History

The origin of the word “pizza” is unclear, but by 997 it had appeared in Medieval Latin, and in 16th century Naples a galette flatbread was referred to as a pizza. The pizza was a baker’s tool, a dough used to verify the temperature of the oven^{[citation needed]}. A dish of the poor people, it was sold in the street and was not considered a kitchen recipe for a long time^{[citation needed]}. Before the 17th century, the pizza was covered with white sauce^{[citation needed]}. This was later replaced by oil, cheese, tomatoes or fish – in 1843, Alexandre Dumas, père described the diversity of pizza toppings. In June 1889, to honor the Queen consort of Italy, Margherita of Savoy, the Neapolitan chef Raffaele Esposito created the “Pizza Margherita”, a pizza garnished with tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and basil, to represent the colors of the Italian flag. He was the first to add cheese.^[1] The sequence through which flavored flatbreads of the ancient and medieval Mediterranean became the dish popularized in the 20th century is not fully understood

The Ancient Greeks covered their bread with oils, herbs, and cheese. The Romans developed placenta, a sheet of flour topped with cheese and honey and flavored with bay leaves. Modern pizza originated in Italy as the Neapolitan pie with tomato. In 1889 cheese was added.^[1]

King Ferdinand I (1751–1825) is said to have disguised himself as a commoner and, in clandestine fashion, visited a poor neighborhood in Naples. One story has it that he wanted to sink his teeth into a food that the queen had banned from the royal court—pizza.^[2]

Innovation

The innovation which gave us the particular flat bread we call “pizza” was the use of tomato as a topping. For some time after the tomato was brought to Europe from the Americas in the 16th century, it was believed by many Europeans to be poisonous (as are some other fruits of the nightshade family). However, by the late 18th century it was common for the poor of the area around Naples to add tomato to their yeast-based flat bread, and so the pizza was born. The dish gained in popularity, and soon Pizza became a tourist attraction as visitors to Naples ventured into the poorer areas of the city in order to try the local speciality.

Until about 1830, pizza was sold from open-air stands and street vendors out of pizza bakeries. Pizzeria keep this age-old tradition still alive today. It is possible to enjoy a delicious pizza wrapped in paper and a drink sold from open-air stands outside the premises. Antica Pizzeria Port’Alba in Naples is widely regarded as the city’s first pizzeria.^[4] They started producing pizzas for peddlers in 1738 but expanded to a pizza restaurant with chairs and tables in 1830, and still serve pizza from the same premises today. A description of pizza in Naples around 1830 is given by the French writer and food expert Alexandre Dumas, père in his work Le Corricolo, Chapter VIII ^[5]. He writes that pizza was the only food of the humble people in Naples during winter, and that “in Naples pizza is flavored with oil, lard, tallow, cheese, tomato, or anchovies”.

The Neapolitans take their pizza very seriously. Purists, like the famous pizzeria “Da Michele” in Via C. Sersale (founded: 1870) ^[7] consider there to be only two true pizzas – the “Marinara” and the “Margherita” and that is all they serve; these two “pure” Piazzas are the ones preferred by many Italians today. The Marinara is the older of the two and has a topping of tomato, oregano, garlic and extra virgin olive oil. It is named “Marinara” not becuase it has seafood on it (it doesn’t) but because it was the food prepared by “la marinara”, the seaman’s wife, for her sea faring husband when he returned from fishing trips in the Bay of Naples. The Margherita, topped with modest amounts of tomato sauce, Mozzarella cheese and fresh basil is widely attributed to baker Raffaele Esposito. Esposito worked at the pizzeria “Pietro… e basta così” (literally “Peter… and that’s enough”) which was established in 1880 and is still operating under the name “Pizzeria Brandi”. In 1889, he baked three different pizzas for the visit of King Umberto I and Queen Margherita of Savoy. The Queen’s favorite was a pizza evoking the colors of the Italian flag – green (basil leaves), white (mozzarella), and red (tomatoes).^[1] This combination was named Pizza Margherita in her honor.

“Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana” ^[6](“True Neapolitan Pizza Association”), which was founded in 1984 and only recognises the Marinara and Margherita verace, has set the very specific rules that must be followed for an authentic Neapolitan pizza. These include that the pizza must be baked in a wood-fired, domed oven at 485°C for no more than 60 to 90 seconds; that the base must be hand-kneaded and must not be rolled with a pin or prepared by any mechanical means (i pizzaioli -the pizza makers- make the pizza shape with their hands by rolling it with their fingers) and that the pizza must not exceed 35 centimetres in diameter or be more than a third of a centimetre thick at the centre. The association also selects Pizzerias all around the world to produce and spread the verace pizza napoletana philosophy and method. There are many famous pizzerias in Naples where these traditional pizzas can be found like Da Michele, Port’Alba, Brandi, Di Matteo, Sorbillo, Trianon and Umberto (founded: 1916) ^[8]. Most of them are centred on the ancient historical centre of Naples. These pizzerias will go even further than the specified rules by, for example, only using “San Marzano” tomatoes grown on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius and only drizzling the olive oil and adding tomato topping in a clockwise direction.

