The elements are present in all cultures and in all cosmologies. Both in the East and in the West there are different theories related to the elements that are lost in the mists of time. According to these theories, the life of living beings and of the universe depended on the balance of the elements. In the traditions of the ancients there are four elements: Fire, Earth, Air and Water and one fifth called Ether or Quintessence. According to these theories, in the elements all things exist and consist. The four elements are already mentioned by the philosopher Anaximenes of Miletus and then by Empedocles, who defines these elements as roots that form all things and that are governed by the tension between love and discord, which dominate alternately. When love dominates all the elements are fused together in a homogeneous and conflict-free sphere, which he calls Sphero. It was Aristotle who added the fifth to the four elements, which he called Ether and which constitutes the matter of the celestial spheres. He believed that the Ether was eternal, immutable, weightless and transparent. Nowadays the elements have acquired concreteness thanks to scientific discoveries. In fact, today, they are associated with the solid, liquid, gaseous and plasma states (substance of which stars and nebulae are composed). Fire, air, water, earth are, therefore, natural elements from which every substance of which matter is composed originates. The earth, solid and luxuriant, symbolizes the primordial matter, welcomes life and nourishes it. Fire, a purifying and vivifying element, it contains within itself the principle of life, which springs from its energy. Water, the source of life, from the source becomes a stream, then a river until it reaches the sea, overcoming the obstacles it encounters on its way, reaching the depths of the earth. The intangible air is the vital energy that we breathe, without which it would not be possible to live, it cannot be grasped and represents the cosmic breath.
Pizza made with love is the ideal fusion of the 4 elements.
The land that generates the grain and ground becomes flour.
Fire is the energy with which we cook. Water is the ingredient that transforms flour into dough.
The air develops in the leavening to make the dough soft.