The history of the Pizza

• The word ‘pizza’ – pronounced ‘pit tsa’, dates back to the first century AD
• The first pizza as we know it, is thought to have been made in southern Italy during the 1600s
• This taking the form of bread dough pressed flat with pork fat, a little garlic and course salt, then cooked in a wood-fire oven
• Later, the dough was softened by adding oil and then cooked with cheese, pepper, pork fat and basil leaves
• Once tomatoes were being imported to Italy from Peru, they were cooked as a sauce with salt and basil, and later, by the 1800s, this was typically used as a pizza topping
• The Antica Pizzeria Port’Alba of Naples, is said to have become the first true pizzeria, back in 1830 (it’s still in operation)
• The Margherita pizza derived its name from a challenge issued by Italy’s King Umbero I and his wife Queen Margherita, to the Brandi Pizzeria of Naples in 1889
• Legend has it that the queen instructed pizzaioli (pizza maker) Raffaele Esposito and his wife, to make three different pizzas from which she would choose
• Her favourite was that featuring the three colours of the Italian flag – the red of tomato, the white of mozzarella and the green of basil
• Pizza was taken to America by Italian immigrants in the late 1800s, early 1900s
• Initially, it was enjoyed mainly by the immigrants – the international breakthrough began after World War II and it took off in the 1950s, especially in the USA where one differentiated between the thick-and-cheesy Chicago style and the thin-based, more traditional New York pizza
• In Italy today, pizza is associated as much with Rome as it is with Naples
• The bases in Naples tend to be softer and more pliable than the thinner, crispier bases preferred in Rome