There’s no doubt that Italian’s love their food; their dishes are tasty, simple, and loved around the world. Ever city and region of the country is known for their own, specialized dishes, and pizza lovers around the globe know that there’s no better place to grab a slice than in Naples. So what happens when Neapolitan pizzerias offers to put their rendition of the pizza-making on the UNESCO world heritage menu? JustFly reviews what it takes to make (or break) a culinary dish recognized by UNESCO.
Naples, Italy is the capital city of the Campania municipality in Italy, which is the third-largest municipality in the country according to JustFly. Naples is home to more than 3.1 million residents, making it one of the largest metropolitan areas in the southern Mediterranean Sea. With so many hungry people, Naples’ food game needs to be more than on-point, it needs to be spectacular. It seems that much of the country believes that Neapolitan cuisine is worthy of international recognition, and so, Italy has nominated the city and their most prized culinary tradition, Pizza, for UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list. What this means is that Italy wants you to know that there’s nowhere else in the world that has better pizza than Neapolitan pizza.
Naples has long held the reputation for being home to the best pizza in the world, and with the recognition from UNESCO, the traditional characteristics of what makes a Neapolitan pizza the pizza will soon be internationally recognized.
What are the characteristics of a traditional pizza from Naples? Firstly, the pizzeria must be certified and a member of the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana. Once certified, the pizzeria and recipes must comply with a strict set of rules, among which are how the restaurants make their yeast, how long the dough making process must take, how thick the dough is rolled out, to what kind of tomato sauce is used (there are only three variations allowed), and lastly, but certainly not the least, on the best certified mozzarella di bufala can be used to top the pizza.
Once a pizzeria meets these requirements, only then can they call themselves authentic pizzeria’s under the association guidelines. Though stringent, the rules pay off. It’s not unheard of to wait for hours outside some of these internationally recognized pizzerias. The most notable of which is the Pizzeria Da Michele, which was made famous by the movie Eat, Pray, Love and is where the actress Julia Roberts downed an entire pizza by herself.
Eating pizza in Naples also comes with its set of own rules; with it’s very thin layer, pizza-eaters often choose to eat their pies with a fork and knife (scooping up the delicious, gooey sauce and cheese melt in the middle of the pie), or, fold it into quarters and eat it on the go. Either way, the crust must be thin or flexible enough to offer both variations (in fact, it can’t be more than .4cm in thickness). In addition to the thinness of the crust, authentic Neapolitan pizza is a minimalist’s dream: sauce, cheese and basil (or otherwise known as pizza Margherita) is your standard pizza dish served around the city. Either way, there’s no better way to experience a city than through your stomach, and there’s no better city in the world to eat your way through than Naples, Italy.
