Will it be unpatriotic of me to start with the sentence I find Italians totally fascinating? Honestly, I really do. My cousin Adun calls them White Nigerians and I laughingly agree. With keen observation, you can’t help but find some semblance to us, some sort of kindred spirits connection. Here is what I have noticed. No offence to anyone please, this was written to evoke humour.
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Italians are loud and gregarious just like Nigerians, talking with their hands and fingers gesticulating all over the place.
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They love good food, they love to party, with lots of loud music and dancing.
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Might I add that they are also very stylish. Not elegant and sophisticated like the French, but their sense of style is more earthy and in your face, plus they are not ashamed to let you know what they have on is expensive. Seeing a bit of us in them already? Let me continue.
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Family is very important to Italians, and it is expected that you show up to family gatherings and holiday celebrations to strengthen La Familia. Their gatherings are filled with stories, lots of warm and affectionate hugs, slapping each other on the back, hearty laughter, noisy conversation and general boisterousness. With alcohol flowing freely, bambini’s running all over the place, mounds and mounds of great food being served and no one is watching their waistline. Does that remind you of a Nigerian family gathering? Good.
- Their men are also famous for their love of women. Errrrr, Nigerian men would you agree in that regards you are kindred spirits? Lol.
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Italians are also famed for their wild and fiery temper. You don’t want to be on the wrong side of an Italian. Trust me, their temper is legendary. I’ve flat shared with a Sicilian.
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Their work ethic can be somewhat blasé and laid back. Those who run businesses or work in government establishments in Nigeria are likely to be nodding their heads. I do not mean this to be offensive. Italians love to live life and work is just a means to enjoy life and not your whole life. I picked this comment about their work ethic from alifeinrome.wordpress.com owned by A Canadian blogger living in Italy. ”I think the main difference is that your job is not your identity. Nobody ever asks me first, “What do you do?” My job is just a means to make money. Work is not your life”. The phrase La Dolce Vita describes them perfectly. Even early in the morning things start really slow. Try getting anything done between 12 and 2pm and you will be shocked by everything being closed. Or go to a public run establishment shortly before 4pm and the emptiness will remind you of a Ministry in 9ja. I was denied entry into the Roman Forum at 3.45pm because it closed at 4pm, and I thought WHAT!!!. The Eiffel Tower is open till midnight. Lol.
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“The tendency of Italians to engage in shady and questionable financial practices is well known”. It is an open secret, the corruption in Italy. It just doesn’t get as much press as we do. Let me stop there before The Mafia comes after me. Lol.
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Their driving and parking habits are veeeeery similar to ours. In their cities, just stop and observe, you will laugh your head off with the comparison to Lagos driving especially a somewhat cavalier attitude about adhering to traffic rules. Take a cab and you are likely to say a prayer at least twice before you arrive at your destination.
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Their food is an absolute delight, just like ours.
You want more comparisons, read the blog www.alifeinrome.wordpress.com and laugh till your tummy hurts. It could as well be a Canadian blogger writing about life in Lagos.
Comparing Lagos to Rome - my first foray into Italy was the Eternal city of Rome and I went alone. I remember people telling me not to try it due to the unsavoury reputation Nigerian girls have in Italy. I still decided to go as I had just finished Dan Brown’s Angel’s and Demons, so I was itching to go see all the historical places mentioned in the books for myself, the same way I had done for Paris courtesy of The Da Vinci Code. For one week, depsite being on a student budget, I went everywhere in the book and more and I had a blast. I found Rome to be the antithesis of Paris, reminding me of Lagos. It is a city that screams “you are either going to love me or hate me but I won’t pretend or make the effort for you to like me. This is me, I have existed for centuries, pick whatever parts you like about me and make the best of it. If you decide to love me, I will show you a good time. If you just want to complain about what I lack, you will have a miserable time”. Someone tell me that doesn’t remind you of Lagos. Lol.