The pizza bases in Naples are soft and pliable but in Rome they prefer a thin and crispy base. Another popular form of pizza in Italy is “pizza al taglio” which is pizza baked in rectangular trays with a wide variety of toppings and sold by weight.

Pizza first made its appearance in the United States with the arrival of Italian immigrants in the late 19th century. This was certainly the case in cities with large Italian populations, such as San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, and Philadelphia where pizza was first sold on the streets of Italian neighborhoods. In late 19th century Chicago for example, pizza was introduced by a pedlar who walked up and down Taylor Street with a metal washtub of pizzas on his head, crying his wares at two cents a chew. This was the traditional way pizza used to be sold in Naples, in copper cylindrical drums with false bottoms that were packed with charcoal from the oven to keep the pizzas hot. It wasn’t long until small cafes and groceries began offering pizzas to their Italian-American communities.

The first “official” pizzeria in America is disputable, but it is generally believed to have been founded by Gennaro Lombardi in Little Italy, Manhattan. Gennaro Lombardi opened a grocery store in 1897 which later was established as the first pizzeria in America in 1905 with New York’s issuance of the mercantile license. An employee of his, Antonio Totonno Pero, began making pizza for the store to sell that same year. The price for an entire pizza was five cents, but since many people couldn’t afford the cost of a whole pie, they could instead say how much they could pay and they were given a slice corresponding to the amount offered. In 1924, Totonno left Lombardi’s to open his own pizzeria on Coney Island called Totonno’s. While the original Lombardi’s closed its doors in 1984, it was reopened in 1994 just down the street and is run by Lombardi’s grandson.

Pizza was brought to the Trenton area of New Jersey very early as well, with Joe’s Tomato Pies opening in 1910, followed soon by Papa’s Tomato Pies in 1912. In 1936, De Lorenzo’s Tomato Pies was opened. While Joe’s Tomato Pies has closed, both Papa’s and Delorenzo’s have been run by the same families since their openings and remain among the most popular pizzas in the area. Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana in New Haven, Connecticut, was another early pizzeria which opened in 1925 (after the owner served pies from local carts and bakeries for 20–25 years) and is famous for its New Haven style Clam Pie. Frank Pepe’s nephew Sal Consiglio opened a competing store, Sally’s Apizza, on the other end of the block, in 1938. Both establishments are still run by descendants of the original family. When Sal died, over 2000 people attended his wake, and the New York Times ran a half-page memoriam. The D’Amore family introduced pizza to Los Angeles in 1939.

Prior to the 1940s, pizza consumption was limited mostly to Italian immigrants and their descendants. The international breakthrough came after World War II. Allied troops occupying Italy, weary of their rations, were constantly on the lookout for good food. They discovered the pizzeria, and local bakers were hard-pressed to satisfy the demand from the soldiers. The American troops involved in the Italian campaign took their appreciation for the dish back home, touted by “veterans ranging from the lowliest private to Dwight D. Eisenhower“.

According to an article in American Heritage Magazine, the modern pizza industry was born in the Midwestern United States. Ric Riccardo pioneered what became known as the Chicago-style deep dish pizza when, in 1943, he and Ike Sewell opened Pizzeria Uno in Chicago. Others might argue that the “modern pizza industry” began with the birth of Pizza Hut in Wichita, Kansas in 1958.

In 1948, the first commercial pizza-pie mix — ‘Roman Pizza Mix‘ — was produced in Worcester, Mass., by Frank A. Fiorillo.

The introduction of a 1957 broadcast on Canadian television documents the dawn of pizza’s North American success:

Good afternoon, I’m Mrs. Brady. Today, I’m going to make a popular Italian dish, pizza pie. You’ve all probably heard about it; and if you’d like the recipe, please get a pencil and paper and then you can take it down as I go.

Pizza pie is becoming very popular, especially down in the States. There are some restaurants that even specialize in it. These are called pizzerias; and Saturday night, if you drive down, you can see cars lined up for miles, waiting for their pizza.

Pizza pie is composed of three parts. First, there is a base, which is usually a biscuit or a yeast dough. This is covered with a tangy tomato sauce, sprinkled with oregano, and then topped with nippy cheese.

