Pizza - The story behind.

Cheese Pizza

 Origin and History of Pizza - How it turned into a modern day comfort food!

Pizza is a baked pie of Italian origin consisting of a shallow bread-like crust covered with seasoned tomato sauce, cheese, and often other toppings such as sausage or olive. The word pizza is believed to be from an Old Italian word meaning "a point," which in turn became the Italian word "pizzicare," which means "to pinch" or "pluck."

By far pizza has become America's favorite food over the past 50 years. Million of pizza pies are eaten daily, but how often do the people eating the food stop to consider the history. The true origins of this fine cuisine are as colorful as any good pizza pie heaping with toppings.

The common belief is that Italians invented the pizza, however the origins go back to the ancient times. Even though we have yet to uncover archeological evidence of a Dominos Pizza before the last century, it is known the Babylonians, Israelites, Egyptians and other ancient Middle Eastern cultures were eating flat, un-leaven bread that had been cooked in mud ovens. The bread was much like a pita, which is still common in Greece and the Middle East today. Further it is known that ancient Mediterranean people such as the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians were eating the bread, topped seasoned with olive oil and native spices.

The lower class of the Naples, Italy is believed to have created pizza in a more familiar fashion. In the late 1800s a Italian baker named Raffaele Esposito, was believed to have created a dish for visiting royalty. According to the story, the Italian monarch King Umberto and his consort, Queen Margherita were touring the area. In order to impress them and to show his patriotic fervor Raffaele chose to top flat bread with food that would best represent the colors of Italy: red tomato, white mozzarella cheese and green basil. The king and queen were so impressed that word quickly reached the masses. The end results were that the dish was well received to the extent that others began to copy it.

Food historians agree that pizza like dishes were eaten by many peoples in the Mediterranean including the Greeks and Egyptians. However, modern pizza has been attributed to baker Raffaele Esposito of Naples. In 1889, Esposito who owned a restaurant called the Pizzeria di Pietro baked what he called "pizza" especially for the visit of Italian King Umberto I and Queen Margherita. The pizza could have been invented by the Phoenicians, the Greeks, Romans, or anyone who learned the secret of mixing flour with water and heating it on a hot stone.

Traditional Pizza brick oven

In one of its many forms, pizza has been a basic part of the Italian diet since the Stone Age. This earliest form of pizza was a crude bread that was baked beneath the stones of the fire. After cooking, it was seasoned with a variety of different toppings and used instead of plates and utensils to sop up broth or gravies. It is said that the idea of using bread as a plate came from the Greeks who ate flat round bread (plankuntos) baked with an assortment of toppings. It was eaten by the working man and his family because it was a thrifty and convenient food.

The first pizzeria in North America was opened in 1905 by Gennaro Lombardi at 53 1/3 Spring Street in New York City.

The first "Pizza Hut" a chain of pizza restaurants appeared in the United States during the 1930s.

Frozen pizza was invented by Rose Totino.

Pizza Package Saver

"Who invented the circular thing that keeps the pizza from hitting the inside of the box top?" Well, the package saver for pizza and cakes was invented by Carmela Vitale of Dix Hills, NY, who filed for US patent #4,498,586 on February 10, 1983, issued on February 12, 1985.

Pizza Topping Trivia

Americans eat approximately 350 slices of pizza per second. And 36 percent of those pizza slices are pepperoni slices, making pepperoni the number one choice among pizza toppings in the United States. However, in India pickled ginger, minced mutton, and paneer cheese are the favorite toppings for pizza slices. In Japan, Mayo Jaga (a combination of mayonnaise, potato and bacon), eel and squid are the favorites. Green peas rock Brazilian pizza shops and Russians love red herring pizza.

Interesting!

One thing to keep in mind when ordering pizza in an Italian pizzeria is that the product is personal size. Each person at a table should order their own individual pizza - one bite will explain why. In certain areas outside Italy, there are a few piazzioli who keep to their homeland traditions as best they can with the ingredients they have, but it really isn't the same. In the end there is no going back once you try a real Italian pizza, no delivery or frozen product will ever stimulate your taste buds the way a real pizza will. 

Get yummy Three Cheeses Pizza recipe HERE.
http://www.tasteandflavours.com/2012/09/Three-Cheese-Pizza.html

P.S. The Information on this page is taken from varied sources on internet.