Solidly anchored to tradition and reassuring in its annual repetition that does not tire, but rather is expected, the escarole pizza is one of the essential specialties of Christmas' Eve, in Naples as in all of Campania. A plate of lean, as is customary, to be enjoyed as a treat while waiting for the dinner that starts late, as an appetizer the same evening or for lunch the next day and so on for all holidays, until New Year's Eve.

In the family they prepared at least two, always available on the sideboard, because the escarole pizza it is also good cold.

A bit of history

The first written documentation of this traditional preparation dates back to the nineteenth century, when it was published in the practical theoretical cooking manual by Ippolito Cavalcanti, Duke of Buonvicino. The literary aristocrat and gastronome told in Neapolitan dialect the courses of the sumptuous Christmas Eve menu "that if only we use our de 'Napule". A "vruoccoli", vermicelli and fried eels followed the "cod mpasticcio", a sort of shortcrust pastry filled with escarole flavored with garlic, black olives and capers, alternating with layers of fried fish with anchovies and finally baked in the oven in the tiesto (the terracotta casserole also used for meat sauce). Over time, the use of cod has been lost and shortcrust pastry has given way to leavened dough, the same that forms the basis of common round-shaped pizzas. This version (proposed on the following page) is described by Jeanne Carola Francesconi in La cucina napoletana (1965), considered the bible of authentic Neapolitan cuisine after Cavalcanti's recipe book.

The predilection for escarole

It has remained essential and faithful to the original recipe escarole, a winter vegetable with a use so rooted in Campania cuisine (as well as in all southern cuisine) that it gives rise to colorful expressions commonly used in the dialect. Escarole are curly-haired girls, with reference to the curly variety, while "dicere escarole" means talking nonsense, perhaps due to the amount of water they release in cooking. Not surprisingly, the Neapolitans until the eighteenth century, or before the invention of the die and the massive appearance of pasta on their tables, were known as "leaf eaters", due to the prevalence of vegetables in their diet. In confirmation of this predilection, in the seventeenth century the Neapolitan dialectal poet Giulio Cesare Cortese wrote: "My Napoleon, tell whoever wants / don't Napoleon cchiù, yes not aie leaf" Naples, if you have no leaf). Three centuries later, we find the curly endive in broth among Eduardo De Filippo's favorite dishes in the collection of recipes Si cucine cumme vogli'i ', told by his wife by the Neapolitan master. The predilection for escarole The endive, a winter vegetable with a use so deeply rooted in Campania cuisine (as well as in all southern cuisine) has remained essential and faithful to the original recipe as to give rise to colorful expressions commonly used in the dialect. Escarole are curly-haired girls, with reference to the curly variety, while "dicere escarole" means talking nonsense, perhaps due to the amount of water they release in cooking. Not surprisingly, the Neapolitans until the eighteenth century, or before the invention of the die and the massive appearance of pasta on their tables, were known as "leaf eaters", due to the prevalence of vegetables in their diet. In confirmation of this predilection, in the seventeenth century the Neapolitan dialectal poet Giulio Cesare Cortese wrote: "My Napoleon, tell whoever wants / don't Napoleon cchiù, yes not aie leaf" Naples, if you have no leaf). Three centuries later, we find the curly endive in broth among Eduardo De Filippo's favorite dishes in the collection of recipes Si cucine cumme vogli'i '…, told by his wife by the Neapolitan master.