It was a simple pleasure that reminded me of the beauty of Italian food.
Traditional Italian pizza starts with the dough, which is usually homemade and hand-stretched. It’s made from just four essential ingredients: flour, water, salt, and yeast.
After leaving the dough to rise for several hours, it's shaped into a circle, ready for the next step—adding the ingredients. This starts with the base, which depends on whether you're making a red or a white pizza. Red pizzas use tomato sauce, while white pizzas use ricotta cheese or light cream as the base. Once that’s ready, we add the toppings! For my Mediterranean pizza in Pisa, we added cherry tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella cheese.
Finally, the pizza is baked in a wood-fired oven at high temperatures, giving it a deliciously crispy crust.
Yes, pizza is deeply connected to the local environment. While we often think of pizza as one of the most iconic Italian foods, each region has its own unique take on it, adding different toppings based on what’s available in their local environment. This results in a beautiful diversity of flavors and an enduring tradition that not only represents Italian culture as a whole but also reflects the identity of the various regions.
