Almanac Food: KD’s Kitchen – The Napoletana Pizza

 

 

I don’t call myself a chef.

 

I’m a cook.

 

Actually, I’m not a cook, either.

 

Really, if truth be told, I’m a person who gets obsessed by a particular food item and tries to reproduce it at home to a very high standard. In such a mood, I can usually come up with the goods, if I do say so myself.

 

Here’s an example: Napoletana Pizza.

 

I’m talking about the one called by this name in Australian pizza shops. (So I’m not pretending to reproduce any kind of traditional Italian Napoli pizza here.) As many would know, it has the following ingredients: tomato base, cheese, olives, anchovies and oregano.

 

I think my obsession with the Napoletana started around the time of the Covid-19 outbreak in Victoria. To amuse myself back then, I decided to try to reproduce at home some of my favourite take-away foods. This is one.

 

I like so many different types of pizza, and generally these have more complex flavour profiles (if that’s not a real cooking term, then I just made it up) than the Napoletana, but the challenge here is to make a simple type with a wonderful balance of flavours very well, rather than one with ten different toppings that have the potential to compete with each other. Doing this is like being in accord with those in the orchestral music realm who believe that writing a string quartet is more of an ultimate test in skill than composing a symphony, as everything is exposed in the simple four-part strings piece and can’t be in some sense hidden or ‘doubled up’, as can be the case in the larger scale work.

 

So, what is important is making a superb Napoletana Pizza?

 

The short answer: everything.

 

I spent months working to achieve the desired result in relation to this pizza, experimenting with different types of bought bases (yes, a small compromise here, as one could make one’s own) until I found the one that best suited my preference. I tried out a range of pizza sauces and invented a few of my own, until I found an organic pizza/pasta sauce at a nearby gourmet supermarket that was just right, and made use of various brands of sliced black olives and tinned anchovies, as well as numerous melty pizza-style cheeses. Even choosing a favourite brand of oregano makes a little but important difference. In the end, though, the thing is to trust your own palate and settle upon the continued use of certain items once you’ve found they work particularly well. (Regarding quality ingredients: buying fresh is not always possible, of course, and paying the highest price doesn’t always result in the best.) Often with supermarket goods, the price level above the basic home brand price is as good as anything in the range for that item. Sometimes even the home brand option can work very well in a recipe.

 

In terms of the amount of each ingredient that makes up the Napoletana Pizza – and pizzas generally, of course – it’s very much a matter of personal preference, though fundamentally it’s a balance between the ingredients involved, so that each one plays a notable role in the overall taste.

 

Of course, cooking the pizza properly is equally as important as the ingredients on it. Again, some trial and error is part of the process of achieving the optimum result. One major point here, I reckon, is to know the characteristics of your own oven, how long it takes to heat up; whether it has slighter hotter or cooler areas within it etc. For the small electric oven I use for my pizzas, I turn my pizza around 180 degrees half way through the cooking process (once you establish how long that is), so that both halves are equally well cooked, and put it onto a higher shelf to brown the top of it about five minutes before removal. Also, I check the pizza a couple of times as it is cooking, just to be sure of how it’s going.

 

Soon, with regard to the ingredients and the cooking of the pizza, you’ll work out what works best for you. Then you’ll be able to repeat it without stuffing around unduly. Of course, the door is still open to experiment a little as you go along; for example, in the instance of the Napoletana, you may discover a cheese you haven’t used before that’s an improvement on your current choice.

 

Happy cooking and, more importantly, happy eating!

 

Culinarily yours,
KD

 

To read more from Kevin Densley CLICK HERE.

 

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Our writers are independent contributors. The opinions expressed in their articles are their own. They are not the views, nor do they reflect the views, of Malarkey Publications.

 

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