on pizza through a variety of topics, notions, and practical tools is an indispensable guide for lovers of one of Italy’s most famous and beloved dishes.
From Its Roots: A History of Pizza
Starting with the history of pizza and its social evolution over the years, the manual details techniques and traditions that can be applied to modern times, offering an enjoyable and accurate “pizza school” for those who want to learn and replicate at home the many styles of pizza-making of which Italy is the master.
Opening the volume is the authoritative signature of Marino Niola, anthropologist and professor at the Suor Orsola Benincasa University of Naples, as well as the recipient of the silver medal special coinage Fondazione Univerde, chaired by Pecoraro Scanio, as a supporter of the Unesco World Petition Pizza.
In his preface, Niola defines pizza in an exquisite image as “a gastronomic hardware compatible with any software,” satisfying for every palate and in every version, which the Neapolitan masters “interpret in an unmistakable fashion, with a technique that comes from afar and has on its side centuries of apprenticeship.”
A Pizza School in a Book
And it is precisely the masters of the trade who are behind the recipes contained in the last section of the pizza handbook, which constitutes a veritable mosaic of Italian pizza culture – well represented in all its facets and styles: classic pizzas, focaccias, contemporary pizzas, fried, in a pan, al tegamino or in a wheel, as well as a section dedicated to bread in pizzerias. “‘Il Mondo della Pizza’ offers more than 50 authorial interpretations with detailed directions that allow professionals and pizza-lovers to enjoy making delicious pizzas at home.
The book accompanies readers through a selection of tasty creations in detailed steps. Try re-creating the Sunday pizza of Renato Bosco, the tegamini of Paolo Spadaro and Francesca Gerbasio, or the fried pizzas of Federica Mignacca and Petra Antolini.
The Love Behind this Pizza Handbook
The book was made possible thanks to the support of Alfa Forni and Agugiaro & Figna. Riccardo Agugiaro, managing director of Agugiaro & Figna, commented, “We enthusiastically support this editorial project of Slow Food, an association to which we are linked by a strong commonality of values. Our guiding star has always been the aspiration for quality, respect for raw materials, natural ingredients, and the knowledge of tradition and technical expertise. This is what we hope this eye-catching pocket-sized ‘pizza school’ will convey to everyone, from simple enthusiasts to the pizza makers of tomorrow.”
Like all Slow Manuals, “Il Mondo della Pizza” is a guarantee of expertise and technique for those who want to study and explore a topic in the kitchen from theory to practice, in the simplest and most delicious of ways.