Pizza in Naples: A Must

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A few months ago I spent all of 24 hours in Naples on our way home from Sicily.

We talked to pie-men, timed ovens, watched dough being stretched and topped, and all that other fun, nerdy stuff that pizza-obsessives enjoy doing.

Here now, I present to you the Serious Eats guide to Eating Pizza in Naples.

Identifying a Neapolitan Pizza In The Wild

If you're to ask the Associazone Verace Pizza Napoletana—one of the few certification organizations that dole out authenticity certificates to pizzerias around the globe—what constitutes a true Neapolitan pizza, you'll be met with an extraordinarily stringent set of rules. God help the pizzaiolo who claims to be making true Neapolitan pizza and gets audited on his process.

Among the criteria (which is outlined on this 11 page document) are such things as:

• Compressed yeast, biologically produced, solid, soft and beige in colour ,with quite an insipid taste and a low degree of acidity must be used. Yeast must be purchased in packages ranging from 25-500 grams. (Saccharomices cerevisiae) (See Italian Decreto Ministeriale. 21/03/1973 e 18/06/1996). The use of Natural yeast is also permitted (see appendices).

• The dough must be made by slowly adding flour (1.7 to 1.8 kilograms depending on protein content) to a water, yeast, and salt mixture over the course of ten minutes and must mix on low speed for precisely 20 minutes.

• The dough should have a final pH of 5.87, ±10% and a final density of 79 grams per cubic centimeter

• When stretched, the center of the dough must be no more than .4 centimeters (±10%) in thickness.

• The following variations of fresh tomatoes can be used: "S.Marzano dell'Agro Sarnese-nocerino D.O.P"., "Pomodorini di Corbara (Corbarino)", "Pomodorino del piennolo del Vesuvio" D.O.P."

• Certified mozzarella di bufala campana D.O.P, mozzarella S.T.G.

And so on. I sense a lucrative business in certification guarantees would be possible if an enterprising lawyer decides to take it up.

The traditional domed, wood-fueled ovens that a Neapolitan pizza is baked in has remained identical in design for several hundred years. Made with stone or brick and completely sealed (aside from the door and the chimney), it's this oven that allows a pizzaiolo to stoke wood fires (oak, ash, beech, or maple are recommended, though there is no restriction other than that it must be free of moisture or excessive smoke) up to crazy high temperatures. A minimum floor temperature of 905°F and a minimum air temperature of 800°F are required.

There are strict protocols in place for oven sizes—the dome must be 45 to 50 centimeters high, while the door must be 22 to 25 centimeters. The floor space is defined at 140 to 150 centimeters in diameter.

To aid browning of the upper surface, a pizzaiolo might lift the pie up to the top of the dome of the oven for a few seconds as the pies finish, a process that should take between 60 and 90 seconds. Talk about fast food!

Remember folks: these are all rules set up by the extraordinarily strict Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana. It's not to say that excellent Neapolitan-style pizza can't be made via methods that don't quite fit their stringent criteria. Most pizzerias we love in New York wouldn't make the cut for veracity, but they sure as s$%t are damned delicious nonetheless.

The Best:

1. Antica Pizzeria e Friggitoria Di Matteo

2. Il Pizzaiolo del Presidente

3. Antica Pizzeria Port'Alba

4. Pizzeria Trianon Da Ciro

5. Pizzeria Da Michele