Pizza

You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I’m not hungry enough to eat six.
Yogi Berra

“I want to live in a world where the need for pizza belittles that of war.”

Jason Barnett

 

Sit back, relax and if you happen to have a leftover slice of pizza enjoy and read on.

What if Tilly and I told you that pizza didn’t start in Italy, but in Macedonia? Macedonia was an ancient kingdom on the Greek peninsula.

 

Just what is a pizza? A flatbread with various toppings that the ancient Egyptians, Romans and Greeks ate. At the time this flat bread was very cheap and popular among the poor. What was the toppings? Cheese, oil, anchovies and garlic just to list a few ingredients.

 

The ancient Greeks are historically considered the best bakers. Their flat round bread topped with  “relish” oils, onions, garlic, herbs, olives, vegetables and of course topped with cheese. They even left a rim of crust around the bread to serves as a kind of handle. Sound familiar Tilly?

Tilly: I am frequently hacked off by the size of the handle or crust on some pizzas … properly known as the cornicione.

So where did the name “pizza” come from? Well if you know please let food historians know. According to some historians it may have come from as a Neapolitan dialect word, Pizaor, Picea. Meaning “something that is plucked from a hot oven”.

Tilly: Not from ‘pizza this, or pizza that for your supper’?

While the word “pizza” was first written in 997 CE, 1500s pizza did not have tomato sauce or melted mozzarella cheese. (In English history, 997 CE falls near the end of the Dark Ages during the Anglo-Saxon period, marked by events like Viking raids.) Instead, the pizzas of the 16th century fell into two distinct categories depending on who was eating them:

The Royal/Wealthy Version: In 1570, Bartolomeo Scappi, the personal chef to the Pope, published a famous Renaissance cookbook featuring “pizza” recipes. To our modern palates, this was actually a sweet pastry or filled pie made with fine dough, sugar, almonds, pine nuts, rose water, and cinnamon.

The Peasant Version: In places like Naples, the working class ate a savory version that was closer to modern focaccia or flatbread. It was made from simple leavened dough and topped with cheap, readily available ingredients like lard, salt, garlic, herbs, and occasionally a hard horse-milk cheese called caciocavallo. (Source: History Today.)

 

In the 18^th century Naples was a very active, port city with one of the largest working-class populations, who lived in very cramped buildings that had no kitchens. That is when “Pizza” truly took off and became very popular. A finger food that was bought and eaten on the way to or from work.

Tilly: The earliest record of pizza being sold in London was in 1875 by Italian immigrant Francesco Cambrena near Covent Garden. Early menus also appeared around 1934 at places like Olivelli’s in London. For decades, it remained largely confined to small Italian immigrant circles.

 

So when did the modern day ingredients come in?  Thank the Spanish for introducing the tomato to the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily.  Sicily was where they married the tomato to a soft, thick bread. They included onions, anchovies, and hard cheese topped with breadcrumbs which was sold in bakeries rather than pizzerias.

 

Moving forward to the late 19^th century. Italian immigrants arrived in the United States and brought the recipe for pizza with them. There are disagreements to this day as to who and where the first pizzeria was located. But for most if not all Americans they don’t care. They care that pizza is here.

 

So when did pizza consumption travel nationwide?  Be grateful the American troops returning home after WW2. Small restaurants began making a version of this remarkable dish.

Although Italian neighborhoods in Chicago had pizza shops, they were not city-wide or in the outer sections of the city. It was in Chicago that the deep-dish pizza was born. Traveling further west to California,  the one pizza Olive loves was created there. This loaded pizza is the greatest choice: it includes pepperoni, seasoned pork, beef, mushrooms, green bell peppers and onions, which is a pizza with everything on it including anchovies.

Tilly: You’re missing the garlic again, Olive! And black olives …

 

Trivia:

1. Research indicates the first pizzas might have cost 5 cents.
2. “The first American cookbook recipe for pizza appeared in Specialita Culinarie Italiane, 137 Tested Recipes of Famous Italian Foods, a fund-raising cookbook published in Boston in 1936. That recipe, for Neapolitan pie or Pizza alla Napolitana, directed that pizza dough be hand-stretched until it was one-quarter-inch-thick. The dough was topped with salt and pepper, Scamozza (Scamorza) cheese, tomatoes, grated parmesan cheese, and olive oil in that order. There were no ingredients for the pizza dough itself; instead, the reader was told that the dough “can be purchased in any Italian bake shop.””

—Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor [Oxford University Press: New York] 2004, Volume 2 (p. 286)

3. It was in the early 1950’s that “Pizza Parlors” started opening up and catering to families.
4. By 1956 pizza had shunted aside hot dogs as the most popular item in both. By the late 1960s, American were consuming two billion pizzas annually.

Tilly: Why am I  not surprised by either piece of information?

5. The first frozen pizzas began showing up on August 10, 1950. There is also evidence that they started appearing in grocery stores sometimes out selling those TV Dinners. 

Tilly: Again, why am I not surprised?

6. It was in 1976 that Stouffer’s French Bread Pizza was tested in four markets and became a great success.
7. In Great Britain Tilly’s home country they eat pizza with a knife and fork. Tilly, Why?

Tilly: Some do, some don’t. Better a knife and fork than topping dropping onto your front!

8. It was rumored the Queen Elizabeth II never ate pizza.

    Tilly: I have read that she ate very plainly and simply – maybe pizza was too spicy

            for  her. She never touched garlic for fear of giving offence when in company.

9. The most expensive pizza in the world costs $12,000. Made in Salerno, Italy.

     Tilly: Luis XIII in Salerno, Italy provides these pizzas with a price tag of $12,000!

              This is no ordinary pizza, first the dough is aged perfectly before the chief arrives at your home to create this masterpiece in your home kitchen. Some of the ingredients include, three types of caviar, lobster from Norway, Cilento, bufala mozzarella cheese and grains of pink Australian sea-salt from the Murray River

       10. In 2006 Cristian Dumitru set a new world record by eating 200 pounds of pizza in a week.

 Tilly: Was he still alive at the end of the week?

11. In India, the most preferred pizza topping is tofu.

Tilly: Now that is something of a surprise.

12. The U.S. Military Lab recently invented a ready-to-eat pizza.

Tilly: isn’t all pizza ready to eat?

13. This handy pizza can last for up to three years. Intended for soldiers abroad who just have to have a slice. Making its grand entrance in 2017, solders could open MRE #37 and enjoy their treat!

Tilly: Doesn’t sound in the least appetising.

 

“No matter what happens, pizza will always be there for you, thick and thin,

the crust we trust”

   

We hope you enjoyed not just the history and Trivia but your favorite slice of pizza.

 

Olive and Tilly