complete lesson plan for beginners

1. Naples chefs take sides in the ‘ultra pizza’ wars
Level 1
Elementary
1 Warmer
Are there any traditional or speciality foods or dishes where you live?
What Italian dishes do you know?
2 Find the information
Scan the article to find:
1. two traditional Neapolitan pizzas
______________________________________
_______________________________________
2. a gourmet pizza maker ______________________________________
3. a restaurant in Rome ______________________________________
4. two traditional pizza makers
______________________________________
_______________________________________
5. a food expert ______________________________________
3 Key words
a. Match the key words from the article with the definitions below. The paragraph numbers have been
given to help you.
gourmet
experiment
innovative
crust
traditionalists
1. test a new idea, method or activity to find out what the result will be _________________________ (para 1)
2. describing food that is of a very high quality _________________________ (para 1)
3. someone who wants to keep ideas or methods the way that they have always been
_________________________ (para 2)
4. inventing or using new ideas _________________________ (para 2)
5. the hard, brown part at the edge of a pizza _________________________ (para 4)
base
dough
ingredients
baked
local
6. a mixture of flour, water, oil, etc. that is baked to make the bottom of a pizza _________________________
(para 4)
7. the foods or liquids that you use to make a particular meal _________________________ (para 6)
8. cooked in an oven _________________________ (para 13)
9. the bottom part of the pizza _________________________ (para 13)
10. from the area where you live _________________________ (para 14)
b. Answer the following questions about pronunciation.
O
•P
H
NEWS LESSONS / Naples chefs take sides in the ‘ultra pizza’ wars / Elementary
CA
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2012
N T
O
FR BE C
O DO O
M W P
W N IA
EB LO B
SI A L
TE DE E
D •
1. Which key word has a silent t?
2. How do you say dough?
3. Where is the stress in ingredients?

2. Naples chefs take sides in the ‘ultra pizza’ wars
Elementary
Naples chefs take sides in the ‘ultra
pizza’ wars
8
“I am against these gourmet pizzas – a pizza
restaurant must be quick and cheap and make at
least 400 pizzas a night,” said Antonio Starita, 70,
whose grandfather opened the restaurant
in 1901.
9
“I have seen people use cream, and it doesn’t
get worse than that,” he added, while making
pizza dough.
1 Enzo Coccia discusses his spring pizza – with lots
of asparagus, buffalo mozzarella, sheep’s cheese,
lard and beans. “I just want to experiment,” says
the maker of gourmet or “ultra pizzas”.
4 “Pizza began as a food for poor people and any
complicated pizza loses its identity,” he added.
To prove his point, Miccu listed the things that
make up the perfect margherita: a 33cm diameter,
2–3cm high crust, San Marzano tomatoes, cow’s
milk mozzarella from the region of Campania
and olive oil, all cooked in a wood oven after the
dough has risen for nine hours.
5 But pizza makers all across Italy want to do
something different. They are copying a Rome
restaurant, La Gatta Mangiona, which has made
duck and asparagus, and steamed chestnut and
mushroom pizzas.
6 In a country that normally uses simple ingredients
and traditional recipes, pizza makers are now
trying stilton and port pizzas, as well as shrimp,
saffron and liquorice pizzas.
7 What makes Coccia different is that he works in
Naples, where pizza was first made. In 1889, a
pizza maker named his new mozzarella, tomato
11 A third of Di Matteo’s business is folded and fried
pizzas – typically stuffed with ricotta, provola
cheese and cicoli, a local type of pancetta. For
Neapolitans, he said, it is even more traditional
than the margherita. “Fried pizza was more
popular than oven-baked pizza in Naples until the
1950s. It needs good oil and a pizza maker who
knows the oil’s temperature just by looking at it,”
he said.
12 For food expert Davide Paolini, the new gourmet
pizzas “can be great, but it’s no longer pizza”.
13 Although his ingredients may be unusual, many
pizza makers agree that Coccia makes light,
perfectly baked pizza bases.
14 At a second restaurant on the same street
Coccia’s menu is strictly traditional. As for the
ingredients at his gourmet restaurant, some may
be unusual but all are local.
15 “I did a fried pizza with mussels and pancetta
based on my grandmother’s recipe of mussels
and pancetta, dipped in egg and breadcrumbs
then fried,” he said. “If I am innovative, it is only
because I know the traditions.”
© Guardian News & Media 2011
First published in The Observer, 20/05/12
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2012
NEWS LESSONS / Naples chefs take sides in the ‘ultra pizza’ wars / Elementary
O
3 “There is no such thing as gourmet pizza. We are
not OK with this,” said Sergio Miccu, head of the
Neapolitan Association of Pizza Makers, which
got the EU to protect the margherita and another
Neapolitan standard pizza, the tomato, garlic and
oregano marinara.
10 At Di Matteo on Via Dei Tribunali in the middle
of Naples, 600 pizzas are served a day and a
margherita costs €3. The owner, Salvatore di
Matteo, does not accept ultra-pizzas. “For me,” he
said, “gourmet means talking about what
you eat.”
N T
O
FR BE C
O DO O
M W P
W N IA
EB LO B
SI A L
TE DE E
D •
2 The fashion for ultra pizzas has spread across
Italy. But as Coccia is always told, this is
Naples, the home of the tomato and mozzarella
margherita. La Notizia, Coccia’s restaurant,
opened in 2010. Many traditionalists have
expressed their dislike of Coccia’s combination of
salt cod and mozzarella, his use of figs and pesto
and his €25 truffle oil pizza. His innovative pizzas
have divided opinion in the city.
•P
H
Tom Kington
20 May, 2012
and basil pizza – which give the white, red and
green of the Italian flag – after Margherita
of Savoy.
CA
Level 1

