In Naples, pizza is a religion.
So, it’s only fitting that my family is in a former church in Naples' Old Town, taking the pizza-making class of all pizza-making classes.
This isn’t any ole house of God and this isn’t just any ole flatbread with toppings.
Santa Maria Porta Cieli was an important little church dating back to the 17th century that is now home to Santissima Pizza.
The cross is still over the front door on the stone facade and the arched windows and double cross-vaulted ceiling in the upstairs restaurant are positively ecclesiastical.
My wife, Kerry, and I, along with our two grown-up kids, Alex and Grace, booked the Naples Pizza Making Class through Secret Food Tours.
In keeping with its name, the company kept the location of the class a ‘secret’ until the day before.
“We like to make it special, memorable,” said Secret Food Tours guide Annarita Battiloro when we met her outside Santissima Pizza on the narrow, no-cars-allowed Via San Paolo in Old Town Naples.
“In Naples, we believe in two things – pizza and Maradona (the ‘hand of God’ SSC Napoli soccer star). So, it only makes sense to make pizza in a building that used to be a church.”
In her charming Italian-accented English, Annarita is our interpreter when Santissima co-owner, pizza master and non-English speaker Savio Costagliola shows up to school us.
There is so much to learn.
First of all, we’ll be making Margherita pizza, invented in Naples in 1889 and named after the Queen of the newly unified Italy.
The ingredients mimic the colours of the Italian flag – the red of tomato sauce, green of basil and white of the fior di latte cow's milk mozzarella cheese.
The ingredients are simple for pizza dough – ‘00’ flour, natural beer yeast, salt and water.
But, the rigours are strict -- make the dough 48 hours ahead so it can rest in the fridge and then bring it out an hour before being kneaded and formed in just the right way.
The sauce has to be made of only San Marzano tomatoes, grown in the volcanic soil at nearby Mount Vesuvius and hand crushed so no seeds are broken to make it bitter.
Toppings for the classic, traditional Margherita pizza we’re making can only be fresh basil leaves and fior di latte cheese.
And, Savio scolds us – using many Italian words and gestures – to make sure we put the basil on top of the tomato sauce before the cheese so the basil doesn’t burn.
“In Naples, there are more rules for pizza-making than there are for driving,” quips our interpreter.
Naples has notoriously unruly traffic.
Eventually, laughing and trash-talking all the way, we make dough (which is summarily discarded in favour of replacement 48-hour dough), finger press and shape it just so, add tomato sauce, basil and cheese in the right order and quantity.
When it comes time to pop our creations in the specialized dome pizza oven, it’s Savio who mans the pizza paddle.
There’s no way he’s letting us anywhere near the 430 C open flame.
By the way, the pizza oven is located where the church’s altar used to be.
How apropo.
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At 430 C, the pizzas are done in 60 seconds and are extricated by Savio and spirited into a little metal elevator to make their way to the second floor restaurant.
We’re told to hot-foot it up the stairs, take a seat and enjoy the fruit of our labours, paired with Santissima’s own private-label beer.
Of course, the pizza is perfect – after all, we made it the traditional way, in Naples, the birthplace of pizza, with our own hands.
We talk excitedly not just about our pizza-making prowess, but how blessed (pun intended) we are to be in Naples.
Naples is Italy’s third biggest city (behind Rome and Milan) and is a massive port on the Tyrrhenian Sea that’s coming into its own as a tourist destination.
Its mafia history and gritty reputation, which previously kept many visitors away, is now a draw.
People come for the seaside location, Old Town charm of narrow, cobblestone streets packed with shops and authentic Italian restaurants, museums and wine from the surrounding Campania region.
As such, my family wanders along the seaside Via Partenope and Via Caracciolo, with its endless parade of outdoor restaurants and swanky hotels, to soak up the atmosphere.
We happen upon the Piazza del Plebiscito – Naples’ largest square to admire the architecture and watch kids play soccer in its expanse.
And, we get caught in the web of Old Town again, strolling past yet more shops, restaurants, churches and tiny squares.
Naples is also the gateway to the nearby and wildly-popular Amalfi Coast and island of Capri.
Air Canada took this all into consideration when it decided to launch four-times-weekly flights between Montreal and Naples this spring.
It’s the only non-stop service between Canada and Naples and makes it much easier to take in Naples’ tourism renaissance and pizza, of course.
Check out www.secretfoodtours.com and www.aircanada.com.
