Materia, the Milanese project of two authentic Lucani

The restaurant these young entrepreneurs has Neapolis heat at its core

Materia Pizzeria, The Origins of Taste is a contemporary pizzeria born from the passion of two young 30-year-olds, Vincenzo Marottoli and Antonio Caputo. Both born in Basilicata, farm owner the former and Pizza Chef the latter, the two joined forces and knowledge to bring all their Lucanian origins to Milan, through the PDO and PGI products of their land.
“I had already experience with important realities in Milan and I felt the need to create something of my own, in which I could express my Lucanian origins, through products that would fully represent me,” says Antonio, “so with Vincenzo we combined our ideas and founded Materia, a pizzeria that respects small producers, seeking the highest quality, knowing the ingredients in depth and valorising them in their simplicity and uniqueness, as our grandparents used to do”.
Vincenzo and Antonio wanted to make clear that, for their business, they have selected their partners very carefully, only Italians, choosing among those who safeguard the environment and work in a sustainable and ethical way. In full respect of these values the choice of Neapolis as baking technology perfectly fits, a “state-of-the-art oven for an authentic and sustainable taste”, as you can also read on their website.
“I came across Neapolis in the restaurant where I worked before,” Antonio continues, “coming from the wood-fired oven and being used to baking that way, I was sceptical at first. Then I started working with it and I immediately understood how to use it at its best. I was really satisfied, so much that I had no doubts in buying it for our restaurant. Neapolis has an extraordinary baking consistency, even under heavy workloads. At first, people believed that my pizza was baked in a wood-fired oven, I think because no electric oven is able to keep the high temperature constant like Moretti Forni”. Other than its performance, Neapolis 9 was also chosen for its design. In fact, the layout of the entire restaurant, personally curated by Vincenzo and Antonio from the furnishings to the mise en place, is all in industrial style.
Talking about the menu, Materia’s pizzas are in constant balance between tradition and innovation, to satisfy all tastes: they range from the Orto, topped with PGI Sila potato cream, bell pepper cream, PGI caramelised Tropea onion, Confit tomatoes and Aubergines chips, to the Lucana with Fior di latte mozzarella, stir fried wild chicory, Pezzente sausages from Lucania, fresh fava bean and potato cream and e Crusco pepper. The ingredients in common for both are fresh basil and BIO EVO – PGI Lucano olive oil.

The dough, is made with 24-hour biga, but what makes their pizza different from other contemporary pizzas is the baking, as Antonio explained: “I needed a constant baking with lower temperatures for my pizza, to get a drier, crunchier product. I put the pizza in the oven at 400 °C and leave it for more than a minute, to dry it well. I wanted to bring this ‘crunch’ touch to the crust for a long time and I am happy that customers are appreciating this perceptible crunchiness when tasting it. For the toppings we rely on seasonality, adapting the menu accordingly: we personally select all the suppliers, processing and blast chilling the raw materials.
With Neapolis we also bake pizza in pala and bread: in this case we have a dough with 80% hydration and a size of about 600 g. We bake it for ca. half an hour at 200 °C with the door closed, then lower to 160 °C and continue for another 25 minutes. Finally, we complete the baking with the door half-open, leaving a crack for the crust and crumb to dry out. We use the bread for our bruschettas toasted at about 200 °C and then topped with typical ingredients such as Caciocavallo podolico, Crusco pepper, Bufala ricotta cheese, organic honey, etc.
Recently, we have also experimented with friselle: in the first phase, we let the dough develop at 200 °C with the door open, then, after the shift, with the oven switched off, when Neapolis reaches 150 °C we dehydrate them, again with the door open.
Vincenzo and Antonio’s restaurant is just a few steps away from Colonne di San Lorenzo, a place that is particularly visited during the day for its historical value and, from sunset onwards, very popular with nightlife lovers, since it is halfway between Navigli and Piazza del Duomo: the perfect place to enjoy quality products!