Coffee pizza Iginio Massari, presented at Identità Golose in Milan, made the news. Even if it’s not exactly news, “because I’ve been making coffee pizza for two years already”, confesses the Maestro. «At Identità Golose they asked me to “disobey” (this year’s theme of the international cuisine congress is “disobedience”, ed) and as a pastry chef I thought that the biggest disobedience was to become a pizza chef for a day.” Be careful, «I don’t want to replace myself or change jobs, but I know how to make leavened products “good” and also coffee pizza, which I have already proposed several times at banquets where both sweet and savory were requested.

Iginio Massari talks about his coffee pizza

But what is this coffee pizza? Iginio Massari himself answers us, reached on the phone early in the morning before entering his laboratory as usual: «To leaven the pizza dough I use coffee instead of water: I add 80% coffee and 20% olive oil to the wholemeal flours; I use wholemeal because it has more interesting aromas than white flour”.

Furthermore, to the taste «the bitter part of the coffee will be lighter because during fermentation it will reach up to 50%, and the acidity on the acidity increases the nuance of the coffee without the palate having the perception of drinking a coffee.

Even the consistency of the pizza is different from the classic Neapolitan one. «I prefer to serve it in a frying pan, because, to my taste and that of many others, it likes it better; the soft one always seems raw to me, that said I am sure that Neapolitans will continue to like the one they have always eaten, and yet we are certain that they will also appreciate this coffee crunch from Maestro Massari.

The city has already “accepted” (not without doubts) Gino Sorbillo’s pineapple pizza, so why not try Iginio Massari’s coffee one? «I can’t judge the pineapple pizza, I should try it first: what’s certain is that, as a pastry chef, the pineapple tiramisu pulls me down instead of cheering me up…”he concludes with irony, hinting at the verdict.

Iginio Massari’s coffee pizza will instead be topped with classic ingredients, no extravagance. On the occasion of the MeetMassari MMR-evolution event organized by Molino Dellagiovanna, Sunday 10 March, from 3.00 pm to 6.00 pm at the Yellow Lounge 1, Maestro Massari offers several pizzas with the same coffee dough («and to make it crispier on the outside I will add a little starch) but with different ingredients («all of high quality, otherwise you will ruin even the best pizza in the world), such as mozzarella, ricotta, anchovies, capers and cooked ham. The perfect match? «For me it remains a beer; of course, you can always ask for a good coffee to finish.

The Roman breakfast pizza from the 180g pizzeria in Rome with coffee powder.

That coffee is a precious ally in the kitchen is well known among chefs and also among pizza chefs, who have used it, and continue to use it, usually in powder form, to give an extra touch of aroma to the dish. Someone will remember or want to try Paolo Griffa’s spaghettoni tomato and coffee from Caffè Nazionale in Aosta*. In terms of leavened products we remember the Pizza coffee break by Denis Lovatel, who used a coffee gel added at the end of cooking. Or the Margherita flavored cappuccino made, again by Lovatel, with the specialty 1895 by Lavazza a couple of years ago, again at Identità Golose. Even on the last edition of MasterChef, one of the most difficult tests was the one that required a coffee dish. Last but not least, among the “disobedient” pizzas, also the Roman breakfast by Jacopo Mercuro (180g, best Roman pizzeria for the Pizza Awards 2019): a white-based pizza, with spiced and smoked lard, coffee-flavoured egg cream, San Vittore tanned cheese and coffee powder. Here the proposed pairing is a good cup of coffee.