History of pizza

Examples of other flatbreads that survive to this day from the ancient Mediterranean world include focaccia (which may date back as far as the ancient Etruscans); manakish in the Levant, coca (which has sweet and savory varieties) from Catalonia, Valencia, and the Balearic Islands; the Greek pita; lepinja in the Balkans; and piadina in the Romagna part of the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy.

[13] By the late Medieval and early modern eras, flatbreads, cakes or pastries eaten with toppings, such as galettes and cocas, were common throughout the Mediterranean region.

In 16th-century Naples, some galettes were referred to as "pizza"; it was known as a dish for poor people, particularly as street food, and was not considered a kitchen recipe until much later.

Furthermore, throughout Europe, there are many similar foods based on the idea of covering flat bread or pastry with different toppings, such as Alsatian flammkuchen, German zwiebelkuchen, French quiche, Chinese cōng jiānbǐng, and Sardinian pane carasau.

Other similar foods in other parts of the world include Chinese bing (a wheat flour-based Chinese food with a flattened or disk-like shape), Indian paratha (in which fat is incorporated), the Central and South Asian naan (leavened) and roti (unleavened), and Finnish rieska.

"[20] Later research casts further doubt on this legend, also undermining the authenticity of the letter of recognition, pointing that no media of the period reported about the supposed visit and that the story was first promoted in the 1930s–1940s.

Emmanuele Rocco described in 1849 the main types of pizza, today called marinara, Margherita, and calzone in Francesco De Bourcard's second volume of Usi e costumi di Napoli e contorni descritti e dipinti:[24]The most ordinary pizza, called coll'aglio e l'olio (lit.

[24] Slowly the flatbread with toppings started to be appreciated by all social classes, although initially it was produced by bakeries and meant to be eaten while walking.

[26] Pellegrino Artusi's classic early-20th-century cookbook, La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene gives three recipes for pizza, all of which are sweet.

[27] After the feedback of some readers, Artusi added a typed sheet in the 1911 edition (discovered by food historian Alberto Capatti), bound with the volume, with the recipe of pizza alla napoletana: mozzarella, tomatoes, anchovies, and mushrooms.

[28] By 1927, Ada Boni's first edition of Il talismano della felicità (a well-known Italian cookbook) includes a recipe using tomatoes and mozzarella.

For some time after the tomato was taken 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 Solanaceae (nightshade) family.

By the late 18th century, it was common for the poor of the area around Naples to add tomato to their yeast-based flatbread, thus the pizza began.

[30] According to documents discovered by historian Antonio Mattozzi in the State Archive of Naples, in 1807, 54 pizzerias existed; listed were owners and addresses.

It is widely attributed to baker Raffaele Esposito, who worked at the restaurant "Pietro... e basta così" ('Pietro... and that's enough'), established in 1880 and remaining in business as Pizzeria Brandi.

Although recent research casts doubt on this legend,[21][22] the tale holds that, 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).

There are many famous pizzerias in Naples where these traditional pizzas can be found, such as Da Michele, Port'Alba, Brandi, Di Matteo, Sorbillo, Trianon, and Umberto.

[42] Conflicting stories have the first pizzeria opening in 1905 when Gennaro Lombardi applied for a license in New York to make and sell pizza.

One of the generally accepted first US businesses to sell pizza, Lombardi's, opened in 1897 as a grocery store at 53½ Spring Street, with tomato pies wrapped in paper and tied with a string sold at lunchtime to workers from the area's factories.

In 1905, putative founder Gennaro Lombardi received a business license to operate a pizzeria restaurant and soon had a clientele that included Italian tenor Enrico Caruso.

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's nephew Sal Consiglio opened a competing store, Sally's Apizza, on the other end of the block, in 1938.

Competition among these small restaurants is quiet but intense, leading to an average level of quality that often surprises visitors from elsewhere in the U.S. and is a point of some regional pride.