VideoNote: The Soul of the Pizza

THIS IS A NEW VIDEONOTE! – SEE BELOW

Dear friends, as you are probably aware, ItalianNotebook has been experimenting with adding video content to our Notes. In offering this service to subscribers we hope to draw in a little bit of capital that will help us promote and improve the website. Barbara Goldfield and I have made five VideoNotes and the response has been excellent. For this we thank all those who have donated so far.

Although we are having a lot of fun producing these videos, they also take a a lot of time and effort. The people we have interviewed so far have been happy to simply share their knowledge, with infinite passion and patience. However, we need lots of feedback from you our readers to see if this is something you really want to see more of so that we can evaluate whether it is a viable addition to the daily Notes. Therefore, we are sharing today’s VideoNote with the entire readership.

Please send us lots of comments and suggestions: whether you enjoyed it or not and possibly what you’d like to see more of. Thanks so much!
-ed.

Pizza. Envision it and your mouth begins to water. Piping hot, it’s the epitome of fast, fabulous finger-licking food, right?

Wellll… for some it comes in big square pans with different toppings (pizza al taglio). For others it’s meters long and sold by weight (pizza alla pala). For others it’s big and circular and cut into triangular slices (pizza americana). For others still it’s round and fits on to a plate (pizza tonda) and cooked religiously in a wood-burning oven (see today’s VideoNote below).

But look up the word “pizza” and you’ll also find calzone, pizza genovese, pizza foggiana, pizza siciliana, pizza marchigiana and panzerotto. And what about pizzette and pizzelle?

And if you’re still not confused there’s more. In Rome, a pizza Napoletana is topped with tomato, mozzarella and anchovies. Order it in Naples and it comes without mozzarella but is seasoned with oregano and garlic. And it’s called pizza marinara, even though has nothing to do with the mare (sea).

Still confused? No worries, don’t sweat the details. In the VideoNote below, our friend Michele Novizio, owner of the Pizzeria La Lampara, talks about the only thing that really matters… the soul of the pizza!

(The VideoNote is below the following two images…)