Making a Nigerian styled Pizza – The inspiration behind this experiment came from ‘Puff Puff’. Italians have their own version called Zeppole. I remember sitting outside a small family run ristorante a few steps from Piazza Navona and the waiter passed by with this plate of what looked like puff puff. I squealed in delight (yes, i love food like that) quickly asking him what that was. Despite finishing off a generous portion of the utmost delicious Lasagne, I asked for Zeppole. The plate arrived with this puff puff that was doused with cinnamon and icing sugar. It was good.
With my humorous opinion of a similarity between Italians and Nigerians, I decided to explore a fusion of food and cultures by creating a Nigerian styled Pizza. I mean, everything on a Pizza, has a possible Nigerian substitute. Funny how no one has thought of doing so before. I have seen a couple of pizza recipes written by Nigerians and it is just a replica of a Western Pizza, nothing indigenously Nigerian. In the spirit of experimenting, I decided to give this a go.
What You Need
Pizza Dough
1kg of ’00′ grade plain flour
a pinch of salt
650ml warm water
2 sachets of dried fast action yeast
1 tablespoon of sugar
4 tablespoons of Olive oil
Ata din din - fried red stew will serve as Pizza Sauce
4 large tomatoes
1 small onion
1 small stump of Ginger
2 pieces of Scotch bonnet pepper
1 Tatashe – red bell pepper
Sunflower oil – use your choice of vegetable oil
For herbs I used Efinrin – scent leaves (substitute with basil)
1 teaspoon of curry powder
1 teaspoon of dried thyme
2 Knorr chicken cubes
Salt
Nigerian Toppings
Kilishi
Goat Meat – cooked
Beef – cooked
Pomo (cow skin) – cooked
Cow Leg – cooked
1 tablespoon Suya spice
1/2 Red onion
Dried chilli flakes – substitute with dry pepper
Wara - local Nigerian cheese (substitute with Indian Paneer/lumpy cottage cheese)
1 piece Ata rodo – scotch bonnet/habanero pepper
2 pieces of Green Shombo – green chilli
Uziza (hot leaf) – another herby addition
A taste of Italy
Mozzarella – what is a pizza without at least one Italian ingredient?
How To
1. You start with the dough first as it will need 45 minutes – 1 hour to rise. ’00′ grade flour is the best for making pastry or pasta. Alternative terms are type 00, Tipo 00 or Pastry flour.
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Sieve the flour into a big bowl and add a pinch of salt.
In a cup, mix in 650mls of warm water, the yeast, sugar and olive oil.
Leave for 10 minutes to allow the yeast to activate, which will cause the solution to turn frothy. It MUST be frothy, if not, this means the yeast is not active. Wait a few more minutes, if nothing changes, I’m afraid you have to dump the mixture and make a fresh batch. Ensure that the water is warm. Not hot (will kill the yeast), not cold (it won’t activate the yeast), but warm.
Make a well in the flour, add in the frothy yeast mixture and combine with your hands. This is a very sticky dough to start with. Don’t panic. Rinse off your hands, cover the bowl with a moist tea cloth/napkin and leave in a warm place e.g kitchen cupboard to allow the dough to rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour. I found 1 hour to be the better option.
It should look like this after an hour
While the dough is rising, make the ‘Ata din din’. This is the stew commonly served in Nigerian homes. Blend all the fresh pepper ingredients, and boil down till it reduces to half its volume
Heat up a little olive oil in a pan, add the pepper to the pan plus all the seasonings listed above. Fry the pepper until the oil takes on an orange colour. Fry the stew till it becomes thick.
Add beef stock or water to dilute it, to take on the consistency of a sauce. Remember, if it’s too watery, it will soak into the dough. If it’s too thick, it will burn when the pizza bakes. Once it has diluted, add chopped ‘Efinrin’. This will give the sauce an amazing scent. Remember to taste for salt and seasoning cubes. I only had dried efinrin, so I soaked it in hot water, blended it and added to the sauce.
Now to the toppings.
To prep the ‘Kilishi’, I simply shredded it into bite sized chunks and soaked in 1/4 cup of hot water for hours to soften. It is advisable to do this step hours before you start as Kilishi is very hard like beef jerky and needs a long time to soften.
