If it’s summertime, that means loads of wonderful sagre, festivals, in Italy. Many sagre are food-related celebrations and festivals, but not all. But when it is food-related, you know that you’re going to eat well! Even the tiniest cities can have excellent sagre.

Case in point is the Sagra delle Fragole I went to in Fosseno, a little frazione of the city of Nebbiuno, high above Lago Maggiore in the Piedmont region. This sagra is not the only of its kind – there are many many strawberry festivals around Italy.

Every sagra has a special menu, and I love it when they are handwritten (they often are). Prices are bound to be lower and that means that you can indulge a bit more. In my case I got the risotto alle fragole, strawberry risotto and the fresh gelato and cut strawberries for after.

After ordering, we sat down and waited for our food to be delivered.

Let’s take a look at those strawberries! This one is almost ready to eat – as soon as it loses the slightly-white tip, it’s perfect. But you might sneak one or two even now, and they’d still taste great.

Risotto alle fragole, strawberry risotto. It’s not sweet aside from the taste of the strawberries. Not something I’d like to eat every day, but some people were going crazy for it. If you like subtle flavors, definitely try this. On the placemat, you can see the advertisement for the Sagra della Polenta in September in that area.

After the risotto, I got the frest gelato, which was so fresh and creamy it was almost like fresh whipping cream but even better. This didn’t last very long.

After all that eating, you need a rest while you wait for more strawberries.

Something you’ll see in small towns everywhere: everyone works!

The sagra menu is a bit of distraction from the main event: buying crates and crates of strawberries to take home. Each crate was 15 euro, which is a decent price if you consider in Milan one of the 8 baskets in the crate would cost 3.50euro.

There aren’t only strawberries at the sagra – often there are booths selling other local-made goods or other products. Yum for salami!

More about Italian sagre:

• What’s a sagra? on About.com
• Rowena from Rubbah Slippers in Italy has been to 48 sagre so far (left-hand column nav)
• Sagre in Italia – the Italian sagre portal (in Italian) has a great search by region and type of festival
• The sagra of the Nodino – Mozzarella knot festival on my blog
• Sagre from Episode 4 on the Eye on Italy podcast w/ Leif Pettersen

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Related Articles at Ms. Adventures in Italy:

• Festival of the Mozzarella Nodino – Knot and Bruschetta
• Fresh Strawberry Semifreddo with Coconut and Mascarpone
• Spoleto in Early Morning
• A Wedding in Sicily and a Sicilian Food Feast: The Desserts
• How to Love Granita Siciliana with a Brioche…for Breakfast

The literal translation of pizza bianca is “white pizza” but you might see the term “Pizza Bianca” or “Pizze bianche” on a typical pizzeria menu anywhere in Italy. This indicates that the pizza is not “rossa” – covered with tomato sauce, and therefore the pizza is just the plain pizza dough base with the toppings indicated on the menu.

Pizza bianca in Rome, however, means something a little different in that you won’t find pizza bianca only in pizzerias, but you’ll find pizza bianca ready to be sliced all over the city at various forni (sing. forno) breadmakers.

Pizza bianca is just that: fresh, crusty, crackly, pizza dough sprinkled with salt and brushed with wonderful, high quality olive oil. They are cooked in (ideally) wood-burning ovens in long, rectangular slabs which are typical of pizza al trancio (pizza by the slice) in Rome. Pizza al trancio is definitely one of my favorite street foods in Rome.

Perhaps the most famous maker of pizza bianca, and rightly so, is the Forno Campo de’ Fiori, located in the famous piazza of the same name. When they’re baking you’ll often find the door directly to the forno open.

It’s a pretty nondescript place, from the outside, with a large wooden “FORNO” announcing its presence . After you enter, make your way to the crowded counters and request pizzas bianca. The baker will inevitably place his knife on the long slab of pizza bianca to indicate where he intends to cut. Use your hands to show how wide of a slice you’d like. You’ll receive a “scontrino” receipt with the amount that needs to be paid. Take it to the cash register, pay, and either return to pick up your piece of pizza bianca from the bread counter or if it’s already been given to you, now it’s time to eat!

Sometimes you’ll even peek them putting the pizza bianca into the oven.

This is one of my first stops when I arrive in Rome. I always underestimate how much pizza bianca I want and always have to come back later and get another piece. I suggest getting more than you want and then you can snack on it throughout the day!

Let’s get a closer look at pizza bianca.

or from the other angle. See that crispy, golden, crunchy oily surface sprinkled with salt? You’re going to pray to it in your sleep. I can’t wait for the next time I get to eat pizza bianca!

