Saying Masardona in Naples, and touching the heart of the most authentic tradition of the Spanish lowlands and neighborhoods, is one and the same. Behind this captivating name, which has something familiar, there is hidden a tasty testimony of Neapolitan gastronomic inventiveness, a fried pizza, instead of cooked in the oven, and stuffed with imagination. Its origins are not remote in time.
We have to go back to the economic hardships of the last war, when the people of the lowlands (humble houses obtained from ground floor rooms that had only the door as a relationship with the outside, where even numerous families lived) managed to make ends meet. The wood was expensive, the ovens for bread and pizza worked at a minimum. But those who had the countryside could get oil and so the commoners did not lose heart: they set up a stall on the road in front of the entrance to the lower house and began to sell humble but tasty food, pizzas fried at home, served piping hot in front of the door.
With a rule of honor, which today we can consider a mixture of social solidarity (which is never lacking in Naples) and small-business foresight: those who were hungry and could not afford to buy it, took it on credit in the sense that they could pay for it after eight days. Thus was born the pizza "a ogge a otto".
A humble food that had the honor of being immortalized in the 1954 film "L'oro di Napoli" by Vittorio De Sica, where a dazzling and audacious Sophia Loren runs a take-away pizzeria with her husband Rosario in the Materdei. She, beautiful and buxom, has an affair with a young lover and leaves the ring with him. Unmentionable truth to her jealous husband, all that remains is to say that he ended up in one of the many pizzas that the busty pizza maker serves on the doorstep to the inhabitants of the neighborhood. Until the lover brings it back to the woman pretending to have found it in a pizza. Honour, so to speak, is safe. Suspicions remain.
Many years have passed since then, but fried pizza has remained deeply rooted in the Neapolitan tradition. In Naples, as is the case with traditional pizza, the greatest pizza makers of the city in all the districts and also in the province, try their hand at preparing it, boasting the incomparable merits of their product.
But now for the Romans who want to eat authentic fried pizza there is no longer any need to travel to Naples because in Piazza dell'Oro between Via Giulia and via Acciaioli, we are in the heart of papal Rome, "La Masardona" has opened, heir in every sense of the historic Masardona Napoletana, a few steps from Garibaldi station, the historic temple of this Neapolitan specialty, where the Piccirillo family has ruled for four generations and where thousands and thousands of pizzas of all flavors have been fried since 1945.
In fact, Cristiano Piccirillo, the last scion of this generation of pizza chefs, came to manage the Masardona in Rome, while his father Enzo remained to preside over the historic headquarters in Via Giulio Cesare Capaccio and the more modern and elegant one in Piazza Vittoria on the Chiaia Riviera .
And it is Cristiano who explains the historical truth of the term Masardona: “It was the nickname of Anna Manfredi my great-grandmother. After World War II, to earn some money, she cooked fried pizza at home, as she did Sofia Loren in the film "The Gold of Naples". However, the nickname dates back to much earlier, when grandmother Anna, as a child, had been commissioned by a person to bring a 'confidential embassy to a lady in the neighborhood, which she had done with great precision and punctuality '.
And so it was that they gave it the nickname of Masardona borrowing it from the Masardoni, or the messengers who at the time of the brigands carried secret communications from inside the city walls to the outside”.
“During the war several housewives – recalls Cristiano Piccirillo – took turns selling pizzas once a week, so that there was no competition with the other women in the neighborhood, my grandmother's was on Sundays. At the time, the means that could be easily found were used, kneading was done by hand in the wooden cupboard ('a martora), the flour was bought in the oven, a single burner was used to fry in this large pot and it was a work all female.
About seventy - eighty pizzas were made at a time, which were then sold at home by friends in the neighborhood, in particular by a "commara" (back in the day, when someone acted as godfather or godmother to one of the , they were like relatives) who went around the neighborhood, trying to go even a little across the border, and loudly shouted "Brioche!" to attract customers, who had their pizzas put in the basket.
Then there were the regular customers, those who came early in the morning to have fried pizza for breakfast after working at night in the market or in the hospital. Because my great-grandmother made herself known in the city for the goodness of her pizza and we have done nothing but collect her legacy by making it known in Italy and abroad".
The dough is the same as the "classic" pizza: water, salt, flour and yeast. It can be padded as desired. Originally it was filled with ricotta and cicoli, small pieces of pork fat cooked for a long time after having obtained the lard and basil, the poorest ingredients that were on hand in the countryside, with a sprinkling of pepper to give it flavour, then folded crescent shaped and fried in plenty of oil. The result? A delight of flavor between the crunchy pizza and the aromas of the filling that melt inside during frying.
Then over time came the more elaborate ones, with provola, pepper and basil, with escarole and olives, And we find the other variations the one with sausage and broccoli, the one with endive and the one with ricotta and salami, with aubergines, provola and pecorino romano, covered with Neapolitan ragout, the Palummiello with octopus verace, salads and olives and the Ciurillo with courgette flowers, ricotta, salami and provola.
On the menu of la Masardona there are other Neapolitan classics, such as montanara with tomato and basil an excellent Neapolitan street food whose name should not mislead for a seaside city, it was so called because it was the poor food of the peasants who came down from the mountains to work in Naples or in the countryside.
The imprint of the Roman Masardona is entirely the work of Cristiano Piccirillo, a degree in modern language and literature, only for personal and family satisfaction, experiences in Spain, a solid culinary preparation with the fabulous Nino Di Costanzo, two Michelin stars at the Danì Maison restaurant of Ischia, but in reality only one eternal love in his life: the Pizzeria.
In Naples you would find him as a boy in the Via Giulio Cesare Capaccio restaurant in the early morning and he would stay there all day long, always with his radiant smile on his face which testified to the passion for this profession that he wants to re-evaluate.
“The work of the pizza maker has always been seen as a second-order job. I still remember when at school there were those who wanted to become a doctor, an engineer, a firefighter or those who wanted to be an astronaut while I dreamed of becoming like my dad. I remember when in high school I explained to my friends that I couldn't go out with them on Saturdays because I had to work in a pizzeria, as well as that time at the university when the teacher asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up and the reason for that degree in languages and I smiling I replied: "I simply want to continue my work: the pizza chef".
So pizza maker but of level. Meanwhile, the first novelty in the history of the Piccirillo family consists of the fact that for the first time a large wood-burning oven appears in a family restaurant which will churn out the classic Neapolitan pizzas in addition to the fried ones and then there will still be the others specialties of the Neapolitan tradition, crocche', the pasta omelette.
Among the pizzas one has a special value is the San Vincenzo, stuffed with sheep ricotta, fresh smoked provola, cicoli, pepper and basil, Cristiano's act of love and gratitude towards his father Enzo to whom he is very close. It goes without saying that the products used are all guaranteed made in Naples such as Caputo flour since 1945, buffalo mozzarella, provola, fior di latte and cured meats..
And while we're talking about level, the context for Cristiano was also a targeted choice.
The pizza and all the specialties offered here are set in an artistic context appropriate to the story behind them. And so specialties of humble peasant origins are presented on signature dishes signed by Anthony Nocera, Neapolitan painter and sculptor listed on the squares, all over the world; and around there are works by Mark Kostabi, American painter and composer, author of the famous faceless figures, timeless inspired by the paintings of Chirico, known among other things for many music covers that have made history. while several figurines are signed by Marco Ferrigno, historic artist and crib master of San Gregorio Armeno.
In short, the pizza here is original, like the works of art scattered around the large room a stone's throw from Castel Sant'Angelo.
