Punch Neapolitan Pizza: Product Information

We believe Neapolitan pizza prepared properly in the authentic way is better than traditional American style pizza in 3 ways: 1) it tastes better, 2) it can be cooked quicker, and 3) it is healthier. We pulled together information about Neapolitan pizza to give our customers more information about the pizza we love.

While the benefits of a Mediterranean diet are well documented, it’s not until you travel to southern Italy that you discover how healthy the people appear. I don’t know if it’s because Naples is the birthplace of both espresso and pizza, but Neapolitans exude energy. While we are not nutritionists, there appears to be some fundamental reasons why that diet is healthier than others — specifically how Neapolitans make and enjoy their pizzas.

Simplicity:

The classic pizza of Naples is the Margherita. This pizza is made with only fresh mozzarella, crushed tomatoes, and fresh basil, with olive oil drizzled on top and sea salt sprinkled over it. The beauty of the margherita is, while it contains few ingredients, when this pizza is prepared and cooked properly it is one of the most delicious things in the world. John and I also like this pizza to measure our competitors because this pizza doesn’t lie – you can tell almost everything about the commitment to quality in how this simple pizza tastes.

One thing that usually surprises our customers is the answer to what’s in our tomato sauce: Our sauce is simply San Marzano tomatoes we import from southern Italy that we crush whole – nothing else. Just pick up a jar of tomato sauce in the store and it’s shocking how much stuff is in there besides tomatoes.

Lightness:

When people come to Punch for the first time many are surprised by the difference in the amount of toppings compared to traditional American pizza. Neapolitan pizzas are designed to be light both because they are cooked quickly in wood burning ovens (a heavily topped pizza would not cook properly) and they have been designed to be an appetizer rather than a main course. It’s incredible on your first trip to Naples to see dinner customers enjoy a Margherita pizza (an entire one!) as an appetizer before a main course of seafood. One hallmark of Neapolitan pizza is that the pizza doesn’t feel heavy in your stomach after you’ve eaten it.

We also try to stop customers who may not be familiar with Neapolitan pizza from over topping their pizzas (even though we could make more money by having them add ingredients). Pizzas with too much on them do not cook properly and they get away from authentic Neapolitan pizza.

Tradition:

We are part of an organization called Vera Pizza Napoletana (VPN). The basic rules of this organization are detailed below and in this link: http://www.verapizzanapoletana.org/vpn/index.html

RULES of the VPN Association

Basic Requirements

1. A wood-burning oven: The pizza must be cooked by wood. Gas, coal or electric ovens, while they may produce delicious pizza, do not conform to the tradition.

2. Proper ingredients: San Marzano tomatoes, all natural fior-di-latte or bufala mozzarella, sea salt, olive oil and fresh basil. Only fresh, all-natural, non-processed ingredients are acceptable.

3. Proper technique: Hand-worked or low speed mixed dough, proper work surface (usually a marble slab), oven temp (800° F), pizza preparation, etc.

4. Review by the designated representative of the association assuring that the ingredients, technique and final product conform to the tradition.

We follow these rules not only because we are proud of the traditions of Neapolitan pizza but also because we find they result in better pizza. One major thing about these rules impacting the health of the pizza is the difference in dough. Pizza dough made under the VPN guidelines has only flour, water, yeast and salt . This type of dough has none of the oils, sugars or additives common in most other types of pizza sold in the U.S.

The other rule we follow rigidly is the focus on using fresh, natural, non-process ingredients. We prep all meats, vegetables and salad dressings from scratch every day, and we source our ingredients focused on quality before all else. A good example of this is our incredible cheese maker we are using in Naples that we recently posted about on our blog: http://minnesotapizzablog.com/