Pizza

Pizza

Aahhh pizza! The disk of delight! Pizza has become probably the world’s most recognizable food. Whether it is in New York, eating pizzas loaded down with toppings, Guatemala, where the pizzas never have tomato sauce, or in Italy, long recognized as the cultural home to this gastronomic delight, pizza is a food that is enjoyed by almost everyone. Whether you like yours with pepperoni, mushrooms, pineapple, or just plain cheese, the versatility and attractiveness of pizza has served it to serve us with millions of pleasurable pies over the years.

What of the pizza though? Where did this dish come from? Is it Italian in origin? How and why did it become so popular?

Pizza, in one form or another, is more than 3000 years old. The root of the word pizza, picea, is Latin, and describes the blackening of the crust caused by the fire underneath. The Greek historian, Herodotus describes Babylonian dishes that are very similar to modern day pizza. The Roman statesman Cato wrote in 200 BC about flat, round breads with spices on top. It is the Greeks who are first known to have used bread as a base for a meal. They ate plakuntos, which are flat, round breads baked with oil, garlic, onion, and herbs and spices. The Romans took this idea, added more ingredients to the toppings, and called it placenta. By the middle ages, we find this word changed to our modern word of pizza.

Longobards, that invaded Southern Italy after the fall of the Roman Empire, had brought with them the buffalo that, once acclimatized between Lazio and Campania, would have provided the milk for the making of mozzarella. Pizza was a peasant food. Similar to the crepe in France, or the tortilla in Mexico, the pizza was a convenient means to dispose of leftovers, and allowed for easy, utensil free eating. While pizza was typically a food of the poor, it occasionally found its way to the tables of royalty. The King of Naples, Ferdinando II of Borbone greatly enjoyed the pizza made by ‘Ntuono Testa at Salita S. Teresa and the sister of Marie Antionette, Marie Carolina, wife of Ferdinand of Sicily and Naples, had ovens built in the forest so she could enjoy pizza while the Royal Hunting Party ate wild ducklings, pigs, and other game they killed. In the meantime, a major event happened to help transform pizza. In the 7th century, the Longobards invaded Southern Italy after the fall of the Roman Empire and brought with them the buffalo. It provided the milk for the making of mozzarella, the stringy white cheese indispensable to good pizzas. To this day, true mozzarella is made from the milk of buffalo.

In the 16th century, tomatoes were brought from Mexico to Europe as an ornamental plant. The fruit was thought to be poisonous. Gradually though, acceptance of the tomato as a food led to its widespread use, and it was wildly popular in Neopolitan cuisine by the 18th century. By that time, you could find pizzas, which had been baked in ovens being sold in the streets of Naples. There would be boys balancing ‘stufas’ (tin stoves to keep the pizza warm) on their heads, calling in the streets as they roamed around trying to attract customers.

The world's first true pizzeria, "Antica Pizzeria Port'Alba", opened in 1830 and is still in business today at Via Port'Alba 18 in Naples. The pizzas were cooked in an oven lined with lava from Mount Vesuvius, a volcano located on the Bay of Naples. Pizzerias in this era usually included a large brick oven and a marble counter where the crust was prepared. Pizzaioli (makers of pizza) would often prepare the pizza on a marble counter right before the customer's eyes.

In Naples in the year 1889, Rafaele Esposito of the Pizzeria di Pietro e Basta Cosi (since renamed to Pizza Brandi) baked a pizza especially for the visit of King Umberto I and Queen Margherita. To make the pizza more patriotic-looking, Esposito used red tomato sauce, white mozzarella cheese and green basil leaves as toppings. Queen Margherita loved the pizza, which was named in her honor. Pizza Margherita has since become an international standard for pizzas. Pizzeria Brandi still proudly displays a royal thank-you note signed by Galli Camillo, "head of the table of the royal household", dated June 1889.

The first pizzerias came to America with the wave of Italian immigrants in the late 19th century, but pizza really exploded in popularity after GI’s returning from Italy in WWII came home and began opening pizzerias all over the USA. After huge commercial success in America, pizzerias began popping up all over the globe. From Vladivostock to Buenos Aires, you can scarcely go anywhere today where the familiar pizza has not left its delicious mark on our thankful palettes.