Cooking Article

Pizza
the way we know it today
is a derivation from focaccia (from the Latin word for fire)
flat bread that has been prepared since antiquity in different forms and garnished with herbs
olives
fat
raisin
honey
and nuts.

The word pizza in Italian identifies any type of flat bread or pie—fried or baked. Although you’d find many types of pitas or pizzas around the Mediterranean
it is in Naples that pizza in the form we know it today first emerged
after the tomato appeared on the table in the 1700s. Naples has many records of pizza since around the year 1000; the first mentions call these flat breads laganae
and later they are referred to as picea. In those times
pizzas were dressed with garlic and olive oil
or cheese and anchovies
or small local fish. They were baked on the open fire and sometimes were closed in two
as a book
to form a calzone.

In Naples is also where the first pizzerias opened up
with brick wood-burning oven
covered with lava stones from the Mount Vesuvius. The chefs of those times ignored pizza because was considered a poor people’s food
but the new combination with the tomato
when it entered the kitchen around the 1770s
must have raised some curiosity
even in the royal palace. Ferdinand I Bourbon
King of Naples
loved the simple food of the people and went to taste the pizzas made in the shop of Antonio Testa. He liked it so much that he wanted pizza to be included in the menu at the court. He failed after the opposition of his wife
Queen Maria Carolina. His son Ferdinand II also liked all kind of popular food and he loved pizza to the point that he hired Domenico Testa
son of the now famous Antonio
to build a pizza oven in the royal palace of Capodimonte.

Pizza became very popular
earning its place in Neapolitan folklore. Simple and economical
it turned into the food for all people
even sold on the streets
as shown in many illustrations of the time.

A famous episode extended the popularity of pizza beyond the limits of the city of Naples. It was 1889
and Margherita
queen of Italy
was visiting the city. She was told about pizza and wanted to taste it. A famous cook by the name of Don Raffaele
helped by his wife Donna Rosa
was invited to cook pizza at the royal palace. They prepared three pizzas
typical of that time: one with cheese and basil; one with garlic
oil
and tomato; and one with mozzarella
basil
and tomato. The queen
impressed by the colors of the last pizza
which resembled the national flag
preferred that one. Since then this pizza is known as Pizza Margherita
and Don Raffaele is credited with its invention
even if we know that it already existed for a long time.

At the beginning of the last century
with Italian immigrants
the first pizzerias appeared also in the United States
where pizza has become a mass phenomenon. Yet
even today the best pizza is found in Naples
where it is rigorously made with buffalo mozzarella. Superior pizzas are considered those obtained by moderate variations of the simplest and most popular: Pizza Napoletana with tomato
garlic
oil
and oregano; Pizza Margherita; Pizza Marinara with tomato
anchovies
capers
and olives; and Pizza Four Seasons
divided in four quadrants
each dressed in a different way. Pizza with hot salami
the American pepperoni pizza
is instead found in the Calabria region south of Naples
where this type of hot sausage is produced.