3. Naples chefs take sides in the ‘ultra pizza’ wars
Level 1
Elementary
4 Comprehension check
Are these statements true (T) or false (F) according to the information in the article? Correct any that
are false.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Naples’s most famous pizza is named after Margherita of Savoy.
Pizzas were originally food for people with little money.
Ultra pizza is another name for a very big pizza.
Enzo Coccia makes excellent pizza bases.
Enzo Coccia only uses traditional ingredients on his gourmet pizzas.
Antonio Starita is the owner of a new gourmet pizza restaurant in Naples.
Folded and fried pizzas are a speciality of Naples.
The colours of the margherita pizza symbolize the flag of Naples.
5 Ingredients
Find all the pizza ingredients mentioned in the article, decide whether they are part of traditional or
non-traditional pizzas (or both) and write them into the corresponding parts of the circles.
non-traditional
both
traditional
6 Perfect pizzas
Read the recipe for the perfect margherita in paragraph 4 and then:
O
•P
H
NEWS LESSONS / Naples chefs take sides in the ‘ultra pizza’ wars / Elementary
CA
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2012
N T
O
FR BE C
O DO O
M W P
W N IA
EB LO B
SI A L
TE DE E
D •
1. describe your perfect pizza.
2. think of four new gourmet pizzas and give them names.

4. Naples chefs take sides in the ‘ultra pizza’ wars
Level 1
Elementary
KEY
2 Find the information
5 Ingredients
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Teacher’s note: There may be an element of
disagreement in this task, which could lead to some
interesting discussions amongst the students.
margherita, marinara
Enzo Coccia
La Gatta Mangiona
Antonio Starita, Salvatore di Matteo
Davide Paolini
3 Key words
a.
1. experiment
2. gourmet
3. traditionalists
4. innovative
5. crust
6. dough
7. ingredients
8. baked
9. base
10. local
b.
Teacher’s note: Have the students look at an online
dictionary that provides pronunciation audio files as well
as phonetic script such as
http://www.macmillandictionary.com.
1. gourmet /ɡʊəmeɪ/
2. /dəʊ/
3. on the second syllable
Traditional ingredients
tomato, garlic, oregano, olive oil, basil, ricotta, provola
cheese, cicoli (a kind of pancetta)
Non-traditional ingredients
asparagus, buffalo mozzarella, sheep’s cheese, lard,
beans, salt cod, figs, pesto, truffle oil, duck, steamed
chestnut, mushrooms, stilton, port, shrimp, saffron,
liquorice, cream, mussels, egg, breadcrumbs
Both
cow’s milk mozzarella, flour, pancetta
6 Perfect pizzas
Teacher’s note: Suggest to the students that they use
the ingredients from task 5 as well as speciality foods
from their area to invent their gourmet pizzas. You
can turn the task into a competition and have groups
present their ideas to the class, then vote for the
best ideas.
4 Comprehension check
T
T
F – Ultra pizza is a pizza with non-traditional toppings.
T
F – Enzo Coccia uses non-traditional ingredients
on his gourmet pizzas.
6. F – Antonio Starita manages a traditional
pizza restaurant.
7. T
8. F – The colours of the margherita pizza symbolize
the flag of Italy.
O
H
N
•P
CA
NEWS LESSONS / Naples chefs take sides in the ‘ultra pizza’ wars / Elementary
T
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2012
O
FR BE C
O DO O
M W P
W N IA
EB LO B
SI A L
TE DE E
D •
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.