9 hours ago, Chris Hennes said:Don Antonio’s (Neapolitan):
QuoteAround 3000 B.C.E., the Egyptians began sifting flour using hand sieves. This helped separate the coarser parts of wheat grains from the finer grains—in essence, creating the first version of “white” flour...
Until about 1870, “white” flour was created using this sifting method...
However, between 1870 and 1890, the modern practice of milling flour using steel rollers became extremely popular.
The ancient Greeks had pissa/pita flatbreads, but topped pizza didn't originate in Naples until the early 1700s. From the advent of sifting, poorer peasants couldn't afford white flour and it was prized as a status symbol. As time went by and it became more affordable, white flour took over Europe. I can't tell you what flour Neapolitans were using for pizza in early 1700. I have a hunch it was sifted, but that's just a hunch. But, once the technological advances emerged in the late 1800s, we know, for certain, that Neapolitan pizza was/is white flour.
Where am I going with this? Roberto (Don Antonio's) is using whole wheat. It's a fraction (last I heard, it's 25%), and it's a transitional whole wheat, but it's still whole wheat. Authentic Neapolitan pizza, as defined by at least the last 130 years, contains no whole wheat flour. If Roberto wants to classify this as 'archaic Neapolitan' or some other label, I'd be fine with that, but, I wouldn't call this 'Neapolitan.' Neapolitan-ish, maybe, but not Neapolitan.
And I'm not just saying this to be pedantic. Authentic Neapolitan pizza is the puffiest/most ethereal bread on the planet. Once you add whole wheat to the equation, that puff is gone. Whole wheat completely trashes that extreme volume, it completely trashes what makes Neapolitan pizza so treasured.
What's even sadder is that Roberto's pizzerias, until he went this whole wheat route, were an incredibly easy means for folks visiting New York to experience the real deal. It shouldn't be difficult to experience authentic Neapolitan pizza in New York City, but, thanks to Roberto and his greedy Caputo overlords, it now is. You've got Mangieri, but, his sourdough obsession makes for an inconsistent product.
The last measure of salt in an already deep wound? Roberto is president of VPN America, an organization that's supposed to be dedicated to preserving authentic Neapolitan as it traverses the globe. What he's doing is basically the complete opposite of preservation.
