Rosa Casulli

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— 14 Rosa Casulli

PIZZERIA MCROSE IN PUTIGNANO, BARI

Since 2000 she and her family have owned the McRose pizzeria in Putignano, a city of about 30,000 inhabitants which is part of the metropolitan area of Bari and is famous for the textile industry and Carnival. Rosa is an important professional in the world of pizzerias. Trained at the Scuola Italiana Pizzaioli - where she teaches - and "in the field" with varied work experience, she has contemporarily won various prizes in the World Pizza Championship, ranking several times in the top ten and becoming World Champion in 2008 with the “0 kilometer” pizza, rich in products from its Apulian land. “Since I was a child, I have always had a passion for cooking, dough and above all for desserts - Rosa tells us. I have always dreamed of having my own business in which to channel my passion and finally in the year 2000 the opportunity arose: with the support of my husband we decided to start a restaurant business and invest in ourselves. We mainly wanted to sell sandwiches, pizza by the slice, round pizzas, various appetisers, but from day one customers preferred the classic round pizza, and we specialised accordingly. “Ours is a simple place, where you can sit down to have a quick meal. Very often the thought of fast is associated with the concept of poor quality, but this is not the case for us; everything is done with care, from the choice of raw materials to the doughs to production. We have been using sourdough for the classic pizza for almost 15 years now, we have been self-producing sandwiches and wraps, we use many fresh seasonal ingredients, dairy products of excellent quality, being able to count on a territory rich in excellence: so, as far as possible, we choose Zero Kilometre or a short supply chain. With this mindset and to take another step forward in our philosophy, in April 2020 we joined a great initiative by renting a vegetable garden: so, some of the vegetables we offer are produced without the use of any artificial pesticide or fertilizer but only with manure."

P E

PRE-DOUGH:

flour type "00" W 350/400 1000 gr (2.2 lb)

water 480 ml (16.23 US fl oz / 16.9 UK fl oz)

fresh compressed yeast 5 gr (0.18 oz)

SECOND DOUGH:

wholemeal flour 800 gr (28.2 oz)

ancient wheat flour 200 gr (7.05 oz)

water 900 ml (30.4 US fl oz/ 31.7 UK fl oz)

salt 50 gr (1.76 oz) oil 60 gr (2.12 oz)

TOPPING:

Tomato sauce Mozzarella cheese

Grana Padano cheese

Confit yellow baby plum tomatoes

Marinated courgette

Capocollo "di Martina" Fresh mint

CONFIT YELLOW BABY PLUM TOMATOES:

baby plum tomatoes 1 kg (2.2 lb)

salt 5 gr (0.18 oz) sugar 10 gr (0.35 oz)

apple cider vinegar 50 gr (1.76 oz)

Pizza Refresh

Method REFRESH PIZZA

Pre-dough: Dissolve the yeast in water and mix with the flour for 5 minutes in reverse, or by hand without stringing. Let the pre-dough mature at 18°C (64°F) for 18 hours.

Second dough: Put the two flours and the whole predough in the mixer, add 650ml (22.9 UK fl oz / 22 US fl oz) of water and let it work for 4/5 minutes, drizzle in the oil, add the salt and then the water a little at a time, make the dough string well and finish with 2 minutes in second speed. The end-of-mix temperature must be 24/26°C (75°/79°F). Work the dough into a tight ball and let it rest for about 1 hour, then proceed with the cutting. Put the balls into the fridge if you want to use them the next day or leave them at room temperature if you want to consume them the same day.

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Topping: Wash the baby plum tomatoes, cut them in half lengthwise. Season with oil, salt, apple vinegar, sugar and basil, bake in the oven at 90°C / 194°F for 2 hours.

Marinated courgette: Clean a courgette, remove the top and bottom, cut it into thin slices lengthwise, season with the prepared emulsion. Take 6 slices of courgette, place a slice of capocollo and form rolls.

Roll out the pizza, season with tomato sauce, mozzarella and Grana Padano, then with a few slices of marinated courgette, confit plum tomatoes and courgette rolls, bake in the oven at 330°C/626°F. When cooked, decorate with mint leaves.E

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SMALL GLOSSARY OF THE TOOLS OF A CONTEMPORARY PIZZERIA

“We need to find the right words: words are important”, so Nanni Moretti warned in one of his unforgettable films: Palombella Rossa. Certainly words are also important in a typical pizzeria in southern Italy where, with affection, fascinating archaic terminologies are preserved, inherited together with the art of pizza. Words that today young and old professionals in the sector continue to use alongside regionalisms and introducing newer terms that partly concern the small glossary that we propose here to discover what is needed in a contemporary pizzeria.

KNEADER: there are three types: with dipping arms, fork and spiral. The name certainly derives from the type of arm - two in the case of the dipping arms - present in the tank which, of course, can be of different sizes, fixed or removable. In modern mixers, we have the possibility, through touch screens, to adjust processing times and speeds.

The "FORK" consists of a hook that works by rotating in the tank with an inclination with respect to the rotation axis of the tank itself. It is the slowest but the one that transfers less heat to the dough and which is suitable for doughs that require mixing several ingredients but with longer times and perhaps not very high hydrations. Also excellent in the preparation of pre-fermentations such as the pre-dough which provides a raw, not completely mixed mass.

