Designed and produced by the Vicenza-based company Ecor International S.p.A., it creates an artisan pizza with a defined edge through a cold working process that does not stress the dough.
Ecor International S.p.A. invents OperaPrima, the first pizza stretcher that creates high quality Italian pizza in a simple and fast way, perfectly simulating the expert hands of a professional pizza maker.
The product is equipped with a patented technology that stretches different types of dough without stressing it. In fact, thanks to the innovative cold working system, the pizza stretcher does not break the gluten shield and the dough maintains its internal alveolation. In this way, it is possible to obtain a high quality pizza with uniform cooking and a defined edge. This is the same result to that achieved by shaping the dough by hand and which preserves all the attributes of the best artisan pizza.
The ease of use makes the product suitable for any user, even inexperienced. The fully automatic system can replicate the manual operations of the pizza maker and avoids the typical back and arm pain that professionals are subjected to due to wearing physical movements. While the pizza stretcher shapes the dough, the employee in the pizzeria can fill the ready-made pizza bases and bake them, saving time and thus improving the efficiency of the business. Up to 200 pizzas can be stretched in one hour.
Adaptability to different doughs and types of recipes was one of the challenges to be overcome for Ecor International’s Research & Development Department. Food engineers and technologists have therefore tested hundreds of doughs with the aim of optimizing the product and ensuring a high quality outcome.
The result is a high performance pizza stretcher with maximum flexibility. The user can customize diameter and thickness of the pizza base by setting the desired parameters on the digital touchscreen display. In this way, according to the needs, the classic, Neapolitan or Roman pizza can be obtained, both of small and large dimensions. Furthermore, OperaPrima can process different types of flours and, from the point of view of kneading techniques, it is suitable for both direct and indirect doughs.
Attention to detail is another feature taken into consideration by the company that wanted to create a product with high-performance materials and a modern design, able to perfectly fit into public establishments.
Finally, the pizza stretcher is equipped with a real-time monitoring system of the working conditions that is connected to a software. This allows collecting data relating to the number of doughs stretched over a period of time, opening parameters set and diagnostic information.
«We wanted to create an innovative product, unique from the point of view of its features, that would allow creating a high quality pizza -explains Ecor International Management-. Nowadays it is increasingly difficult to find qualified personnel; with OperaPrima, therefore, we aim to offer the customer a solution to the lack of skilled labor, without sacrificing quality.
The technology, in fact, was developed keeping in mind that the pizza base must be absolutely artisanal, just as if it were made by hand.
The pizza stretcher is a high-end product for independent pizzerias, chains, hotels, resorts and industrial producers».