With pizza’s rising popularity, chain restaurants moved in. Leading early pizza chains were Shakey’s Pizza, founded in 1954 in Sacramento, California, and Pizza Hut, founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas. Later entrant restaurant chains to the dine-in pizza market were Bertucci’s, Happy Joe’s, Monical’s Pizza, California Pizza Kitchen, Godfather’s Pizza, and Round Table Pizza.

Today, the American pizza business is dominated by companies that specialize in pizza delivery, such as Domino’s, Brooklyn Pizzeria, Papa John’s Pizza, Giordano’s Pizza, Pizza Ranch, Mazzio’s, and Godfather’s Pizza. Pizza Hut has also shifted its emphasis away from pizza parlors and toward home delivery. Another recent development is the take and bake pizzeria, such as Papa Murphy’s.

Base and baking methods

The bottom base of the pizza (called the “crust” in the United States and Canada) may vary widely according to style—thin as in hand-tossed pizza or Roman pizza, or thick as in pan pizza or Chicago-style pizza. It is traditionally plain, but may also be seasoned with butter, garlic, or herbs, or stuffed with cheese.

In restaurants, pizza can be baked in an oven with stone bricks above the heat source, an electric deck oven, a conveyor belt oven or, in the case of more expensive restaurants, a wood- or coal-fired brick oven. On deck ovens, the pizza can be slid into the oven on a long paddle called a peel and baked directly on the hot bricks or baked on a screen (a round metal grate, typically aluminum). When making pizza at home, it can be baked on a pizza stone in a regular oven to imitate the effect of a brick oven. Another option is grilled pizza, in which the crust is baked directly on a barbecue grill. Greek pizza, like Chicago-style pizza, is baked in a pan rather than directly on the bricks of the pizza oven.

Pizza Types

Neapolitan pizza (pizza napoletana): Authentic Neapolitan pizzas are made with local ingredients like San Marzano tomatoes, which grow on the volcanic plains to the south of Mount Vesuvius, and Mozzarella di Bufala Campana, made with the milk from water buffalo raised in the marshlands of Campania and Lazio in a semi-wild state (this mozzarella is protected with its own European protected designation of origin).^[3] According to the rules proposed by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, the genuine Neapolitan pizza dough consists of Italian wheat flour (type 0 or 00, or a mixture of both), natural Neapolitan yeast or brewer’s yeast, salt and water. For proper results, strong flour with high protein content (as used for bread-making rather than cakes) must be used. The dough must be kneaded by hand or with a low-speed mixer. After the rising process, the dough must be formed by hand without the help of a rolling pin or other mechanical device, and may be no more than 3 mm (¹⁄₈ in) thick. The pizza must be baked for 60–90 seconds in a 485 °C (905 °F) stone oven with an oak-wood fire.^[4] When cooked, it should be crispy, tender and fragrant. Neapolitan pizza has been given the status of a “guaranteed traditional specialty” in Italy. This allows only three official variants: pizza marinara, which is made with tomato, garlic, oregano and extra virgin olive oil (although most Neapolitan pizzerias also add basil to the marinara), pizza Margherita, made with tomato, sliced mozzarella, basil and extra-virgin olive oil, and pizza Margherita extra made with tomato, mozzarella from Campania in fillets, basil and extra virgin olive oil.

Lazio style: Pizza in Lazio (Rome), as well as in many other parts of Italy, is available in two different styles: (1) Take-away shops sell pizza rustica or pizza al taglio. This pizza is cooked in long, rectangular baking pans and relatively thick (1–2 cm). The crust is similar to that of an English muffin, and the pizza is often cooked in an electric oven. It is usually cut with scissors or a knife and sold by weight. (2) In pizza restaurants (pizzerias), pizza is served in a dish in its traditional round shape. It has a thin, crisp base quite different to the thicker and softer Neapolitan style base. It is usually cooked in a wood-fired oven, giving the pizza its unique flavor and texture. In Rome, a pizza napoletana is topped with tomato, mozzarella, anchovies and oil (thus, what in Naples is called pizza romana, in Rome is called pizza napoletana).

