New pineapple pizza divides Italy
Anyone who has travelled to Italy knows that there are unwritten conventions that must be followed, and the most significant of these are related to food. After 11 a.m., a cappuccino? only visitors should use. Bolognese spaghetti? A terrifying idea. On your pizza, pineapple? Heresy, that is, up until this point.
But according to Gino Sorbillo, the famed Naples pizzaiolo (pizza master), who has introduced the feared “ananas” to his menu on Via dei Tribunali, the most famous pizza strip in the pizza capital of the world, 2024 may just be the year that pineapple pizza finally makes its way to Italy.
“Margherita con Ananas,” a creation by Sorbillo, costs seven euros ($7.70). This isn’t your typical Hawaiian pizza, though; instead, it’s a Bianca, devoid of the tomato layer, topped with three different kinds of cheese, and caramelised pineapple that has been baked twice.
Third-generation pizzaiolo Sorbillo told CNN that the reason he started it was to “fight food prejudice.”
He lamented, “Unfortunately, people follow the herd and mould themselves around the opinions of others or what they hear.”
“I wanted to put these contentious ingredients—which are treated like poison—onto a Neapolitan pizza, making them tasty because I’ve noticed in the last few years that a lot of people were condemning ingredients or ways of preparing food purely because in the past most people didn’t know them.”
Indian Student Shreyas Reddy’s Tragic Death in the US
Making a significant point, he added, was another reason for doing it in Sorbillo’s headquarters in the 3,000-year-old historic centre of Naples. Sorbillo has 21 locations worldwide, including Miami, Tokyo, and Ibiza.
After prebaking in the oven, the pineapple is chilled. He then tops the pizza with extra virgin olive oil, fresh basil, and smoked provolone, a regional cheese made from cow milk from Campania. He then bakes it in his wood-fired oven.
He sprinkles “micro shavings” of two varieties of smoked cacioricotta cheese—one made from Sardinian goats and the other from buffalo in the Cilento region—around the crust as soon as it comes out of the oven.
He said, “It makes it tasty.”
Whether it’s delicious or not, most Italians detest pineapple on pizza, so when he released his pie on social media this week, not many people approved. According to Sorbillo, there has been an “uproar” caused by attacks on social media and even a national TV discussion over his pizza.
However, he claims that those who were interested enough to give it a try have found it to be beneficial.
“I put it on the menu without saying anything for a couple of weeks before I launched it on social media, and lots of people ordered it, even Neapolitans,” he added.
But opinions in Italy are divided on it. Not exclusive to Italy either. Numerous debates have surfaced regarding it. I don’t believe that people are naturally curious. They don’t trust anything different.
Food journalist Barbara Politi was enthusiastic about it and flew directly to Naples to sample it.
She declared, “It’s good, fresh, and I’m in favour of it.” Did you know that pineapple has been a staple of European cuisine since Christopher Columbus brought it back to Europe in 1493 after sampling it in Guadeloupe?
“I was wondering about how long pineapple had been used in Europe when Sorbillo debuted it, and I discovered that it has been a part of European [food] tradition for a very long period. Therefore, in actuality, we’re discussing a matter of mindset and taste preferences.
“It’s kind of like sushi; you might not love it at first, but it becomes a fixation,” added the speaker.
In Sorbillo’s opinion, pineapple on pizza is just as delicious as the more daring toppings that pizzaiolos have been experimenting with lately.
“People have been employing chemicals that were never utilised five or six years ago in the past several years. These days, we use jams, powdered olives, chopped pistachios, mozzarella froth, speck from Alto Adige, and mortadella—which wasn’t utilised ten years ago. Why don’t we explore pineapple again? Throughout the last five or six years, pizza has taken on a new lease on life.
His pineapple offering, he claimed, “would be perplexed” by his pizzaiolo forefathers, but he also stated, “Things should be tasted first, and then you express your view.” Even Gammon and Rocket weren’t traditionally served with pizzas, but these days they are.
He does, however, draw the line at the beginning with a tomato basis.
“That’s another fruit; a product containing two acidic fruits wouldn’t be good,” he remarked. “Instead, I top the pizza with three smoked cheeses, which gives it a distinct flavour.”
One Dead as Massive Tree Collapses into House in Boulder Creek
Using tomatoes as an example, he explained that because of the Hawaiian past, “people condemn it without trying to work on it, as I did.”
There are, of course, polemics from those who argue against using it. However, what has angered you? You’re not being forced to purchase it.
In cuisine, pairings are significant. A solid combination of elements will yield a nice outcome. It is being consumed by gastronomically interested people, therefore we performed well.
Sorbillo has already incorporated the critique into another contentious pizza.
He explained, “After the pineapple pizza was released, someone wrote, ‘Now see if you can do a ketchup one, so I did.” “And then there was another row.”
But this was no regular ketchup—instead, he utilised a handmade sauce prepared from Italian battering tomatoes, both red and yellow, served over a white foundation topped with smoked provola. Then, with bottles of homemade ketchup around him, he recorded himself eating it victoriously and declaring it to be “good.”
“You can make a whole new thing by changing just one ingredient or one step in the preparation process,” he stated.
“I’m confident that pineapple pizza will soon be offered on menus at other Naples-area pizzerias as well.”
