| Pizza is an oven-made, flat, disk-shaped bread commonly covered with tomato sauce and mozzarella and various types of meat, salami, seafood, cheese, vegetables and herbs, which depends upon one's taste and culture.
Pizza has been known since antiquity in various kinds and decorated with olives, nuts, raisin, honey or herbs.
In Italian, the word pizza means any type of flat bread or pie - either fried or made. Even though there are many kinds of pizza in the Mediterranean area, it is Naples that was the first to witness the appearance of pizza, after the tomato appeared on the table in the XVIII century. The first records of pizza were opened around the XI century. At first, it was called laganae, and later it was referred to as picea. Pizzas were made on the fire and sometimes were folded to form a calzone.
Naples was the first city where the first pizzerias were opened. They were installed with brick wood-burning ovens that were heated with stones from Mountain Vesuvius. The chefs of those times ignored pizza as a dish, since it was mainly made by poor people. Still, when pizzas covered with tomato appeared at the end of the XVIII century, pizza increased in popularity even among Italian royalties. Pizza became very popular, which was vividly reflected in the Neapolitan folklore. Simple to cook and economical, it grew into a favourite dish of all people.
A famous episode contributed to the popularity of pizza over the borders of Naples. In 1889 Italian Queen Margherita visited the city. She was told about pizza and wanted to try it. Famous cook Don Raffaele together with his wife was invited to bake pizza in the royal palace. They cooked three pizzas typical of that time: one with cheese and basil; one with tomato, oil and garlic; and one with basil, mozzarella and tomato. The queen stirred 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 beginning of the previous century, the first pizzerias appeared in the USA because of a wave of Italian immigration, and became very popular with American citizens. Still, even today the tastiest pizza is cooked in Naples, gourmands say. |
