Pizza & Co‪.‬

More than a dish, it’s a flagship food. Pizza is the symbol par excellence of Italian cuisine around the world. It dates back to 18th century Naples, and has spread all over the world since then. The same is true for focacce, schiacciate and crescente, as well as all the other oven-baked grain derivatives, which the ancient Romans once used as a plate upon which they ate their meals. Similar to Arabian pita, the Indian nan and the Hispanic tortilla, pizza and focacce are by far the most popular of their kinds in the world.


THE RECIPES

Whether it’s pizza, pie or focaccia, here are 40 recipes whose numerous versions from north to south of the Belpaese (with a couple of forays into foreign cuisine) all have the same mix of flour and water as a base. Beginning with the preparation stage, the many different ingredients and the various cheese, vegetable, spice, meat and fish dressings are all laid out in 40 different possibilities: from the most traditional of pizzas with tomato to focacce and focaccette, pies, plum-cakes and quiche, from the simplest recipes to the most complicated. All are explained, step by step, with ingredients, preparation and cooking times. And all are faithful to the one general rule: crispy on the outside, soft inside.