| Pizza is an oven-baked, flat, disc-shaped bread usually covered with tomato sauce and mozzarella and a diversity of meats, salamis, seafood, cheeses, vegetables and herbs depending on one's taste and culture.
Pizza has existed since antiquity in various forms and decorated with nuts, raisin, herbs, honey or olives.
The word pizza in Italian denotes any type of flat bread or pie - either fried or baked. Though there are a lot of types of pizza in the Mediterranean region, it is the Neapolitan pizza that was the first to appear, after the tomato appeared on the table in the XVIII century. The first records of pizza date back to around 1000. At first, it was called laganae, and later it was referred to as picea. Earlier, pizzas were decorated with garlic and olive oil, or cheese and anchovies, or small local fish. Pizzas were baked on the open fire and sometimes were folded in the form of a calzone.
Naples was also the first city where pizzerias were opened. They were equipped with wood-burning ovens that were heated with stones from Vesuvius. The chefs of those times neglected pizza as a dish, because it was a poor people's favourite dish. Nevertheless, when pizzas covered with tomato appeared in the 1770s, pizza gained popularity even among Italian royals. The popularity of pizza was reflected in the Neapolitan folklore. Simple to cook and economical, it turned into a favourite dish of all people.
A famous episode contributed to the popularity of pizza across the borders of Naples. Italian Queen Margherita paid a visit to the city in 1889. She was told about pizza and wanted to taste it. Famous cook Don Raffaele and his wife was invited to cook pizza in the royal palace. They baked three pizzas: one with basil and cheese; one with garlic, oil and tomato; and one with basil, mozzarella and tomato. The queen impressed by the colors of the third pizza which resembled the national flag preferred it to the other two. This kind of pizza was called Pizza Margherita.
At the outset of the XX century, the first pizzerias appeared in the USA due to a huge number of Italian immigrants, and became very popular. However, even nowadays the most delicious pizza is cooked in Naples, gourmands say. |
