Argentine pizza
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Argentine pizza is a mainstay of the
A typical custom is to accompany pizza with
Characteristics and variants
Traditional styles of pizza
The most characteristic style of Argentine pizza—which almost all the classic pizzerias in Buenos Aires specialize in—is the so-called pizza al molde (Spanish for 'pizza in the pan'), characterized by having a "thick, spongy base and elevated bready crust".[3] Writing for Saveur in 2016, Allie Lazar defined the pizza al molde style:
[It] consists of a high-rising alta masa (high dough), generally reaching at least 2 cm, or a media masa (half dough) coming in at around 1.5 cm in height, and cooked in... yes, a pan. It's similar to focaccia bread in which both the crust and inner dough have the same thick, spongy texture. When made right, the base has a sturdy crunch and the top overflows with a small amount of sauce and a lot of bubbling cheese that dreamily crisps at the bottom of the pan. Because pizza al molde is so thick and cheesy, the average eater only consumes about two slices.[3]
Another of the most typical styles of pizza in the country is the so-called pizza a la piedra (piedra meaning 'stone' in Spanish), which began to become popular in the mid-1970s and especially in the 1980s.
Made in a wood-fired or gas oven, this lighter slice comes out with a crispy thin crust that is slightly chewy. A good amount of tomato sauce is spread on top, along with a healthy helping of cheese and fresh toppings. Many consider this type of pizza to be more modern, and pizzerias have adapted their original concept to add this style to its repertoire.[3]
Most pizza menus include standard flavor combinations, including the traditional plain mozzarella, nicknamed muza or musa; the napolitana or napo, with "cheese, sliced tomatoes, garlic, dried oregano and a few green olives", not to be confused with
A unique tradition from Buenos Aires is to eat pizza alongside
Fugazza and fugazzeta
Within the category of pizza al molde,[3] other local creations include the iconic fugazza and its derivative fugazzeta or fugazza con queso, a terminology that varies depending on the pizzeria.[3] The fugazza—named after fugassa, the Genoese word for focaccia—is a cheese-less pizza, consisting of a disk of dough topped with onions; while the fugazzeta consists of two discs of pizza dough with cheese in the middle and onion on top, hence its original name fugazza con queso (lit. 'fugazza with cheese').[11] According to Lazar, fugazzeta is a fugazza with "an added mozzarella cheese-bonus on top", while the fugazzeta rellena (stuffed fugazzeta) is "stuffed with an obscene dose of queso de barra mozzarella and covered in sweet, soft onions".[3]
The origin of fugazzeta is attributed to Juan Banchero, son of Genoese baker Agustín Banchero, who transformed the family business into one of the first pizzerias in the Buenos Aires, Banchero, which is still in operation.[11][12] According to Legend, Juan Banchero "tried to save [his father's] dry, sub-par fugassa alla genovese (Genoese focaccia) by slicing it down the middle and stuffing it with cheese".[3] Regarding the correct terminology for this creation, researcher Jorge D'Agostini explained: "Strictly speaking, it is a fugazzeta, because the fugazza is a disk of dough with onion on top. I think that the confusion or the different ways of calling the pizzas has to do with the changes and transformations that the recipes had here. Banchero added cheese, that's why they called it fugazza con queso when what they serve is fugazzeta."[11] Today, this Argentine pizza is regarded as an icon of Buenos Aires and Argentine cuisine.[11]
Pizza de cancha or pizza canchera
Another variant of Buenos Aires origin is the pizza de cancha, also known as pizza canchera, belonging of the media masa type.[3] As it is a cheese-less pizza, it has been described as an "oddball" and a "total anomaly, debunking everything we know to be true about Argentine pizza".[3] The pizza de cancha is "covered in a red sauce and heavily seasoned with garlic, onion, and non-spicy red pepper flakes, similar to what you would find in bakeries across southern Italy".[3] It was invented by Oscar Vianini, founder of the pizzeria Angelín, one of the oldest traditional pizzerias in Buenos Aires that still operate and an icon of its neighborhood, Villa Crespo.[13]
Born as a cheap
Other styles available in the country
Other styles of pizza besides the Argentinian have become popular in Buenos Aires, such as
History
1870–1930: origins in Italian immigration
The history of Argentine pizza is strongly linked to the history of the city of Buenos Aires.[6] The dish was introduced to the country in the late 19th century by Italian immigrants, particularly those of Genoese origin, who arrived to Buenos Aires and mostly settled in the lower-class port neighborhood of La Boca.[6] Between the late 19th and the early 20th centuries, Buenos Aires was the site of a broader European immigration wave, becoming a great cosmopolitan city and changing the customs of its inhabitants.[21] Around 3 million Italians arrived at the port of Buenos Aires between 1870 and 1920, which represents almost two thirds of the total immigration of the period.[22] As a result, Italian immigration radically altered Argentine culture, especially that of the city, and its influence can be found in aspects such as its language or its cuisine.[22][23] Pizza as we know it today—with risen dough, tomato sauce and sometimes cheese, since it was very expensive—began to be sold as a lower-class street food in Naples in the 19th century; the term had been for centuries a generic name in the region for different types of flat doughs with condiments or fillings.[24] There were sweet and savory versions of pizza—as attested by the book La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene (1891) by Pellegrino Artusi—although it was the latter that traveled to Argentina and became popular.[24]
It is not known exactly when or how pizza arrived from Naples to Buenos Aires.
