Neapolitan pizza will be protected by a law that regulates what goes into it and how it is made. The draft for the law gets quite specific. The pizza has to be round. It mustn’t be more than 13¾ inches in diameter. The crust has to be ¾ of an inch at the most, and the center has to be less than a tenth of an inch high! Naturally the dough must be kneaded by hand. Rolling pins and dough machines are just not acceptable.
Meeting all these criteria and complying with the required types of salt, flour, yeast and tomatoes will grant the label “S.T.G.”, which means guaranteed traditional specialty.
This is all part of the campaign
by each of the countries of the EU to "protect"
the "specialties" of their
country.
=================================================
THE PERFECT PIZZA? ITALIANS
AGREE IT'S NEAPOLTAN
Italy weighs law to regulate dish; and don't ask for pepperoni
By Stephen Weeke
Bureau chief
NBC News
May 26, 2004
ROME - When it comes to food Italians are some of the most opinionated people in the world.
When it comes to pizza, arguably Italy’s most popular culinary export, Italians tolerate and even enjoy a wide range of varieties and baking styles, but they all agree on one thing: The “real thing” is Neapolitan pizza.
Now the Italian Ministry of Agricultural Politics is proposing that Neapolitan pizza be protected by a law that regulates what goes into it and how it is made.The draft for the law gets quite specific.The pizza has to be round. It mustn’t be more than 13¾ inches in diameter. The crust has to be ¾ of an inch at the most, and the center has to be less than a tenth of an inch high! Naturally the dough must be kneaded by hand. Rolling pins and dough machines are just not acceptable.
Meeting all these criteria and complying with the required types of salt, flour, yeast and tomatoes will grant the label “S.T.G.”, which means guaranteed traditional specialty.
Issue stems from EU
This attempt to regulate gastronomical products derives from some tense controversies in the European Union over whether typically national products can be called by the same name if they are manufactured in another country.
The biggest victory of this kind in recent years has been for producers of Parma ham, or prosciutto. The raw, cured ham is a specialty of the northern Italian town of Parma. The consortium that represents the regional prosciutto firms argued that the English or German version should not be entitled to name their product “Parma ham.”
The European Union approved this request, making it a commercial violation in all 25 EU nations to label anything as Parma ham unless it actually comes from there. In the case of prosciutto, Parmesan cheese and some vintages of Italian wine, there are serious financial interests at stake, as the original product can often justify higher prices.
What's really at stake?
But with pizza that goal is hardly possible. From the massive chains of Domino’s and Pizza Hut in America, to Spizzico here in Italy, from sliced to square and fresh to frozen, the definition of pizza has been stretched far more than the dough could ever be.
So what’s at stake now doesn’t seem to be a profit, but a principle. In Naples that principle is alive and well, and the city's melding of these simple ingredients is exceptionally satisfying.
You really have to go there and eat it to understand the difference.A word of advice for first-timers: Don’t ask for pepperoni because it’s an American creation that doesn’t exist over here. If you do you’ll get a very strange look and a pizza covered with bell peppers.
Stephen Weeke is the NBC News Bureau Chief in Rome.
MSNBC
- The perfect pizza? Italians agree it’s Neapolitan
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5067285
==================================================
CRUSTY
ITALIANS RULE THERE'S NO TOPPING THEIR PIZZA
The
Australian Times
Richard
Owen
28
May 04
PIZZAS, Italy has decreed, must be made with a thin crust, fresh plum or cherry tomatoes and mozzarella. Basil, oregano, garlic and olive oil are acceptable toppings, but everything else is an affront to Italian cuisine.
An announcement in the Official Gazette - normally reserved for drier regulations - confirmed the Italian Government was going on the offensive after 20 years of gastronomic hand-wringing about inferior imitations of Italian food.
Inspectors will tour pizzerias awarding a "seal of guarantee" to restaurants that comply with the rules. And international inspectors will be enlisted to expose impostors among the 60,000 "so-called Italian restaurants around the world", Agriculture Minister Gianni Alemanno announced yesterday. "It's time to draw a line between what is really Italian and the misleading imitations," Mr Alemanno told reporters in Rome.
Pizza derives from the flat bread common to Mediterranean cultures and has enjoyed near-mythical status in Naples since the Margherita, topped with tomato, mozzarella and basil, was invented in 1889 in honour of a visit to the city by Queen Margherita, wife of King Umberto I. Its ingredients were chosen to echo the red, white and green of the Italian tricolour.
There are 23,000 pizzerias in Italy, making an estimated 56million pizzas a year in a business with an annual turnover of more than 2 billion euros ($3.4 billion).
The government initiative was applauded by Neapolitan pizza chefs, including Ciro Moffa and Vittorio Triunfo, who brought "real pizza" from Naples to Rome a decade ago.
"Pizza is not just a food, it is a way of life," Mr Moffa said.
"Vittorio and I grew up in the back streets of Naples, and our fathers and grandfathers made pizza before us. A pizza should bring you the soft warmth of Naples - the sounds of the streets, the aromas and textures of herbs, tomatoes and mozzarella."
Mr Moffa said he had been overseas - "and frankly what passes for pizza abroad is all too often a travesty. Enough is enough".
The announcement of the "Pizza DOC*" - the abbreviation used to guarantee the provenance of a bottle of wine - took up three pages in the Official Gazette and has been approved by the European Union.
*Denominazione
di Origine Controllata (DOC)
French
counter part is Appellation d'Origine Controlee (AOC)
The
Australian: Crusty Italians rule there's no topping their pizza [ 28may04
]
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/
story_page/0,5744,9676999%255E2703,00.html