Pineapple Pizza strikes at the heart of Naples: the New World concoction that used to be despised in Italy has now reached the menu of Pizzeria Sorbillo, a stronghold of Neapolitan tradition. Chef Gino Sorbillo himself, heralding the Good News on social networks, wished a Happy New Year to everybody: “Buon Annanas 2024” — a wordplay with anno, year, and ananas, pineapple.
Since its creation in 1962 in Canada (the original culprit was the Greek chef Sam Panapoulos, or so the Italian historians claim) the “Hawaiian Pizza” has spread all over the world contaminating the Italian tradition. Panapoulos’ dish had cheese, ham and pineapple in syrup- a very German combination, and in fact his pizza may be traced back to the so-called “Hawaii Toast”, invented, very far from Waikiki, in Munich by German chef and actor Clemens Wilmenrod.
In Naples, Gino Sorbillo’s brother Totò says, “we are also offering our traditional pizza and we have a menu with over 30 variations, what’s the scandal in offering one with pineapple?” Some of the alternatives indeed use unlikely ingredients such as pistachios or potato cream. However, the tropical novelty didn’t go down well with the Italian public, at least judging from comments on social networks, where some rage against American cultural imperialism. But presumably, Sorbillo’s pizzeria isn’t extending its pizza pans to locals as much as to tourists trailing through Naples, hungry for food with a hint of home.
Sorbillo is not even the first Italian chef to pick up the trendy tropical fruit on dough. Franco Pepe from Caiazzo (Caserta) offers a version with no tomato sauce, wrapping the pineapple in San Daniele prosciutto and putting the lot into fried pizza dough. Pier Daniele Seu in Rome has a pizza with a carpaccio of dried pineapple. Sorbillo’s adaptation has a combination of Mediterranean ingredients: smoked provola, extra-virgin olive oil, fresh basil and fresh fruit, first seasoned, then baked in the oven.
So, there is a difference after all. Italian chefs use the fruit in all its freshness rather than in a sweet syrupy mess. Contamination may be acceptable but how you do it, that’s the genius of the dish.
