Pizza - Follow-up To My Review in HaAretz

[Daniel Rogov]

Following up on my article in HaAretz, one of my faithful correspondents adds to our historical knowledge of pizza.


Apropos pizza -


Alexandre Dumas père (one of the personages in your book Rogues etc.) describes pizza after a visit to Naples:
"The pizza is a kind of talmouse [rectangular cheese pastry] like the ones they make in Saint-Denis. It is round, and kneaded from the same dough as bread ... There are pizzas with oil, pizzas with different kinds of lard, pizzas with cheese, pizzas with tomatoes, and pizzas with little fish" (translated from his Le Corricolo).


And Carlo Collodi, in his Pinocchio: "... On top of it they put a sauce with a little bit of everything. When its colors are combined -- the black of the toasted bread, the sickly white of the garlic and anchovy, the greeny-yellow of the oil and fried greens, and the bits of red here and there from the tomato -- they make pizza look like a patchwork of greasy fish that harmonizes perfectly with the appearance of the person selling it."


I got the information and the quotations from the delightful book Delizia!: the Epic History of the Italians and their Food, by John Dickie.


My original article can be seen at http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/fo ... a-1.292153

Best
Rogov

[David H]

Pizza in Paris -- a recommendation which I hope to follow when I get to Paris again:
http://sports.yahoo.com/tennis/blog/busted_racquet/post/Table-for-three-Nadal-Stosur-Schiavone-dine-a;_ylt=AoBxhiBDDi1UrACgDRhTJ584v7YF?urn=ten,245911