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New York Pizza Festival
NY Pizza Festival and Napoli Pizza Village: similarities and differences. 845 445 cmdo

NY Pizza Festival and Napoli Pizza Village: similarities and differences.

New York Pizza Festival and  Napoli Pizza Village: 2 different settings, but many points of contact. Come and discover the thread that binds Naples to the other end of the world!
2018 is a historic year for pizza lovers and for us of Ciao – Il pomodoro di Napoli! A new star was born in New York: The New York Pizza Festival, the first US event dedicated to the pizza world twinned with the Napoli Pizza Village. It will be held in the Bronx on 6th and 7th of October: practically now!
CMDO is proud to be one of the main partners of this revolutionary moment.

The identikit

But what do have in common the village on the Lungomare of Naples and that one in the Bronx?
Here is an identikit of the two events.

Let’s start from the setting.

Obviously we couldn’t move the Vesuvius to New York, but the liveliness of the culture and the large number of artists and events of the Big Apple give the city that rascal atmosphere which is somewhat similar to that of Naples!

And then there is the hospitality.

Just like the Napoli Pizza Village, access to the New York Pizza Festival is free. Everyone can come to party enjoying the spirit of the Neapolitan embrace. Just how it works in Naples: everyone can enjoy the conviviality by the sea, paying a ticket only if they want something to eat and drink.

And then there is: the art of Neapolitan pizza makers.

More than 30 master pizza chefs will perform at the wood ovens in New York. Many well-known stars of the Neapolitan landscape and of the Napoli Pizza Village as Gino Sorbillo, Roberto Caporuscio, Errico Porzio, Salvatore Vesi, the Salvo brothers, Ciro Oliva and the historical pizzerias Brandi and Trianon. Many will be also the protagonists from the American-style pizza world that will complete the overview on the most eaten dish in the world.

And to close the roundup of the twinning between Napoli and New York: the ingredients.

Key stars will be those historic products now worldwide identified with the Neapolitan pizza, like the preserves of Ciao – Il pomodoro di Napoli, by now a great protagonist of pizza records and of the most important worldwide events related to the Neapolitan way of life!
You are the only one missing! Come to taste, watch, and tell… in short, come to share the event of the year!
We are waiting for you on the 6th and 7th of October in the Bronx.

pizza e non solo
Pizza e non solo – Ciao and the triumph of pizza in Nocera Superiore 845 445 cmdo

Pizza e non solo – Ciao and the triumph of pizza in Nocera Superiore

Nocera Superiore will be for a week the capital of Neapolitan pizza. Discover the new appointment with Ciao and the Neapolitan White Art.

21 pizza makers from Caserta and Naples ready to uphold the name of the pizza, side by side with Ciao – Il Pomodoro di Napoli: these are the premises of the seventh edition of  Pizza e non solo, the summer event on the slopes of Vesuvius.

“Pizza e Non solo”…: the event

STG pizza and fried pizza will be the great protagonists of the summer in Nocera Superiore from 13th to 17th July.

Many will be the pizza stars present in the market area of the city.

 

The protagonists

From the world champion Teresa Iorio to the rising star of fried pizza Isabella De Cham, together with well-known and very well-known key players of the wood oven like Salvatore Lionello, Marco Quintili, Claudio Paduano and Vincenzo Rea.

Special Guest will be the master pizza chef Antonio Starita and his unique recipes.

The fun

Together with big stars of the wood oven, lots of music and entertainment and even dance for midsummer nights that promise magic.

Pizza will be protagonist also of mini educational events. Workshops for children will be real classes where to learn how to prepare the most famous dish in the world and maybe give birth future world champions for the STG category at the Naples Pizza Village.

And a contest will turn the event into a true paradise for the gluttons – the Feast of the Big Eater, a race for those who will taste faster 3 specialties of the master pizza makers on show.

In short, an event that will celebrate both the greedy and the fun-loving sides of food, with many excellences, but also a great desire for carefreeness to recover the true side of the pizza: the side that Ciao has always told!

campione del mondo della Pizza Stg 2018
The world champion for the STG Pizza and the recipe for a perfect Margherita 845 445 cmdo

The world champion for the STG Pizza and the recipe for a perfect Margherita

What turns a Pizza Margherita into a pizza worthy of the podium of the Caputo Trophy? Antonio Mezzero, the world champion for the STG pizza, tell it us.
The Neapolitan pizza found its new ambassador.

