Pizzas: a delicious history of flavor and umami taste | Press

Discovered at the beginning of the last century, umami is present in the most traditional toppings and is a great option to celebrate Pizza Day.

São Paulo, July 2017 – It is no surprise that pizzas, with their “dough-cheese-tomato sauce” combination, are a worldwide success. But it is in Brazil that this passion reached another level. The country is a sales champion: more than two thousand units are consumed daily nationwide, with São Paulo standing out – the city ranks just behind New York when it comes to pizza consumption.

Although few people know it, there is a special day to celebrate this gastronomic phenomenon. For 32 years, Pizza Day has been celebrated on July 10, a dish with a history full of curiosities. The pizza as it is known today – round, with sauce and cheese – was created by Italian chef Raffaele Sposito in 1889. On that occasion, he prepared a special dish to honor Queen Margherita di Savoia, with colors representing the Italian flag, highlighting red, white, and green. For this, he carefully spread tomato sauce, cheese, and basil over a dough that had already been made for thousands of years and resembled bread. Thus was born the traditional Margherita pizza, one of the most requested flavors in the world.

Another curious fact is that the Margherita version is one of the countless examples of pizzas with umami toppings, which is one of the five basic tastes of the human palate – along with sweet, salty, bitter, and sour. Discovered by Japanese scientist Kikunae Ikeda in 1908, umami (which means “delicious” in Portuguese) is responsible for increasing salivation and prolonging flavor, helping food acceptance, especially among children and the elderly. In addition to the Margherita, the pizza toppings with more pronounced umami are tuna, mushrooms, four cheeses, sun-dried tomatoes, corn with catupiry, among others.

To make it even easier to celebrate Pizza Day with lots of flavor, the Umami Committee has prepared a Four Cheese Pizza recipe and an infographic with pizzas that strongly feature this taste. Check it out!

FOUR CHEESE PIZZA

Ingredients:

Dough

• 1 cube fresh yeast (15 g)
• ½ tablespoon sugar
• ½ cup warm water
• 1 cup warm milk (200 ml)
• 2 tablespoons oil
• ½ tablespoon salt
• 4 cups all-purpose flour (450 g)
• ½ cup tomato pulp (100 g)

Topping

• 2 cups shredded mozzarella (200 g)
• ½ cup chopped gorgonzola cheese (60 g)
• 1 tube culinary cream cheese (250 g)
• 1 cup coarsely grated parmesan cheese (80 g)

Preparation method:

1. In a bowl, place the yeast and sugar, and stir until dissolved.
2. Add the water, milk, oil, and salt, and mix well.
3. Gradually add the flour and knead until you get a smooth and homogeneous dough.
4. Cover with a clean dish towel and let rise for 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
5. Roll out the dough into two 30 cm (12 in) discs, spread half of the tomato pulp on each disc, and bake in a preheated medium oven (180 °C / 350 °F) for 10 minutes.
6. Divide the cheeses between the two discs and return them to the hot oven for another 10 minutes, or until the mozzarella melts.
7. Remove from the oven and serve immediately.

Yield: 2 large pizzas (16 slices)
Preparation time: 1 hour and 40 minutes
Tip: If you prefer, replace gorgonzola with provolone.