Illustration of Bartolomeo Scappi's Work of the Art of Cooking. The cookbook also talks about a very different "pizza" from the one we know today
There was a Renaissance pizza ?
In his famous Work of the art of cooking (1570), the great Renaissance cook Bartolomeo Scappi mentions and proposes the recipe for a “ pizza “.
He himself defines it with this name in reference to Naples: "from Neapolitans called pizza".
However, it has very little to do, let's say nothing, with what we know and appreciate today.
Evidently this kind of pasta is a bit laborious in the process and prepared with a mix of ingredients unusual for us, it responded well to the dictates of sixteenth-century gastronomy, in which amalgam and bittersweet they were widely used, but it would hardly be feasible (and edible) today.
To make pizza according to Scappi's recipe, you needed almonds, raisins, pine nuts, dates and figs .
The ingredients were pounded together in a mortar and added rose water , until a homogeneous mixture is created.
It was then added egg yolks, cinnamon powder, sugar, Neapolitan mostaccioli reduced to very fine crumbs and a little more rose water.
The whole was mixed to form a paste about a finger thick.
Finally it was baked in a pan previously greased with butter.
On this "basis", various types of food were placed ( see also :https://www.pilloledistoria.it/12216/storia-moderna/crespelle-al-tartufo-nero).