Name: Pizza Napoletana review by hurkanakbiyik at Piccolo Forno, Haarlem, Netherlands
Item: Pizza Napoletana
Rating: 4.6
Author: hurkanakbiyik

Italy

Sixty to ninety seconds in a wood-fired oven at around 450°C is what separates pizza Napoletana from every other pizza: the dough puffs into a soft, leopard-spotted rim, the centre stays thin and almost wet, and the whole thing folds in four to be eaten by hand. Naples has made flatbreads with tomato since the eighteenth century, and the two canonical versions are the marinara, with tomato, garlic, oregano and oil, and the margherita, with tomato, mozzarella and basil, the latter popularly dated to 1889 and a royal visit, a story the city repeats more confidently than the records support. Since 1984 the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana has written the rules down, and the EU registered the style as a Traditional Speciality Guaranteed in 2010. Neapolitan pizza-making was added to UNESCO's intangible heritage list in 2017.

The dough is only flour, water, salt and a very small amount of yeast, hydrated to about sixty percent, kneaded until smooth and left to ferment for eight to twenty-four hours, then divided into balls of 200 to 280 grams and proved again. It is opened by hand, pressing from the centre outwards so the air is pushed into the rim, never with a rolling pin, to a disc of about 30 centimetres with a base a few millimetres thick. Toppings are sparing: crushed San Marzano or other plum tomatoes, raw, with salt; fior di latte or mozzarella di bufala torn and scattered; a few basil leaves; a thread of olive oil. The pizza is slid onto the oven floor and turned once or twice with the peel. There is no cheese on a marinara. The pizza is served whole and uncut on the plate, and it is meant to be eaten at once.

Judge the cornicione first: it should be puffed, airy inside and spotted with char, not pale and dense and not burnt black. The base should be thin and tender, soft enough to fold, with a little pull; a cracker-crisp bottom is a different style and a soggy, grey centre means the oven was too cool. The tomato should taste fresh and slightly acidic, the mozzarella melted into pools rather than a uniform sheet, the basil present. Mark down a dough that tastes of raw flour or yeast, a rim that is bready all the way through, excessive toppings that weigh down the centre, pre-cooked tomato sauce, and a pizza that has been sitting long enough for the base to go stiff. A margherita is the test of a pizzeria because it hides nothing.

Pizza Napoletana

Netherlands

Piccolo Forno

Calabrisella pizza is the best pizza i have ever tasted so far in my life.

The dough is perfect and having a little burnt corner makes it so nice. 

The sauce and cheese have a great quality. But the most important thing is the ricotta cheese and spice in it.

Btw, it is really spicy hot.

Pizza Napoletana review by hurkanakbiyik at Piccolo Forno, Haarlem, Netherlands

Pizza Napoletana

Piccolo Forno

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