Pizza in Naples may be baked using coffin wood: report

AFP ^ | 5/17/2010

[markomalley]

Italian prosecutors believe pizza in the southern city of Naples may be baked in ovens lit with wood from coffins dug up from the local cemetery, Italian daily Il Giornale reported on Monday.

"Pizza, one of the few symbols of Naples that resists... is hit by the concrete suspicion that it could be baked with wood from coffins," Il Giornale said.

Investigators in Naples are setting their sights on the thousands of small, lower-end pizza shops and bakeries that dot the city on suspicion that patrons may "use wood from caskets to keep ovens burning."

Naples' graveyard has long been hunting ground for thieves: last year, 5,000 flower pots were stolen from the cemetery.

"A gang might have set up a market for coffins sold to hard-hearted owners of bakeries and pizzerias looking to save money on wood," Il Giornale said.

Neapolitan pizza was invented between 1715 and 1725, with the world-famous Margherita variant first cooked up in 1889.

[Ole Okie]

Doesn’t seem like much of a solution to the faux energy problem.

[Fiji Hill]

In 1966, I saw the infamous street kids of Naples, known as scugnizzi, in action. I was sitting at a red light on a narrow street in behind a flatbed truck loaded with crates of tomatoes as the car radio blared Sognando la California, when a group of scugnizzi darted out, grabbed a couple of crates off the truck, then darted into an alleyway.

[Chode]

let me get this straight, criminals would rather dig up mass quantities of coffins, than just cut down some trees... is that it???

go figure

[Ditter]

Recycle, recycle, recycle!

[ARepublicanForAllReasons]

let me get this straight, criminals would rather dig up mass quantities of coffins, than just cut down some trees... is that it???

go figure

I suspect there are not that many trees in the area, and the trees that are there are on private land. Also, you need aged, dead wood to burn properly.

Italy is not like here is the NW, where there are many places on gov't land where citizens are permitted to cut fallen trees for fuel. All you need is a pickup truck and a chain saw.

One reason for the decline of the Spanish Empire was the near total deforestation of Spain. They cut down so many trees to build their ships that they literally couldn't find material for new ships.

[mikrofon]

When some wood meets your eye in a big pizza pie,
that's a morte
. . . .

Scuzza me, but you see, back in old Napoli, that's a morte...

[elcid1970]

“When she says, what the hell, let’s go find a motel, that’s amore....

“When it’s quarter to four and she yells out for more, you’re in love.....

“When her husband walks in, then you’ll know you’re not dreaming, ....signore......

“When you’re found dead in bed with a hole in your head...

THAT’S AMORE............!

;^)

[Chode]

i just figured i'd be easier and a lot less gruesome stealing it...

or are these in some kind of crypt?

and wouldn't hey need a LOT of them to make any real money???