GOATS IN THE ROAD

You just never know what's going to turn up in the road that will cause you to slam on the breaks and shake your head in amazement! On a recent trip to Naples and the Amalfi Coast we (almost) ran into some very amusing and not-so-amusing obstacles. Negotiating the hair-raising switch-back turns that are the main road along this part of coastal Italy is a challenge. Add to that the inevitable cyclist, motorbike, pedestrian or tourbus.....and that's normal. Then you might come across a party in one of the roadside restaurants that doesn't have adequate parking......so....SURPRISE!!!!...a row of parked cars appears in your lane as you come around a tight turn. Or how about a tour bus driver and a city bus driver approaching a tight turn from opposite directions and neither one will yield.........or a rooster...or a herd of goats...or a spill of San Marzano tomatoes...all in a day's drive...and it's so worth it when you finally arrive at the restaurant for an authentic Neapolitan pizza!

C’è Pizza per Te

Our apartment came with a number of welcomed amenities (clothes washer, central heating and air conditioning) and several businesses on the ground floor (an interior design studio, a physical therapist’s office, a tattoo studio and…a great pizzeria. C’è Pizza per Te is owned by our upstairs neighbors, Valter and Olga. Since opening the pizzeria last November, they work 16 to 18 hours, six days a week (closed Mondays) making the dough and sauces in-house, baking the pizzas and preparing other dishes. They purchase only some of the toppings (cheeses, anchovies, tuna, fresh vegetables, etc.) but everything else is homemade. They kindly allowed us into their kitchen to explain their process and to watch how their hard work and talent keeps us well fed and happy.

Once their sons Andrea and Marco are off to school, the work begins. Valter begins each day by preparing multiple, 5 kilogram (about 12 pound) batches of two types of pizza dough; one for big rectangular pizzas that are cut and sold “by the slice” and the other for individual round pizzas. Once the doughs are mixed, they are left to rise. While Valter is busy in the kitchen, Olga walks to the piazza and does the daily family shopping. By late morning the dough is refrigerated to stop the yeast action and the shopping is done, Valter and Olga turn their attention to preparing the ingredients and toppings. There are liters of sauces to be made, kilos of vegetables to be cleaned and chopped, and always cleaning, cleaning, and more cleaning. There must also be administrative work but I have no idea when they find the time for that.

After lunch Valter turns on the two huge ovens and by 3:30 or so he and Olga are stretching the dough, brushing the pans with olive oil and assembling the different types of rectangular pizzas that are sold by the slice. These pizzas are served at room temperature and include: tomato; tomato and cheese; onion and potato; mushroom and sausage; tomato and anchovy; and a very non-traditional pizza that has mayonnaise, lettuce, fresh tomatoes and tuna.
The individual round pizzas are prepared and baked to order, served hot from the oven. They resemble Pizza Napolitano but the dough has a different texture, taste and “bite”…Carol’s favorite is Valter’s Pizza Margherita (tomato, mozzarella) and I love the Napolitano (tomato, mozzarella, and anchovies). The renovation of the outdoor terrace is now complete, so with the warm weather we’ll be enjoying Valter and Olga’s pizzas along with a couple of cold beers as we watch the sunset on Soriano nel Cimino.

That’s amorè!