TIME OUT MAGAZINE AWARD "The Best Pizza in Beijing"

Good news: Beijing has great pizza! La Pizza opened its second shop in the back corner of 3.3 Mall in Sanlitun in early 2010 and everyone should run to this light at the end of the tunnel.Giuseppe De staefano Exsecutive Chef  from Naples City the Pizza Country  and  Luca Mania, the bright-eyed pizzaiolo from Sicily, is the delicious reason our tastebuds tingle with delight.
Luca lives and breathes pizza and has tossed dough up in the air in Spain and with his uncle in New York City. Add to that a brick-domed oven from Italy that burns fruitwood to an infernal 400°C and some of the best mozzarella and ricotta made locally by an Italian formaggiaio.
The menu starts with Neapolitan fritti (fried things), and it’s a very good beginning indeed. The polpettine ascolana (28RMB) are beef and pork meatballs mixed with chopped olives, rolled in semolina and then fried. These hot, crisp bites are good, but don’t match the excellence to come.
Choosing your pizza is actually diffcult and an annoying delay in satiating your hunger. Pizzas come in three diameters and are no bargain when you supersize. The glorious and unpretentious margherita becomes spicy margherita (68RMB/33cm) when given a toss of peppery arugula.
The pulcinella ventaglio (110RMB/33cm) is an ode to prosciutto, stretched to the shape of the venerably cured ham hock, complete with a ‘handle’ wrapped in prosciutto and topped with cherry tomatoes and more arugula. The smaller end is stuffed with fresh creamy ricotta that’s worth fghting for.
The ‘classico STG’ is ‘specially guaranteed by the Naples pizza chef association’ (110RMB) and something like a stromboli, a ruler-shaped pie stuffed with mozzarella that’s fred in the oven, then topped with fresh tomatoes, grated parmesan, even more arugula, and translucent pale slices of prosciutto draped over the top. (There’s a vegetarian version too). The crust has just enough chew and holds a smoky favour that is the perfect marriage.
If you want to waste valuable stomach real estate on something else, salads are plentiful and pasta is cooked to a perfect al dente. The spaghetti vongole (68RMB) is what it should be – and rarely is: neither white nor red, but a balanced centre.
La Pizza offers fresh fruit juices with some bargain wines by the bottle at the counter (90RMB). Pizza slices can also be bought and lunch specials are great bargains with a pizza buffet daily from noon to 2pm for 100RMB.
Desserts are mixed. Profteroles can get crusty looking and the tiramisu can appear ‘tiramisoaked’, but crostata and Italian cheesecakes (18RMB) are golden. Ask Luca what he’d have and you’ll be in expert hands. Lillian Chou
www.lapizzanapoli.com

Good news: Beijing has great pizza! La Pizza opened its second shop in the back corner of 3.3 Mall in Sanlitun in early 2010 and everyone should run to this light at the end of the tunnel.Giuseppe De staefano Exsecutive Chef  from Naples City the Pizza Country  and  Luca Mania, the bright-eyed pizzaiolo from Sicily, is the delicious reason our tastebuds tingle with delight.
Luca lives and breathes pizza and has tossed dough up in the air in Spain and with his uncle in New York City. Add to that a brick-domed oven from Italy that burns fruitwood to an infernal 400°C and some of the best mozzarella and ricotta made locally by an Italian formaggiaio.
The menu starts with Neapolitan fritti (fried things), and it’s a very good beginning indeed. The polpettine ascolana (28RMB) are beef and pork meatballs mixed with chopped olives, rolled in semolina and then fried. These hot, crisp bites are good, but don’t match the excellence to come.
Choosing your pizza is actually diffcult and an annoying delay in satiating your hunger. Pizzas come in three diameters and are no bargain when you supersize. The glorious and unpretentious margherita becomes spicy margherita (68RMB/33cm) when given a toss of peppery arugula.
The pulcinella ventaglio (110RMB/33cm) is an ode to prosciutto, stretched to the shape of the venerably cured ham hock, complete with a ‘handle’ wrapped in prosciutto and topped with cherry tomatoes and more arugula. The smaller end is stuffed with fresh creamy ricotta that’s worth fghting for.
The ‘classico STG’ is ‘specially guaranteed by the Naples pizza chef association’ (110RMB) and something like a stromboli, a ruler-shaped pie stuffed with mozzarella that’s fred in the oven, then topped with fresh tomatoes, grated parmesan, even more arugula, and translucent pale slices of prosciutto draped over the top. (There’s a vegetarian version too). The crust has just enough chew and holds a smoky favour that is the perfect marriage.
If you want to waste valuable stomach real estate on something else, salads are plentiful and pasta is cooked to a perfect al dente. The spaghetti vongole (68RMB) is what it should be – and rarely is: neither white nor red, but a balanced centre.
La Pizza offers fresh fruit juices with some bargain wines by the bottle at the counter (90RMB). Pizza slices can also be bought and lunch specials are great bargains with a pizza buffet daily from noon to 2pm for 100RMB.
Desserts are mixed. Profteroles can get crusty looking and the tiramisu can appear ‘tiramisoaked’, but crostata and Italian cheesecakes (18RMB) are golden. Ask Luca what he’d have and you’ll be in expert hands. Lillian Chou

