Volturno Pizza

Volturno is an authentic Neapolitan Pizzeria. Owner, Greg Califano, certified to make Neapolitan pizzas, prides himself on his authentic procedures and flavors. Volturno is a local source of the traditional art of Neapolitan pizza making.

History of the Napoletana Pizza

The pizza of Naples first became popular when Queen Margherita of Italy came to visit, and a man named Rafaele Esposito made a patriotic pizza in her honor. He used red tomato sauce, white mozzarella cheese, and green basil leaves in his delicious creation, and the queen loved it. After that the specific way of preparing pizza was named after her.

There are now official guidelines for making Pizza Napoletana, as laid out by the Associazione Vera Pizza Napoletana. These pizzas are typically light on sauce, and have light, fluffy crusts. Their dough must be made with wheat flour, and the tomatoes used are grown at Mount Vesuvius. The mozzarella used comes from the milk of water buffalo. When making the pizza, the dough must be kneaded by hand, or a low speed mixer, and once risen, can only be formed with a hand, not a rolling pin. Dough should be no more than 3 millimeters thick and needs to be cooked in a stone oven with a wood fire. The dough must not be placed in a pan, and oven temperatures range from 750-800 degrees Fahrenheit.