The choice of name (capital letters included) is already a declaration of intent: Pizzeria SUD.

And to say that Ilardi, born in Cercola near Naples in 1987, had abandoned dough making as a teenager, stopping at the role of assistant pizzaiolo in a pizzeria in Naples to devote himself entirely to cooking.

"After finishing catering school I travelled around Italy first as a sous chef and then as a chef, achieving good results," he tells us. At least until love, the one with a capital L, made him settle. The accomplice was a season in Sestriere where he met his wife, a sommelier from Lucca, in Tuscany. 

“I stopped in Lucca in 2014, and here I started cooking again. Until 2019 when I turned everything upside down to go back to my first passion: pizza. And I opened Pizzeria SUD".

lardi says: “We started out with a round pizza. Last year we added a steamed pizza: a base steamed in a pan, which is chilled and then toasted in the oven before serving it.” 

Antonio's work is based on study and technique

“In my years in the kitchen, I never completely abandoned leavened products. Back in Lucca, I started to prepare pizza at home and organise 'experiences' for Airbnb guests.” But above all there are “excellent flours and toppings with fine ingredients: there is a little bit of Tuscany, olive oil and some salami, and many products from the South. For the dough we use Petra Molino Quaglia flour: Petra 0102HP and 3 HP with partially sprouted grains, and also 0106, a blend of organic grains. We are anxiously awaiting the Evolutiva from the Sicilian field that we have adopted: we will include it in both bread dough and pizzas.”

Speaking of dough, the one for pizza is “straightforward with a mix of brewer's yeast and sourdough, 70 per cent hydration and 36 hours rising time, we work with 250- gram dough balls. We actually knead the dough in the evening for the next day,” continues Ilardi.


Mariella Caruso
source: https://www.identitagolose.it/ermes/newsletter/?id=673

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