It’s a truth quickly discovered by visitors to Italy that the country has no national cuisine. Italian food is very regional, with the availability of internationally famous dishes usually limited to their place of origin (some, such as spaghetti Bolognese, aren’t even Italian). As a rule, Italians prefer to eat their native region’s cuisine at home, only enjoying specialities from other areas while travelling.
There is, however, one notable exception. There is one dish that has managed to transcend the many internal borders of the nation and to take on the status of a cultural icon. It’s the dish which you are likely to find in every town, village, and hamlet up and down the Italian peninsula. It is, of course, pizza.
Italians are crazy for pizza, and why not? The basic combination of cheese and tomato results in the classic umami taste we’re so fond of. The wood-fired oven, considered essential for cooking the perfect pizza, is traditional in most Italian regions. Despite Italy being a country of only 60 million people, an estimated 56 million pizzas are eaten every week!
In the last sixty years or so, for most Italians pizza has become a Sunday evening ritual. It’s the time when you can leave the house, give the kitchen a rest and try to forget that the weekend is almost over. I wouldn’t advise turning up at any pizzeria on a Sunday night without a reservation.
In the small Tuscan village where I live, the local bar becomes a pizzeria every weekend. On Sunday night the large restaurant area, dark for the rest of the week, becomes a stage for people to recount the dramas of the past seven days to their friends and families. If the village football team have won, they’ll be there celebrating and toasting the coach for permitting them a cheese-topped indulgence. Even the parish priest makes an appearance, relaxing after his busy day.