The "DIPPING ARMS" consists of two arms with hooks called forcola and spatula, mounted on discs that allow synchronous rotation. The dough is collected from the tank and pulled up to be subsequently released. This type, after the fork, is recommended to avoid overheating the mass and simulates sideboard kneading by hand.

The "SPIRAL" is certainly the fastest of the three, returning excellent, soft and also very hydrated doughs in a few minutes. This type definitely transfers more heat and for this reason it is then advisable for the professional to work in choosing the speed to be used or possibly the temperature of the ingredients, in particular of the water. The low speed of the spiral or possibly the reverse setting are very suitable in the preparation of the pre-dough.

BAILER: similar to a spoon and useful for transferring flour. Good practice could be to have one per bag, in order to avoid contamination if one or more flours contain, for example, cereals that represent allergens.

SCALES AND PRECISION SCALES: useful in weighing the ingredients. In particular, precision scales are essential as, having a higher sensitivity and a lower tolerance, they are more suitable for the weighing of ingredients such as yeast or possibly powdered malts.

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GRADUATED JUGS: they can certainly facilitate the work of measuring water Cloth to cover the dough and / or pot with lid: it remains essential in the "initial leavening" phase of the dough to mass, to cover it with a cloth or damp cloth or close it in the tub, sprinkling it with oil.

SPATULA: used both to proceed with the cutting and to extract our leavened loaves from the crates.

AUTOMATIC CUTTER: allows you to reduce the mass after the initial leavening into blocks of a suitable size with the support of technology. They are marketed with technical characteristics that differ in speed and in the ability to carry out this procedure on doughs with different types of hydration.

CRATES: used to contain the cut dough, i.e. reduced into balls of the appropriate size for processing.

DOUGH THERMOMETER: fundamental in the control of the dough process, it consists of a probe to be inserted inside the mass and a reading on the display. The most sophisticated ones allow instant reading in 3-6 seconds.

AMBIENT THERMOMETER: usually on the display, they today allow to detect both temperature and humidity. Among the most sophisticated, are models that allow us to detect, within the previous 24 hours, even the minimum and maximum reached in the mixing environment. They are useful in the management of doughs at room temperature or possibly also during changes of season.

INFRARED THERMOMETER: it is usually an infrared gun that allows the measurement of the surface temperature of inanimate objects in real time. In pizzerias it is often used both for controlling the temperatures of refrigerators and for detecting the internal temperatures of the oven where it is not possible to do so on the oven itself.

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SHOVEL, PERFORATED SHOVEL, SOLID SHOVEL AND BRUSH WITH SUPPORT: these represent the basic kit to manage the cooking of the pizza product. The shovels differ in shape, size, presence or absence of holes, each one adaptable to the type of pizza product proposed. In the past, wooden shovels were used which have been replaced today, thanks to research and development in this sector, by aluminum shovels or even carbon fiber ones that give the handle an unparalleled lightness, a thermal insulation that drastically reduces the transmission of heat and mechanical resistance, making work easier. The perforated shovel is used to rotate the pizzas ensuring homogeneous cooking and the full shovel, without holes for managing the wood. Finally, the brush is adjustable with brass bristles and used for cleaning the oven floor.

OVEN: we have ovens with different types of power supply: Wood, gas and electric. In any case, for each type there are different models that differ increasingly from each other for their specific characteristics determine the success of the pizza product.

In traditional Neapolitan pizza, the use of a wood oven certainly dominates. Cooking takes place by convention, contact and radiation. It reaches maximum temperatures of 500 °C (932°F) and allows faster cooking than the others. Often, without flues and, according to new environmental protection regulations, this type requires suitable insulated flues and smoke suppressors. Gas and electric: today these ovens have found their space with technologies designed to provide a product that is increasingly suitable for cooking Neapolitan pizza. Obviously, the management costs today represent an im- 21 — portant discriminant of choice and moreover the most modern electric ovens guarantee not only quality in cooking, but also the possibility of supporting the operator through the possibility of programming ignition and temperatures and are less " operator dependent ", certainly not negligible given the moment of crisis of human resources in the sector.

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COUNTER: dominates the scene in the pizzeria together with the oven, of course. It is the place where the pizza is spread after it is taken out of the drawer and where we find the horizontal refrigerator with the ingredients of the line. The counter is usually made of marble or granite, as it is less subject to heating.

REFRIGERATORS: essential for the correct storage of food and in particular also for doughs. Of different sizes, counter top ones differ because they are horizontal and contain strictly aluminum containers of medium and small dimensions, in which we find the “line” ingredients used for the pizza topping.

LEAVENING CELLS: these are new generation cells that allow the management of the dough, therefore maturation and leavening, at controlled temperature and humidity. They are equipped with screens that allow automatic programming of humidity, times and temperatures.

YEAST MACHINE AND PREDOUGH STOP: this machine allows you to manage liquid or solid sourdough - and also any pre-fermentations - through phases that allow you to set times and temperatures for an optimal final product, ready for use.

The list could obviously be further detailed and continue but for now we will stop here, certain that we have provided you with a useful handbook for starting up a location capable of responding to the needs of modernity.

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