La Nación noted that, although "there is no evidence to support [the Vaccarezza] story, neither in the fainá version nor in the pizza version [...], the initial story is correct in one thing: in Buenos Aires, the fainá was sold first."
Since its introduction, pizza grew to become a popular main dish over the years, as evidenced by the inclusion of a "family pizza" recipe in a 1914 cookbook by Francisco Figueredo.[7] What today is identified as the typical style of Argentine pizza—characterized by a thick crust and a large amount of cheese—arose when impoverished Italian immigrants found a greater abundance of food in then-prosperous Argentina, which motivated them to transform the originally modest dish into a much more hefty meal suitable for a main course.[5][7] This style is known as pizza de molde (Spanish for 'pizza in the pan'),[3] which emerged because there were no pizza ovens in the city, so bakers resorted to baking them in pans.[9] Since they used bakery plates, Argentine pizzas were initially square or rectangular, a format associated with the 1920s that is still maintained in some classic pizzerias, especially for vegetable pizzas, fugazzetas or fugazzas.[9]
1930–1950: transformation into an icon
In the 1930s, the
The 1930s have been described as a "
The beginning of this unprecedented pizza boom can begin to be seen in 1931. That year, billboards began to be seen in Tuñín inviting people to try pizza a la napolitana,
In 1932, the Anuario Kraft reveals an abrupt growth in the sector, listing 45 "fainá and pizza houses" scattered throughout the city.[24] According to La Nación, "1932 is also noted as the year of arrival, or at least of the first documented mentions, of some of the current historic pizzerias such as Güerrín, Banchero and Las Cuartetas. In 1934 El Cuartito would be added; in 1935, La Americana; in 1938, Angelín."[24] By the 1940s, it became evident that pizza was a firmly established and perdurable phenomenon in the city.[24] In a 1949 article focused on the sociability of Buenos Aires pizzerias, journalist and cartoonist Luis J. Medrano reflected:
The typical characteristics that distinguished the political development of our country until a few years ago are well known to all. The nation was constantly agitated by the struggle of two great political parties that fiercely disputed the privilege of governing the Argentine people... But what really interests our commentary is, in the first place, to bring to the reader's memory a dreadful social problem, which in those times and at the time of each periodic transfer of power, cast its black mantle of anguish over a vast sector of the electorate. The entire National Administration automatically ceased its functions to make room for an equivalent number of hard-working citizens who, with renewed energy, returned to their tasks after six or more years of waiting.
It would be naive to attribute to a coincidence the fact that at that time, first timidly, street vendors were born into the commercial life of the country, and then, with surprising virulence, establishments selling a delicacy whose acceptance by the public would eventually mean a true revolution: pizza. (...)
Those who tried to deny that laid-off employees gave birth to pizzerias were hard-pressed to reject the hypothesis that these picturesque businesses owe their greatness and their initial impulse to that mass of hard-working citizens whom the sway of politics alternately placed in prosperous happiness or in the cruelest destitution. (...)
At midday, the unfortunate worker, with his feet in tatters, made his daily balance on the table of a bar, verifying at the end of simple operations, that the resources so summarily arbitrary, only authorized him to dip three medialunas in a cup of coffee with milk.
Needless to say about the demoralizing consequences that such a life brought with it to such a large number of citizens... It was then when the magical and tasty food appeared on the national gastronomic scene, which for a few coins, left in the stomach the most approximate sensation of a lunch. With natural exhilaration, the former employee found a way to get through the painful wait better fed and in a more pleasant atmosphere, first sympathizing and eventually becoming fond of the pizzeria. He became an obliged parishioner and eventually a friend of the owner, the latter jealously placed behind a cash register that became shinier, heavier and more expensive every semester...[28]
1950–present: more recent developments
In the mid-1970s and especially in the 1980s, the thinner pizza a la piedra became popular as an alternative to the city's heavy traditional pizza.[9] In 2011, BBC News reported that pizzerias were "mounting a strong challenge to be the most popular gastronomic option" in Buenos Aires and "could overtake the amount of steak houses in the next two years".[29] Every year since 2012, a "pizza marathon" called Muza 5K takes place in Buenos Aires, in which the participants visit a series of pizzerias on Avenida Corrientes that serve the typical mozzarella pizza de molde by the slice and then vote for the best pizza on the circuit.[30]
See also
Media related to Pizzas in Argentina at Wikimedia Commons
References
- .