When you see pizza bianca in others’ hands, try to resist and NOT steal it from them.

Forno Campo de’ Fiori
Campo De’ Fiori, 22 – Vicolo del Gallo, 14
www.fornocampodefiori.com

• Ready to make your own pizza bianca? Try this recipe at Serious Eats for Pizza Bianca
• Or if you’re coming to Rome, here’s two more Roman forni and their pizza bianca to try

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Related Articles at Ms. Adventures in Italy:

• Sights and Flavors of Puglia – Sapori di Puglia
• Pizza in Naples: The Best in the World? Napoletana Pizza at Di Matteo Pizzeria
• Inside a Pugliese Forno (Breadmaker), part 2: Into the Oven!
• Some history on More is Better
• Spoleto: A Second Look

I’ll try not to turn this post into a rant, but I think we need to spend some time thinking about what pushes us to find the “best” of things in the world – the best pizza, the best gelato, the best cuisine? I think the last category is one that worries me the most and a discussion I encounter often living in Italy. Italians are rightly proud of their cuisine, and my ex-students often cited it as their favorite cuisine.

But often they extended it to the best cuisine in the world. This is not an attack against Italians in any way (it’s obviously not only thought or vocalized by them or just in this country), but a discussion on the need to classify, exclude or diminish the greatness of other cuisines in the world.

Best, traditional, favorite.

I personally try not to say one cuisine is better than other. I love many cuisines – Italian, Indian, Thai, Mexican, Chinese - how can you choose? And do you have to? And though I’ve traveled quite a bit (24 countries and counting) how do you judge a cuisine? By what you’re exposed to in your own country? by eating what natives cook for you? by visiting the country directly and experiencing?

I think this is the spirit with which I face “the best pizza” which is considered by many to be Napoletana pizza (sorry to pick on you, poor pizza). The birth of pizza is often attributed to Naples and it’s with a great deal of pride that Napoletana pizza is searched, consumed, and lauded. And they have a right to! It’s very very good.

Is saying American/NY pizza, very thin Roman pizza (and pizza bianca!!!) or deep dish Chicago pizzas are also very good diminish the greatness that is Napoletana pizza?

I personally don’t think so. But what do you think?

On to the napoletana pizza. We couldn’t pick a better place to start than Di Matteo pizzeria in the heart of Spaccanapoli.

My favorite pizza – in this perhaps I’m quite American – I love “pepperoni” pizza – in Italy salame piccante, please – and the hotter, the better. I even add hot oil if it’s not hot enough. They call it the “Devil” pizza – Diavola Pizza and this one was very spicy and (it was so hot, and delicious!) Look at those hot pepper – pepperoncino flakes!

Mozzarella di Bufala pizza – with mozzarella so fresh it was milky!

Here is the real attraction in Naples: the prices. Napoletana pizza is ridiculously cheap, even when compared to Milan – a Margherita will cost you double what you see below – 3 euro! Here, the price list at Di Matteo Pizzeria – a Marinara pizza for 2 euros, 50 cents!!! Tonight, we dine like kings!

If you’ve never had a fried pizza, at least one in your party should order it, just so you can have this enormous fried, steaming dough arrive at your table and you can then say to yourself, “How on earth do I start eating this?”

You don’t have to go inside Di Matteo to eat – there are numerous wonderful fried things available outside, too, and that’s the friggitoria part of the Di Matteo pizzeria.

Fried pizza eventually comes down, and is still very very delicious. Here are some smaller ones for just one euro. Forget the Euro menu at McDonald’s – this is where you can really stretch your euros.

Arancini rice balls – and crocchè - mashed potato crocchette rolled in breadcrumbs and fried – you can’t eat this cheap anywhere else!

Fried pasta – Frittatina

Small (but not that small) marinara pizza for just 1 euro

We ate way, way too much at Di Matteo – first while waiting outside and snacking on fried treats, then inside with our own pizzas and more fried treats. But it’s a wonderful problem to have.

Perhaps even the best.

Di Matteo Pizzeria
via dei Tribunali, 94, Naples

Recently Nicole from deliciousdays was in Naples and at Di Matteo, too! Check her pictures: Headed south – Naples

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Related Articles at Ms. Adventures in Italy:

• Pizza Bianca at Forno Campo de Fiori, Rome, Italy
• Some history on More is Better
• Sights and Flavors of Puglia – Sapori di Puglia
• Best of Pavia
• How to Make Pappardelle Pasta