His name is Antonio Mezzero and he is the winner of the 17th World Pizza maker Championship.
STG pizza is the one that follows the official specifications of the true Neapolitan pizza: a set of ten rules that guarantees worldwide that the product baked in the oven is the same as that eaten in Naples.

Precisely for this reason, the podium for the STG pizza is the most coveted by APN’s pizza makers who take part in the Caputo Trophy and is the one that designates the pizza world champion for a year!
The official specifications for the STG pizza have also precise rules that define the right ingredients to use for a true Neapolitan pizza.

In the codified recipe of Neapolitan pizza, the long tomato of Ciao’s peeled tomatoes is the master. It is no coincidence that Ciao is the official tomato of the seventeenth edition of the World Pizza Maker Championship.
The 2018 edition of the Caputo Trophy has seen as is triumpher Antonio Mezzero, 35 years old, a Neapolitan, but living in Portugal.
We asked him how to make a world champion pizza!

Here are his secrets.

 

What are the most important ingredients for making a successful pizza?

The recipe for a pizza at the top sees the passion in pole position. Then there are the doughs. But among the toppings, the king of taste remains the tomato! For the Portuguese people, even mozzarella comes second. The tomato is the heart of the final judgment of a dish.

What does the Portuguese tomato taste like?

Portugal enjoys high quality products, perhaps not much publicized, but a Neapolitan pizza requires the Italian tomato. Italian vegetables have a completely different flavor!

How should be the right tomato for the STG pizza?

The right product is the one that can be used in purity without adding anything: not even salt. It should not be too sweet or too sour, and should be broken with your hands. In short, the right tomato is the one that gives back the flavor of the field!

Ciao wishes so much success to the new pizza ambassador in the world and is proud to have contributed to enhance the art of the first World Champion of an Unesco Heritage!

Gulfood
Ciao at Gulfood 2018 845 445 cmdo

Ciao at Gulfood 2018

All sold out at the Dubai Trade Center for one of the most important events in the international food world: Gulfood. From February 18th to 22nd, Ciao will take part to this trade show with its stand dedicated to pizza fans and pizza gluttons. Come to discover the goodness of our products at Pavilion Hall1: Booth B1 -34.

This time we leave bound to Dubai!

Ciao will be part of the great Italian team that will tell the Middle East, and beyond, what truly means “to make a Neapolitan pizza”.

Pizza demonstrations, tastings of date tomatoes from Vesuvius and many curiosities about that a unique product that is the Campanian peeled tomato.
The event is, after all, a formidable stage for Italian food, much appreciated in Dubai – the United Arab Emirates is a country that truly loves and appreciate well-being and pleasures of life, boasting even a Ministry for Happiness!

All sold out!

The event at the Dubai Trade Center has already since long registered this year the sold out in terms of bookings, reflecting how much attention the international food of excellence attracts in the Middle East.
The 2018 edition will then be a really important stage for the Campanian tomatoes, the biggest ever.

Here are some numbers to better appreciate the event:

  • 120 pavilions
    97,000 participants
    185 countries

Once again, we of CMDO and Ciao will focus on telling the specifics of a product, the peeled tomato, that many try to imitate, but with little success.

Do you want to taste the pizzas made by our professionals of the White Art and find out what makes unique Ciao’s products?

 

Just fly to the Dubai Trade Centre

 

Check out our Facebook and Instagram pages to live with us the most beautiful emotions of this event.
Have a good trip and enjoy your meal!

Campionato Nazionale Pizza Doc 2017
Ciao at the Pizza DOC National Championship 845 445 cmdo

Ciao at the Pizza DOC National Championship

Ciao tomatoes are again protagonists of an event dedicated to the excellence of the Neapolitan White Art. The fourth edition of the Pizza DOC National Championship will be held on the 23rd and 24th of October in the heart of the Agro Nocerino Sarnese area.  So many are the surprises held in store. Let’s find them out together.
After the Napoli Pizza Village and the start of the international tour of the Caputo Cup 2018 – which took place a few days ago in Atlantic City – Ciao is ready to cut another starting ribbon: that of the Fourth Pizza DOC National Championship.

