And while when it comes to flour no mistakes are to be made – Petra, that is – as for the fire, asking Carmine Nasti, born in 1951 in Tramonti is a good idea. Given his background, he could have sat comfortably on the placid – yet perfectible – tradition and just offer the same old things, without further hassles. Instead…

Instead a flame, that of knowledge was burning and is still burning in his heart. For a fire specialist, you’d agree, it’s even logical.

He says: «Tramonti, on the Amalfi Coast, has an excellent tradition of pizza chefs, which is different from that of Naples».

The latter requires a “violent” and short cooking, at around 450°C for 45-50 seconds, «this is why the disc sometimes appears a little burnt. Besides, at that temperature, how can you preserve the aromas of the topping?». Impossible, almost.

Tramonti’s popular tradition, instead, requires the pizza to stay in the oven for a longer time – 2 or 3 minutes– and with a temperature not exceeding 350°C, «so it becomes perfectly golden – allampata, they say – and at the end is crispy and aromatic, because we come from a peasant tradition, everyone would use the stone milled flour made with their own wheat. With pizza, we use the same technique we used to use with bread».

For 50 years Nasti has been perfecting his cocktail of bestowed knowledge and acquired innovation. He’s a regular at Università della Pizza: «I’ve always enjoyed improving myself. For pizza to be good, but also perfectly easy to digest, you need to pay attention to each phase: kneading, topping, baking». 

One year ago – he says – this mix was no longer enough, he was «at a point of no return. I asked myself: what are we serving our clients?». And he found the solution.

Today Nasti runs the family pizzeria in Bergamo (Da Nasti), where his sons Vittorio and Riccardo also work, on top of his nephew Carmine jr, while another nephew, Giovanni, is promoting good pizza in the US, in Manhattan, at Via della Pace Pizza.


Carlo Passera
source: http://newsletter.identitagolose.it/email.php?id=568

Photos from Facebook page (ed)

Leggi il testo integrale nel link FONTE (qui sopra)