When I was sitting in a restaurant and my lovely man decided to have a pizza, I was all into fish and seafood. And I ordered super yummy octopus and potatoes in tomato sauce, I just love seafood as much as my sweetie potatoes.
While we were waiting that our order arrives, he was observing the people around us eating their pizza. And we talked about how people eat pizza here in southern Italy. So I decided to write something about it.
Well, first I should say that we have two kinds of pizza: the Roman way – a little more thick and more ‘American’ like – and the Neapolitan kind: very thin and a crunchy yet soft crust, a little higher than the middle part.
When you order your pizza, it comes on a big, heavy plate. Surprise: it is NOT sliced and you have to do the work by your own. So: take your knife and fork and cut the pizza in slices. At least 6, not more than 8 pieces, like cutting a cake in a circle.
To eat the pizza slices the right way, take one triangle from the outside (and dry side) with your hand and lift it (hold it with the thumb and the middle finger helping with the annulary and the pinkie). Fold the slice in two with the forefinger. Now you can eat the pizza slice starting from the soft, middle part. Don’t care if the sauce is dripping… there will be enough dry pizza rind from the edge that you can do your ‘scarpetta’. That is when you clean the sauce from your plate with the help of the remaining pizza crust (or in case of a pasta dish the cleaning the sauce away with a piece of bread).
Some people – more the women – do eat only the inner part. And they sometimes eat also with fork and knife.. which is not wrong and maybe less messy but not the right way either.
Even though they have here sometimes strange pizza like with wurstel and french fries, rarely you find pineapple on it. Instead, I recommend pizza with potato slices, white onion rings and Gorgonzola cheese. In most places you can ask for ‘your personal’ pizza. I for example often had a simple pizza Margherita with non baked prosciutto (con prosciutto crudo).
And always ‘close’ your meal with an espresso or a digestive (amaro) in the evening!
