With pizza, as with many things in life, simple is often the best. And it doesn't get any more minimal than a true pizza Napoletana.
A handful of blitzed San Marzano tomatoes, a well-tossed sourdough base, slices of mozzarella, three or four basil leaves; a few seconds in a blisteringly hot wood-fired oven is all it takes to transform those humble ingredients into the Naples pizza's distinctive panoply of textural contrasts — a chewy cornicione (crust), a charred bottom and that soupy center of loosely pulped tomato dappled with firm mozzarella. A little drizzle of olive oil links the flavors and seals the deal.
The Associazone Verace Pizza Napoletana, which doles out authenticity certificates to pizzerias worldwide, publishes an extraordinarily stringent 11-page booklet on what constitutes an authentic pie, from acceptable toppings (sorry, no mayonnaise) to cooking time (60-90 seconds) and dough thickness (0.4 cm).
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