The new challenge

The new challenge between pizza makers hunting for the excellence in the Neapolitan-style White Art will be held in Valentino Torio, just right in the heart of the Agro Nocerino Sarnese area.
More than 300 competitors are expected at the foot of Mount Vesuvius to take part in a contest that looks set to be really fierce.
The two-day event will have many exceptional guests chosen among the pizza world protagonists. Professionals from historic Neapolitan pizzerias such as Antonio Starita and Alessandro Condurro (of Pizzeria Da Michele), winners of the Caputo Trophy as Teresa Iorio, and many master pizza makers from Sergio Miccu’s APN will fully show their gastronomic performances.

And here are the novelties of this 4th edition.

First of all, the place of origin of the pizza makers. This year, the competitors of the contest will come to San Valentino Torio not only from Italy, but also from the United States and Poland.
Then the hidden jury. Given the parterre of expected professionals, to avoid any suspicion of favoritism the votes will be given by incognito jurors who will evaluate the recipes according to 3 key parameters: taste, presentation and cooking.
And finally, the number of contest categories, that this year will be 12:
Margherita DOC
Classic Pizza – the specialty pizza presented by each competitor through which we will evaluate the innovation in the dough and in the ingredients, a pizza made with the typical products available at a certain time of the year;
Pizza ‘in pala’
Gluten free 
Largest pizza 
Free style 
‘Romana’;
Fried pizza;
‘Youth’ (14-20 year old)
Category ‘Associations’;
Pizza by “TWO”.

Medals and supplies of typical products are ready to be won by the competing pizza makers.

This year, too, a special mention will be given through a Ciao Prize, which will evaluate the bond between the presentations and their territory.
Good luck to all the participants!

San Marzano
The particularity of harvesting the San Marzano tomatoes explained by an expert 1024 536 cmdo

The particularity of harvesting the San Marzano tomatoes explained by an expert

Why San Marzano tomatoes are so special and how their harvesting process changes according to their specificities? We have asked this to Tommaso Romano, President of Consorzio di Tutela del Pomodoro San Marzano DOP dell’Agro Nocerino Sarnese (the producers association for the San Marzano DOP tomato of the Agro Nocerino Sarnese region).

While it looks like so many vegetables, the San Marzano actually differs a lot from the other tomatoes.  Above all, it comes from a more delicate plant and for this reason it requires more attention, from the field to the table.

«The harvest of San Marzano tomatoes lasts about 50 days (from the beginning of August to the end of September) and the conservation process has to be started within a few hours, to preserve its intense aroma and fresh and sweet taste» – explains Tommaso Romano, president of the Consorzio di Tutela del Pomodoro San Marzano DOP, entrepreneur and passionate about the peculiarities of his land.

«This year the harvesting phase will be slightly shorter compared to the usual, due to the great heat of the 2017 season! – continues Tommaso Romano – It is possible that this time we will not reach the doors of autumn.»

But how does it work this important moment that precedes the factory processing?

In order to understand it, we need to dispel the classic myths of city-made experiences, on terraces and balconies. Tomato plants are not compact bushes, but they develop in height.
Harvesting the San Marzano, therefore, is an articulated process divided into 4 steps.

4 steps, around 10 days each apart, to pick the vegetables from the base of the plants, where the tomato matures first because it is more at contact with the heat of the earth, and then slowly pick the higher fruits.
«Every stage of the San Marzano harvesting is a strictly manual work – concludes Romano – which increases working times compared to other types of tomato, but fully respects the product.» read more

raccolta con civitiello e fortunato
Harvest Diary 2017: A day with Davide Civitiello and Simone Fortunato 845 445 cmdo

Harvest Diary 2017: A day with Davide Civitiello and Simone Fortunato

So much work, but a lot of satisfaction too: Summer is the time of harvest and of continuous quality testing for Ciao. This year, we brought with us an exceptional team of tasters – the World Pizza Champions Simone Fortunato and Davide Civitiello – to see first-hand the quality of our tomorrow tomatoes, starting right from the first step. Here is the story of this special day.

