From now on the pizza Cetara, the last kind of pizza realized by the creative inspiration of Cosimo Mogavero, a pizza maker and the director of the Technical Board of the Festa della Pizza of Salerno, can be enjoyed in the Victoria and Ciripizza pizzerias in Battipaglia, Salerno and Milan.

This creation has been named “Cetara” as suggested by the “Il Mattino” journalist Luciano Pignataro, who is one of the promoters of the protection of the salted anchovy sauce and the author of the Cetara gastronomic guide containing interesting information about history, culture, accommodation and, of course, restaurants and typical products.

This pizza, created in honour of this sea village located on the Amalfi Coast, holds all the extraordinary scents and tastes of some important products of the Salerno area: the anchovies from Cetara, the black olives, the extra virgin olive oil, the Endivem escarole and the Cetara salted anchovy sauce.

The recipe can be found on the city web site. The garnish has been devised for a wholemeal dough but it is also right for different kinds of dough.

“I have decided to dedicate a pizza to the salted anchovy sauce – Cosimo Mogavero declares – because we operators are the first people who should set a good example, for this reason we should use the typical products. In fact, the pizza ‘Cetara’ doesn’t only include products from the province of Salerno”.

So this new pizza is proposed by the creator as a precious instrument to make these products known and protected from imitations. In fact, the nutritionist Eugenio Luigi Iorio remarked that just to reach this aim “we gave life to a project of characterization of the salted anchovy sauce with the cooperation of the Cetara town council”. This initiative is the result of a job started two years ago and made official in occasion of the meeting whose subject was “The local identity, the traditional products and the needs for protection: the case of the Cetara salted anchovy sauce” which took place on the 9th of December during the Festival which is organized every year to celebrate this delicious condiment.

The meeting, coordinated by Luciano Pignataro, was attended by Corrado Barberis, the President of INSOR (National Institute of Rural Sociology), Cosimo Mogavero, a pizza artist, Eugenio Luigi Iorio of the Specialization School in Nutrition Science at the University of Naples, Enzo Vizzari, the editor of the Espresso guides, Anna Savarese, the President of the regional Park of the Lattari Mountains, Vito Puglia of the Slow Food Foundation for biodiversity and Corrado Martinangelo, the Agriculture Provincial Councillor.

The importance of this aim was underlined just in the course of this meeting by the illustrious professor Corrado Barberis who said that “this product doesn’t need only the enthusiasm of the inhabitants of Cetara but also the support of all the Italians”.

The presentation of the pizza ‘Cetara’, which took place at the Ciripizza pizzeria in via Fieravecchia in Salerno, has also been a precious occasion for the operators to discuss this subject.

The mayor of Cetara, Secondo Squizzato, wanted to thank Cosimo Mogavero publicly for creating this pizza which completely represents the Cetara community and its history. Squizzato said that “the pizza Cetara is another occasion to put in evidence the history of our town”. The ‘Amici delle Alici” Association – he continues – just derives from a group of friends who were convinced that they should do something in order not to make the nature of this product change. For this reason we have to identify the raw materials, that is, the anchovies, and the production process”.

Very favourable opinions  have also been expressed by Augusto Strianese, the President of the Salerno Chamber of Commerce according to whom “this is the right path and you have to go on like this” and by Pasquale D’Acunzi, the producer of the San Marzano tomatoes from the Agro-Sarno-Nocera area and a supporter of its protection who put in evidence that this pizza represents the good combination of the products from the plain and the ones from the sea.

Finally, this creation also offers the opportunity to think about all the typical products from Campania. Cosimo Mogavero, in fact, wanted to point out that now the cuisine from Campania is going through a wonderful period thanks to the excellent raw materials and the efforts of the operators and that next year, which is arriving, it is necessary that in Campania the operators continue to protect the high quality products and to make them known. The awareness of this great wealth is also shared by Enzo Vizzari, an influential journalist of the trade press, who declared at the meeting about the salted anchovy sauce: “I think that Campania is the region which has the best ability, in Italy and in the world, to supply the highest quality, excellent products”. Besides Vizzari’s words were also a warning to do more and better: “Since 10/15 years ago - he continued - except for rare cases, not enough has been done to make these products known and even now enough is not being done”.

In this context in a short time Luciano Pignataro, the Sommelier Association, Cosimo Mogavero and other operators will organize an evening to pair pizza with the wines from Campania and other evenings during which these wines will be associated with dishes based on the anchovies and the special sauce obtained from them.  

 

The Festa della Pizza Technical Board