Re: Pizza Maradona Only at La Pizza Exsecutive Chef Giuseppe De

Re: Pizza Maradona Only at La Pizza Exsecutive Chef Giuseppe De
Stefano La pizza... Gruop in Cinahttp://www.lapizzanapoli.com/

Salame Toscano This recipe is drawn from a manuscript dated to 1772.

lapizzanapoli@gmail.comSalame Toscano: A truly classic cold cut that will work very well as an antipasto, or on a picnic.
This recipe is drawn from a manuscript dated to 1772.
Salame Toscano: A truly classic cold cut that will work very well as an antipasto, or on a picnic.
This recipe is drawn from a manuscript dated to 1772.
Ingredients:
•Pork (precise amounts given below)
•Pork fat
•Herbs
•Spices
•Casing
Preparation:
To make salami proceed as follows: take the leanest pork, and for every 25 pounds season it with 2/3 pound of salt, an ounce of cracked pepper, and a half-ounce of spices, by which we mean cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg. Then take a head of garlic, grind it in a mortar with an ounce of wine, and squeeze it through a strainer and into the meat. Add a pound and a half of diced fat, and put it in the casings.

This is very cursory; the 18th century author assumed the cook would then know how to season the salami, a process that's crucial to the success of the endeavor (these kinds of assumptions were common in recipes of the time, and also correct, because the authors were professionals, as was their audience).

Begin by coarsely grinding the meat and cubing the fat. Turn the mixture out on your work surface, spread it to a thickness of 4 inches (12 cm), add to it the salt (you'll want 2.5% by weight, i.e. 2.5 pounds salt per hundred pounds meat) and spices, and mix it very well with your hands to guarantee that the salting and spicing is uniform. Next, put it in the casings (you'll want large intestine, and will need to soak them briefly first), tamping it down layer by layer as you add it, until the casings are almost completely filled.

Press the filling down from the inside and squeeze down from the outside so as to obtain enough free casing at the top to be able to tie it tightly shut with strong string. Soak the filled salamis briefly in hot water to further soften the casings, and then massage them, while puncturing the casings uniformly with a fine-pointed tool to drive out any air that may have been trapped inside the salami. Next, you should tie the salami vertically and horizontally, using the same string used to close off the end.

Now begins the delicate and difficult aging of the salami.

The process must take place in a cool (18 C, 65 F) place with neither drafts nor heat sources, because an open window or a hot pipe will be sufficient to ruin everything: the casing will pull away from the filling, the fat will become rancid, and everything else will oxidize.

One can check the progress of the ripening visually:

•After a month the salamis should be lightly covered by a soft greenish mold;
•After a month and a half, the filling should begin to shrink, and as a result the strings will loosen;
•After two months the mold will be more evident and begin to turn gray;
•After four months the shrinkage will be more evident, as will the mold: the salami is now ready;
•After 5 months the mold is thick, dry and uniform; the salami is at its best.
•Don't let it age more than 9 months, because it will become too dry, too hard, and loose its aromas.

Italian Chef in China: How Italians Eat

Italian Chef in China: How Italians Eat: "World Food Explorer Sequence of the food eaten by Italians In any case, however, for the sake of the chronicle, a traditional meal consist..."

Italian Chef in China: How Italians Eat

Italian Chef in China: How Italians Eat: "World Food Explorer Sequence of the food eaten by Italians In any case, however, for the sake of the chronicle, a traditional meal consist..."

How Italians Eat

World Food Explorer
Sequence of the food eaten by Italians
In any case, however, for the sake of the chronicle, a traditional meal consists of an appetizer (antipasto); a "primo" (first course) of rice or pasta in its numerous forms, plain or combined with various sauces and trimmings; a secondo (meat or fish course) accompanied by contorno (vegetable or green salad). After the cheese (formaggio), fruit (frutta) is served as well as a choice of numerous other desserts: cakes, pastries and sweets (dolci), ices (gelati) or frozen cakes (semi-freddo). A young wine is usually served in 1/4 (quarto), half (mezzo) or one liter (litro) carafes (sfuso). Ask for a wine list if you prefer better quality bottled wines. There is a wide choice of mineral waters available. I prefer the lightly bubbly (leggermente frizzante) Traditionally the meal ends with a strong, black espresso coffee. The frothy cappuccino dusted with cocoa is also delectable.

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