A summer both hot and exceptional for our fields, with record temperatures that forced us to work in shorter times to keep the product intact as freshly picked, but that at the same time that also brought intense colors and flavors to our crops.

We asked to two exceptional testers – Simone Fortunato, three times world champion for the fast pizza category, and Davide Civitiello, champion for the TSG pizza, both winners of the Caputo Trophy – to touch with first-hand the raw materials of our 2017-2018 production.

«Pizza is a dish strictly tied to the ground,” – tells Davide Civitiello – “because deepening your dough technique is not enough to produce excellence, as you have to carefully select raw materials and get to know their ingredients in detail. Pizza is a dish full of history, but also of stories: those of our producers from Campania region!»

For Davide Civitiello and Simone Fortunato a tour among the most lively colors of Campania: the red of our fields of PDO San Marzano tomatoes, but also the bright green of our basil crops that we add leaf after leaf to the peeled tomato cans for the American market.

«I had never seen how the basil grows – says Simone Fortunato of Pizzeria Diaz – Finding out first-hands how the ingredients that I pick each day for my pizzas grow has been stimulating, but also very instructive. For a pizza maker who wants to make a difference, it is very important to carefully select the products of their menu and know how to handle them by mastering all their properties.»

The day has been closed by a tour through the various steps of peeled tomato production, during which our pizza makers have seen how the tomatoes move from the field to the can just in a few hours, so to lose nothing of their fragrance and flavor.

«Walking among the tins that were being filled with peeled tomatoes – concludes Davide Civitiello – has been a bit like going back to my grandmother’s time, when the summer had the scent of the earth and of the boiled tomatoes!»

The memory that Simone Fortunato has taken home is instead that of basil’s aroma, perhaps because it is linked to a great adventure that he is about to begin. On September 22, Sorrento will be the cradle of a new chain of pizzerias: Basilico Italia, who will see him as the pizza maker executive manager, in collaboration with Maurizio Mastellone’s organizational experience.

Sorrento Peninsula will be the first step, but the goal is to bring the excellence of the great products from the Campania region to all of Italy.

What does that have to do with Ciao? We will tell you very soon!

Pizzeria Pummarò
Ciao and the specialties of Pummarò at Napoli Pizza Village 2017 845 445 cmdo

Ciao and the specialties of Pummarò at Napoli Pizza Village 2017

Attilio Albachiara is a pizza enfant prodige, like so many young Neapolitans who are hungry for life and find alternating themselves between homework and dough lessons. Following the family tradition, Attilio started to work with his father in his pizzeria when he was only 12 years old.
His motto today is: “Quality is our strength; making pizzas is our vocation”, and with the same wisdom he tells us about the next Napoli Pizza Village.

– What specialties are you going to show on the Lungomare Caracciolo waterfront?
My special pizza is a red one and it is the ‘Parmigiana’, which is a Margherita pizza dressed with eggplant parmesan.
 
– Which tomato you will use for your pizza?
For the Parmigiana I use the tomato puree.

– Why did you choose this pizza to represent you at NPV?
The eggplants are one of the jewels of my menu. Pummarò’s customers go crazy for them in every possible way and they can eat up to 15-20 kg of eggplants per week.
 
– What do you expect from the Caputo Napoli Pizza Village 2017?
This is the third time that I take part to the event and I hope that the friends who come to visit us will notice the quality and passion of our workmanship, because there is nothing that makes me happier than seeing the satisfaction of those sitting at my table.

Pizzeria Da Gennaro
Ciao and the specialties of Pizzeria Da Gennaro at Napoli Pizza Village 2017. 845 445 cmdo

Ciao and the specialties of Pizzeria Da Gennaro at Napoli Pizza Village 2017.

A grandfather who fried pizzas on the street and then decided to move to Bagnoli, already a tourist destination in the far 1956: This is how begins the story of Pizzeria Da Gennaro, a story about pizza since four generations.
For Fabio Cristiano – the founder’s grandson – pizza is home as it is the White Art village on the waterfront.
Here’s what he told us about his Napoli Pizza Village.