- ^ Pizzerías de valor patrimonial de Buenos Aires (2008), p. 11
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Lazar, Allie (25 April 2016). "Buenos Aires Makes Some of the World's Best (and Weirdest) Pizza". Saveur. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
- ^ Sorba, Pietro (15 October 2021). "La reivindicación de la pizza de molde argentina". Clarín (in Spanish). Buenos Aires. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
- ^ a b c d Gómez, Leire (17 July 2015). "Buenos Aires: la ciudad de la pizza". Tapas (in Spanish). Madrid: SpainMedia. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Hidalgo, Joaquín; Auzmendi, Martín (6 October 2018). "De Nápoles a la Argentina: la historia de la pizza y cómo llegó a ser un emblema nacional". Entremujeres. Clarín (in Spanish). Retrieved 10 December 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Acuña, Cecilia (26 June 2017). "La historia de la pizza argentina: ¿de dónde salió la media masa?". La Nación (in Spanish). Retrieved 10 December 2022.
- ^ BBC Travel. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
- ^ a b c d e Pepe Arias, Gimena (25 June 2022). "Pizza a la piedra vs. pizza al molde: dos estilos que dividen a los argentinos". Clarín (in Spanish). Retrieved 10 December 2022.
- ^ a b "Tipos de pizzas en Argentina". Diario Democracia (in Spanish). Junín. 10 January 2015. Retrieved 11 December 2022.
- ^ a b c d Gómez, Silvia (10 September 2019). "La fugazzeta, una reinvención de la pizza que nació en Buenos Aires". Clarín (in Spanish). Retrieved 10 December 2022.
- ^ a b c d Pizzerías de valor patrimonial de Buenos Aires (2008), p. 34
- ^ a b Firpo, Hernán (20 October 2018). "Angelín cumple 80 años: mitos y verdades de una pizzería indispensable". Clarín (in Spanish). Retrieved 11 December 2022.
- ^ a b c "Pizza canchera: historia de un ícono de la comida callejera" (in Spanish). Buenos Aires: Cucinare. Artear. 17 January 2019. Retrieved 11 December 2022.
- ^ Pizzerías de valor patrimonial de Buenos Aires (2008), p. 37
- ^ Pizzerías de valor patrimonial de Buenos Aires (2008), p. 228
- ^ Giambartolomei, Mauricio (10 September 2019). "Neoyorquina y al paso, la pizza que se impone en la ruta gastronómica porteña". La Nación (in Spanish). Retrieved 11 December 2022.
- ^ Carpineta, Gisela (21 March 2019). "9 pizzas increíbles y dónde probarlas". Ohlalá! (in Spanish). Buenos Aires: La Nación SA. Retrieved 28 October 2023.
- ^ Pepe Arias, Gimena (7 September 2022). "Una pizzería argentina, elegida entre las 50 mejores del mundo en un ranking italiano". Clarín (in Spanish). Retrieved 28 October 2023.
- ^ Pérez, María Florencia (25 September 2023). "Dos pizzerías argentinas elegidas entre las mejores del mundo en un ranking europeo". Clarín (in Spanish). Retrieved 28 October 2023.
- ISBN 978-950-07-1274-3.
- ^ a b Caparrós, Martín (4 August 2019). "Nosotros los tanos". The New York Times (in Spanish). Retrieved 10 December 2022.
- .
- ^ La Nación. Buenos Aires. 27 March 2023. Retrieved 6 August 2023.
- ^ Pizzerías de valor patrimonial de Buenos Aires (2008), p. 33
- ISBN 978-950-786-451-3.
- ^ Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Retrieved 11 December 2022 – via Acta Académica.
- ^ Pizzerías de valor patrimonial de Buenos Aires (2008), p. 40–43
- ^ Hernández, Vladimir (9 December 2011). "Will pizza oust steak as Argentina's favourite dish?". BBC News. Retrieved 28 October 2023.
- ^ Selhi, Myriam (30 September 2018). "Muza 5K: el "maratón" de pizzas juntó a 1.500 personas en la Avenida Corrientes". Clarín (in Spanish). Retrieved 11 December 2022.
Bibliography
- Pizzerías de valor patrimonial de Buenos Aires (PDF) (in Spanish). Buenos Aires: Dirección General Patrimonio e Instituto Histórico. Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. 2008. ISBN 978-987-244-348-1. Archived from the original(PDF) on 7 September 2018. Retrieved 10 December 2022.