Quattro Stagioni - Four Seasons Pizza

After we moved to Naples, Italy, we wanted to try authentic Neapolitan pizza for the first time. This was back in 1986. I guess it’s a different story now, but back then, you couldn’t find any pizza in daytime.

 Pizza was nighttime food because they don’t start pizza oven until late. Seriously.

We hit many pizza restaurant and try to find any pizza in day time, but nobody had one.  They made face as they want to say “ here comes another stupid American. They know nothing about Italy.”  I remember walking in the town irritated.  

When finally I had a Neapolitan pizza, I was again shocked.

I ordered a pizza and was waiting happily. What I found in front of me was something  super thin and miserable.

I was so used to huge American pizza, so it was a culture shock again.

American pizza is about 2cm thick.  They put so much of everything – bacon, peperoni, mushrooms, olives, onions, and cheese.  When you slice it, melting cheese  gets sooo long and stringy.

Neapolitan pizza on the other hand was less than 5mm thick, and on top, there was smear of tomato sauce, few mushrooms, ham, and olives.  I can count all ingredients with my one hand.

However that was amazing. Pizza in Naples is so delicious. American pizza is something else.

Pizza in Italy comes in the middle of a full course menu.  Maybe that’s why it is small.

“Quattro Stagioni “ means pizza of four seasons. It’s usually topped with ham, black olives, artichokes, and mushrooms.

Here, instead of pizza dough, I tried a simple naan.