By Porter Lang
Start with the rim, because that is where the rules start. A raised edge, a thin centre, a few seconds in a very hot oven. Everything else on the label follows from those three things.
This is a reading guide. We name no pizzerias and no producers, and we say nothing about where to buy anything.
What TSG means
TSG stands for traditional speciality guaranteed, the EU register in which EUR-Lex says Pizza Napoletana was entered. We found no source here that explains the scheme itself; our reading is that it concerns the recipe and method that the rules below describe. Wikipedia’s article on Neapolitan pizza says the EU has recognised pizza napoletana as a TSG “since 5 February 2010”. EUR-Lex, the EU’s own legal database, is more careful: Commission Regulation (EU) No 97/2010 was adopted on 4 February 2010, published on 5 February and entered into force on 25 February 2010. Three dates for one event, each correct about something different.
The rules, as Wikipedia reports them
The excerpt of the regulation we could read gives its identity and not its specification, so the details below come from Wikipedia’s summary of the rules administered by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana. Treat them as a secondary account.
- Dough: wheat flour, natural Neapolitan yeast or brewer’s yeast, salt and water. It is “always fat-free and sugar-free”.
- Flour: medium strength, W value 250 to 320, which the article equates with 11 to 13.5 per cent protein, with no more than 20 per cent strong flour above W 350.
- Kneading: by hand or with a low-speed mixer.
- Shaping: by hand, with no rolling pin and no machine. The dough “may be no more than 0.25 cm in height”.
- Baking: 60 to 90 seconds in a wood-fired oven at 485 °C.
- Tomatoes: San Marzano or pomodorini del Piennolo del Vesuvio, grown on the volcanic plains south of Vesuvius.
- Cheese: mozzarella di bufala campana or fior di latte di Agerola.
- Types: two in the strictest tradition, Margherita and marinara.
The article does not state a diameter, so we do not either.
Our reading of the numbers
Our reading: the figures describe a very particular object. A dough no taller than a quarter of a centimetre, cooked for a minute to a minute and a half, will not behave like a thick base baked for ten. If a menu says “Neapolitan” and the pizza arrives with a crisp, cracker-like base, the label’s description and the plate do not match. That is an inference, not a regulatory finding.
Who checks
Wikipedia says the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana administers the designation, that pizzerias must meet strict requirements to obtain it, and that the association uses mystery shoppers to enforce its guidelines. We could not read the association’s own site or the full specification, so we cannot say how many places are certified or how often they are visited.
A craft listed by UNESCO
In 2017 UNESCO inscribed the art of the Neapolitan pizzaiuolo on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. UNESCO’s page says the practice originates in Naples and that “about 3,000 Pizzaiuoli” now live and perform there. It names three categories of bearer: the master pizzaiuolo, the pizzaiuolo and the baker.
What was listed is the skill, not the product. UNESCO describes four steps: shaping the dough balls, spreading the dough and forming the raised rim with a motion called the schiaffo, topping from the centre in a clockwise spiral, and baking in a wood-fired oven with a half turn. Knowledge is passed on in the bottega, where apprentices watch masters work, and also in Neapolitan academies, in family homes and through annual courses run by the Association of Neapolitan Pizzaiuoli.
A listing of a skill and a TSG label of a recipe are different things. One honours practitioners. The other fixes what may be called by the name. The two overlap, and neither one certifies any single pizza on any single night.
The Margherita story, and the record
Wikipedia’s article on pizza Margherita gives the popular legend: on 10 June 1889 the pizzaiolo Raffaele Esposito made three pizzas for Queen Margherita, and she preferred the one in the colours of the Italian flag, red tomato, white mozzarella and green basil. The evidence cited is an official letter of recognition displayed at Esposito’s shop, now Pizzeria Brandi.
The same article lists what the record shows instead.
- Toppings close to the Margherita were already present in Naples between 1796 and 1810.
- In 1849 Emanuele Rocco recorded toppings including basil, tomatoes and thin slices of mozzarella.
- In 1866 Francesco De Bourcard described garlic and oil, grated cheese, basil, thin mozzarella, prosciutto and tomato.
- Later research questioned the authenticity of the letter, and no period media reported the supposed royal visit.
- The story and the name Margherita were first promoted in the 1930s and 1940s.
We do not resolve this. The legend and the record can both be quoted; only one of them has documents behind it.
Dates in order
- 1796 to 1810: Margherita-like toppings in Naples (Wikipedia).
- 1849 and 1866: toppings recorded by Rocco and De Bourcard (Wikipedia).
- 1889: the date of the legend.
- 1930s to 1940s: the name first promoted (Wikipedia).
- 2010: TSG regulation adopted, published and in force.
- 2017: UNESCO inscription.
What kind of sources these are
Two Wikipedia articles, which anyone can edit; EUR-Lex, the EU’s legal database, whose excerpt gave only the regulation’s identity; and UNESCO’s own page for the intangible heritage listing. The technical rules rest on Wikipedia alone. The tourism page we tried for Naples, Italia.it, said nothing about pizza rules.
What we left out
Prices, opening hours, named pizzerias, oven brands and which toppings are allowed beyond the two classic types. We left out the fried and folded variants, since the sources we could read do not describe them.
Quick answers
What does TSG mean on pizza? Traditional speciality guaranteed, an EU register. According to EUR-Lex, Pizza Napoletana was entered in it by Commission Regulation (EU) No 97/2010.
How hot is a Neapolitan pizza oven? Wikipedia, summarising the association’s rules, says 485 °C for 60 to 90 seconds in a wood-fired oven.
Was the Margherita invented for a queen? Wikipedia says that is a legend dated 1889. It also lists Naples toppings recorded from 1796 to 1866 and says the name was first promoted in the 1930s and 1940s.
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Roam first. Shop later.