It will go from this…
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to this…
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Chop the boiled meats, pomo and cowleg into cubes, lay on a baking tray sprinkle over suya spice, chopped red onion, dried chilli flakes (or dry pepper) and a little olive oil.
Alternatively you can fry the meats, but grilling is the healthier option.
Cheese – a very important ingredient in pizza. Of course, we have a local Nigerian cheese called ‘Wara’. It is commonly sold in Kwara State, some parts of Oyo state and in the North. After hundreds of hours of research, I made Wara from scratch. This is proper Wara. If I tell you how I made it, I may just have to kill you. Cottage cheese or Indian Paneer are good substitutes.
For those who live in Nigeria, and can’t source Wara easily, you can buy cheese at many local supermarkets. You can also make homemade cheese close to Wara in taste and texture. I have a quick and simple recipe (
HERE). All you need is milk and vinegar/orange juice (no, this is not what I used to make Wara. Still not telling.
Mozzarella - Pizza without an Italian ingredient at least will be sacrilege against the Italian Culinary gods. Huge culinary sin and I don’t want to offend the Italians. No siree. Besides, Wara doesn’t melt in the stretchy manner common with Mozzarella. Mozzarella tastes a little like Wara anyway so it was a good combination. You need to add grated Mozzarella, therefore place in the freezer to solidify just before you start on your dough, making it easy to grate.
Now back to the dough. Sprinkle flour over the work surface, and with your floured hands take the dough out of the bowl, and mould into a ball. Knead for a couple of minutes with your hands, sprinkling more flour when the dough starts to stick to your hands or the work surface.
Knead until the dough feels very soft and elastic. You can feel all Italian chef with your self my lifting the dough with your clenched fists, making circular motions with your hands and stretching the dough between both hands making a bigger circle with each rotation. I had so much fun doing this, too bad I don’t have a video to show for it. Tear off a decent sized chunk and flatten it out. Then lay it across a pizza pan. I improvised and used the cover of my biggest pot.
Keep the rest in the freezer. It can last for weeks, simply let it defrost and roll out another batch of pizza dough. Easy peasy.
Using a spoon, spread the fried ata din din all over the dough leaving the edges out
Add the toppings, starting from grated Mozzarella then lay over the kilishi, sprinkle over the grilled assorted meats interspersed with big crumbles of Wara.
Finish off by adding chopped ata rodo, green shombo and chopped Uziza leaves. For extra seasoning, I sprinkled over a teaspoon of Suya spice. See the representation of the Italian flag (red, white and green) and the Nigerian flag in the toppings? Hehehehehe
Bake in a hot oven for 15 minutes. Don’t leave it in for too long, otherwise the kilishi will turn hard and chewy, whilst the uziza leaves will dry out to much and crisp up. Here is my result.
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Ta daaa
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I have had this idea in my head for months now, and not once did i entertain any doubts that it would work. While it was baking, niggling doubts crept it. Dunni, Mozarella and kilishi, hmmn, what if it tastes disgusting, or smells really wrong. Then i peered into the oven like million times, willing it to taste awesome. Before i drove myself crazy, years of watching food network kicked in. For any doubting thomases, this is for you. Mozarella is a bland tasting cheese. Same with cottage cheese, or Indian paneer. They will absorb the flavour of any ingredient that they are cooked in.
I made a rookie mistake on my first try – I am putting this there to warn you. DON’T add your toppings while the dough is on your work top. It will be difficult to lift off. Either use a pizza pan, or the cover of a large pot. It happened to me, and it was a big mess. I gave up and rolled the pizza dough on itself, giving me a pizza sandwich.
Anyway, back to my main pizza which I got right on my second try because i used a pizza pan (a la pot cover) before I spread my toppings on
I am throwing down the gauntlet to Pizzeria’s in Nigeria. BE CREATIVE. Honestly, there are so many local ingredients that will go great on a Pizza. From Peppered snails, chicken, crispy fried yam, Offals, Sweet potato, garden eggs, etc. Caution though, I will take legal action if you steal my recipe and sell it. Lol.