Types of Lazio-style pizza include:

• Pizza romana (in Naples): tomato, mozzarella, anchovies, oregano, oil;
• Pizza viennese: tomato, mozzarella, German sausage, oregano, oil;
• Pizza capricciosa (“capricious pizza”): mozzarella, tomato, mushrooms, artichokes, cooked ham, olives, oil (in Rome, prosciutto raw ham is used and half a hard-boiled egg is added);
• Pizza quattro stagioni (“four seasons pizza”): same ingredients for the capricciosa, but ingredients not mixed;
• Pizza quattro formaggi (“four cheese pizza”): tomatoes, mozzarella, stracchino, fontina, gorgonzola (sometimes ricotta can be swapped for one of the last three);
• Sicilian-style pizza has its toppings baked directly into the crust. An authentic recipe uses neither cheese nor anchovies. (“Sicilian” pizza in the United States is typically a different variety of product, made with a thick crust characterized by a rectangular shape and topped with tomato sauce, cheese and optional toppings. Pizza Hut’s “Sicilian Pizza”, introduced in 1994, is not an authentic example of the style as only garlic, basil, and oregano are mixed into the crust);
• White pizza (pizza bianca) omits the tomato sauce, often substituting pesto or dairy products such as sour cream. Most commonly, especially on the East coast of the United States, the toppings consist only of mozzarella and ricotta cheese drizzled with olive oil and spices like fresh basil and garlic. In Rome, the term pizza bianca refers to a type of bread topped with olive oil, salt and, occasionally, rosemary leaves. It is also a Roman style to bottom the white pizza with figs, the result being known as pizza e fichi (pizza with figs);
• Ripieno or calzone is a pizza in the form of a half moon, sometimes filled with ricotta, salami and mozzarella; it can be either fried or oven baked.

Non-Italian types of pizza

In the 20th century pizza has become an international food with widely varying toppings. These pizzas consist of the same basic design but include an exceptionally diverse choice of ingredients.

Pizza in Australia

Pizza is popular in Australia, where a significant percentage of the population is of Italian descent.^[5] The usual Italian varieties are available, but there is also the Australian, or australiana, which has the usual tomato sauce base and mozzarella cheese with bacon and egg (seen as quintessentially Australian breakfast fare). Prawns are also sometimes used on this style of pizza.

In the 1980s Australian pizza shops and restaurants began selling gourmet pizzas, pizzas with upmarket ingredients such as salmon, dill, bocconcini, tiger prawns, and such unconventional toppings as kangaroo, emu and crocodile. Wood-fired pizzas, cooked in a ceramic oven heated by wood fuel, are also popular.

Pizza in Brazil

Pizza was brought by Italian immigrants to that country. Sao Paulo, calling itself “The Pizza Capital of the World”, has 6000 pizza establishments and 1.4 million pizzas are consumed daily.^[6] It is said that the first Brazilian pizzas were baked in the Bras district of São Paulo in the early part of the 20th century. Until the 1950s, they were only found in the Italian communities. Since then, pizza became increasingly popular with the rest of the population. The most traditional pizzeria are still found in the Italian neighborhoods, such as the Bexiga / Bela Vista. Typically, pizzas follow the Neapolitan variety, rather than the Roman one, being thicker and more doughy and oftentimes lacking tomato sauce.

Pizza in India

Pizza is a emerging fast food in Indian urban areas. With the arrival of branded pizza, it has reached to many cities.^{[citation needed]}

Pizza outlets serve pizzas with several Indian based toppings like Tandoori Chicken and Paneer. Indian pizzas are generally made more spicy as compared to their western counterparts, to suit Indian taste. Along with Indian variations, more conventional pizzas are also eaten.

Pizza in Pakistan

Pizza was introduced in Pakistan in 1993. A Mr. Manzar Riaz from Lahore is credited with introducing it to Pakistan when he opened up the country’s first pizza outlet.^{[citation needed]} Pizza Hut opened its outlets in Pakistan in 1993 which was three years before India had its first Pizza Hut outlet in 1996. Unlike in India where the pizza has become widely popular, the pizza in Pakistan is only popular and well known only in the liberal provinces of Punjab, Sindh and Kashmir. The pizza is still virtually unknown in the conservative provinces of North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan.^[7]

As of 2009, Pizza sales in Pakistan generate over $2 billion annually which is the second largest pizza sales revenue in the world after the US^{[citation needed]}. Pakistan has the world’s largest Pizza Hut store in Karachi with a seating capacity of over 5,000 people. The United States’ fast food and pizza industry is well aware of the huge benefits of entering the Pakistani market and this has led other US and western fast food outlets to rush to open stores in Pakistan to fill the vacuum and keep up with the demand.

United States Styles and Specialties

Due to the wide influence of Italian and Greek immigrants in American culture, the US has developed many regional forms of pizza, many bearing only a casual resemblance to the Italian original. During the latter half of the 20th century, pizza in the US became an iconic dish of considerable popularity. Both thick and thin crust are popular. Often, “Americanized” foods such as barbecued chicken and bacon cheeseburgers are used to create new types of pizza.