– What specialties are you going to show on the Lungomare Caracciolo waterfront?
For this edition of the Napoli Pizza Village, I chose to sum up the philosophy of Pizzeria da Gennaro with a specialty with pesto and cherry tomatoes. The matching with basil pesto exalts the whole summer flavor.

– Which tomato will you use for your pizza with pesto?
The cherry tomatoes from Mount Vesuvius.

– Why did you choose this pizza to represent Pizzeria Da Gennaro at NPV?
Basil and cherry tomatoes are two fresh and seasonal products suitable for these first hot days. The culinary philosophy of our pizzeria favors a great deal of attention to the ingredients – just consider that all the semifinished products used in our pizzeria is prepared in our kitchens: even our basil pesto!

– What do you expect from the Caputo Napoli Pizza Village 2017?
The Naples Pizza Village is above all a great party. I expect so much positive energy – an energy we all need, even our Naples!

Pizzeria 'O Sarracino
Ciao and the specialties of Pizzeria ‘O Saracino at Napoli Pizza Village 2017 845 445 cmdo

Ciao and the specialties of Pizzeria ‘O Saracino at Napoli Pizza Village 2017

Maybe not everyone knows that just over 10 years ago the Neapolitan pizza tradition was almost unknown in the Agro Nocerino Sarnese area, in the Province of Salerno. The only news that you could heard about came directly from Naples. This situation ended with the birth of Pizzeria ‘O Sarracino, which brought to Nocera Inferiore the first example of pizza patterned after the lessons of the Neapolitan school. The credit of “spreading the good word” goes all to the Tramontano brothers, owners of the pizzeria, and that will be at the Napoli Pizza Village 2017.

Pizzeria ‘O Sarracino is very young, but encompasses centuries of tradition. What is its secret?

‘O Sarracino was born in 2007, from an idea of ​​me, Angelo Tramontano, and of my brother Giuseppe. At that time, the true Neapolitan pizza was not known in the Agro Nocerino Sarnese area as it is today. ‘O Sarracino had the instinct of studying it and bringing it to Nocera, bearing in mind what I think is the perfect model, that of Michele ai Tribunali.

What parameters did you follow?

We specialized ourselves in the classic pizzas. Bearing in mind Michele’s model, we tried to reproduce the Magherita and the Marinara pizzas – the two great classics which are the pizzas par excellence – according to the rules prescribed by the TGS specifications. Until then, pizzas in Nocera were made with a long cooking – longer than a minute and a half – and had a diameter of 35 cm, while our Margherita and Marinara pizzas follow the lesson of the great masters, with a leavening of at least 8 hours, and a 60-second baking in oven. Following this method we brought the true Neapolitan pizza to our area.

You teach us that making pizzas is a pure science, but what is the secret to make this science an artwork? How will you dress your doughs?

You are absolutely right! The pizza maker can never let his guard down and must keep himself constantly up to date. For my pizzas I always choose a classic: the peeled tomatoes from Ciao Pomodori. For ten years I’ve been using this brand, a choice that I confirm for the Pizza Village, too.

And about the Pizza Village, what vibrations do you have for this edition?

This is the fifth time that I take part to the Pizza Village. I remember when we were only 20 pizzerias at the Mostra d’Oltremare exhibition center. Now this number has more than doubled and we are about 50, creating a rich contest that offers a great opportunity to compete. And numbers over the years are an indication of how these events have become of exponential importance. Each edition has been difficult for us, because we “foreigners” had to prove to be up to the level of the great Neapolitan masters. And each year, it has always been an unexpected success, and I really hope to succeed again this year, too.

Which great novelties ‘O Sarracino’ has set aside for NPV?

This year we propose a new pizza: we looked for to capture the summer flavor. I called it ‘Sorrento in your mouth’. Its characteristic is that it is seasoned with tomatoes of Sorrento that I personally make in pulp, to which we add buffalo ricotta and the very special mozzarella cheese ‘zizzona di Battipaglia’.