Today due to safety reasons this habit is not recommended but there’s someone who thought about using seawater – suitably depurated – to knead Neapolitan pizza, namely Guglielmo Vuolo, an excellent Neapolitan pizza chef with a long experience, who today mostly works at Eccellenze Campane (while the family pizzeria in Casalnuovo is in the expert hands of sons Enrico e Valerio).

Some time ago, Vuolo – who was collaborating in Apulia with vascular surgeon Vincenzo Di Donna, the president of the Università Popolare di Scienze degli Stili di Vita – met Steralmar, a firm specialised in the production of depurated seawater, suitable for human consumption.

Hence the idea of using it in the pizza dough and – after five months of experiments – it was officially presented on 8th June at Eccellenze Campane with a conference dedicated to Acqua d’a-mare, after the “preview” at Cooking for Art.

So what does the use of seawater imply?

«The end result is totally similar to my “classic” pizza – says Vuolo – in fact, the dough is slightly lighter and tastier, even though I don’t add any salt: seawater is rich in minerals yet only has 36% of sodium chloride, which is an advantage, for instance, for those suffering from hypertension». 

And from a technical perspective?

«Since there’s no salt, which makes the gluten structure stronger, the maturation cannot last more than 12-14 hours; I use brewer’s yeast or criscito [the mother yeast dough typical of Neapolitan tradition] and they are enough to make the dough perfectly digestible. Even the baking – another essential element of a good pizza – requires a little extra attention, as seawater makes the edge get “darker” sooner». 

How about the cost?

«I don’t think I’ll increase the price and in any case I will alternate the two types of dough; Steralmar water is not extremely expensive and this means I will save on the salt, I usually use the one from Nubia».

It needs to be said that Vuolo is not the first to test seawater in pizza: two years ago Massimo Giovannini of Apogeo in Pietrasanta presented a pizza made with type 1 and whole-wheat flour at Le Strade della Mozzarella, using Steralmar seawater while Giovanni Mandara makes it at Piccola Piedigrotta in Reggio Emilia, though using Spanish Agua de Mar. Still, this is a first for Neapolitan pizza and Vuolo’s pizza is delicious.

Luciana Squadrilli
source: http://newsletter.identitagolose.it/email.php?id=518

Leggi il testo integrale nel link FONTE (qui sopra)