Frozen and ready-to-bake pizzas

Pizza is found as a frozen food. A considerable amount of food technology ingenuity has gone into the creation of palatable frozen pizza. The main challenges include preventing the sauce from combining with the dough and producing a crust that can be frozen and reheated without becoming rigid. Modified corn starch is commonly used as a moisture barrier between the sauce and crust. Traditionally the dough is somewhat pre-baked and other ingredients are also sometimes precooked. More recently, frozen pizzas with completely raw ingredients have also begun to appear, as have those with “self-rising” crusts.

Another form of uncooked pizza is available from take and bake pizzerias. This pizza is created fresh using raw ingredients, then sold to customers who take it home and bake it in their own ovens and microwaves. Many supermarkets also offer this service.

Similar dishes

• “Farinata” or “cecina”.^[8] A Ligurian (farinata) and Tuscan (cecina) regional dish made from chickpea flour, water, salt and olive oil. Also called Socca in the Provence region of France. Often baked in a brick oven, and typically weighed and sold by the slice.
• The Alsatian Tarte flambée (German: Flammkuchen) is a thin disc of dough covered in crème fraîche, onions, and bacon.
• The Anatolian Lahmacun (Arabic: lahma bi ajeen; Armenian: lahmajoun; also Armenian pizza or Turkish pizza) is a meat-topped dough round. The bread is usually very thin; the layer of meat often includes chopped vegetables.
• The Levantine Manakish (Arabic: ma-ujna’at) and Sfiha (Arabic: lahm bi-`ajĩn; also Arab pizza) are dishes similar to pizza.
• The Provençal Pissaladière is similar to an Italian pizza, with a slightly thicker crust and generally a topping of cooked onions, anchovies, and olives.
• Calzone and stromboli are very similar dishes (calzone is traditionally half-moon-shaped, while a stromboli is tube-shaped) that are often made of pizza dough rolled or folded around a filling.
• Garlic fingers is an Atlantic Canadian dish, similar to a pizza in shape and size, and made with the same type of dough. It is garnished with melted butter, garlic, cheese, and sometimes bacon.
• Pizza is sometimes used as a general word for a baked savory; the Campanian pizza rustica and the Italian American pizzagiena (Easter pie) are examples of this more general sense.^{[citation needed]}

Italian and European law

In Italy there is a bill before Parliament to safeguard the traditional Italian pizza,^[9] specifying permissible ingredients and methods of processing^[10] (e.g., excluding frozen pizzas). Only pizzas which followed these guidelines could be called “traditional Italian pizzas”, at least in Italy.

Italy has requested that the European Union safeguard some traditional Italian pizzas, such as “Margherita” and “marinara”.^[11] The European Union enacted a protected designation of origin system in the 1990s.

Health issues

Pizza can be high in salt and fat. There are concerns about negative health effects.^[12] Pizza Hut has come under criticism for the high salt content of some of their meals which were found to contain more than twice the daily recommended amount of salt for an adult.^[13]

European nutrition research on the eating habits of people with cancer of the mouth, oesophagus, throat or colon showed those who ate pizza at least once a week had less chance of developing cancer, they found. Dr Silvano Gallus, of the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmaceutical Research in Milan,^[14] who led the research said: “We knew that tomato sauce could offer protection against certain tumors, but we did not expect pizza as a complete meal also to offer such protective powers.” Nicola O’Connor, of Cancer Research UK, told BBC News Online: “This study is interesting and the results should probably be looked at in the context of what we already know about the Mediterranean diet and its association with a lower risk of certain types of cancer.

“The secret is probably lycopene, an antioxidant chemical in tomatoes, which is thought to offer some protection against cancer, and which gives the fruit its red color.

“But before people start dialing the local pizza takeaway, they should consider that some pizzas can be high in saturated fat, salt and calories”. In contrast to the classic Italian pizza used in the research, most UK pizza takeaway varieties are often loaded with high fat cheeses and fatty meats and yeast, a high intake of which can contribute to obesity, itself a risk factor for cancer. “Our advice is to enjoy selected Italian pizza (i.e., healthy pizza) in moderation as part of a balanced diet that includes plenty of vegetables and fruit.”

Italian Carlo La Vecchia, a Milan-based epidemiologist said Italian pizza lovers should not see the research as a license to indulge their fondness for pizza food. “There is nothing to indicate that pizza is the only thing responsible for these results.” He continued: “Pizza could simply be indicative of a lifestyle and food habits, in other words the Italian version of a Mediterranean diet.” A Mediterranean diet is rich in olive oil, fiber, vegetables, fruit, flour and freshly cooked food – including traditional Italian healthy pizza.