napoli diary: pizza napoletana

you haven't tasted authentic pizza unless you've had pizza made the way neapolitans do. lucky new yorkers can satisfy their cravings at una pizza napoletana in the east village, but the rest of us have to go all the way to napoli to find out what the fuss is all about. napoli is where pizza originated. the word pizza is the neapolitan slang pronounciation for "pita".

pizza margherita is my absolute favourite but i had consumed so much mozzarella by the time we reach naples that the simpler and cheeseless pizza marinara was what i chose for lunch at briandi restaurant in naples where pizza originated...well, actually, pizza probably dates back to the days of pompeii and briandi can harldy claim to have invented pizza but the restaurant does deserve some credit as it has been around for more than a hundred years and has been showing what the real thing is all about to generations of non-italians.

i'll admit that the restaurant was a bit of a tourist trap but the pizza was delicious nonetheless. how can you beat an individually made thin-crust pizza pie baked in a woodfired oven and topped with a simple tomato sauce made from san maranzano tomatoes and sprinkled with fresh basil, dried oregano, a garlic glove, salt and pepper?!