The History of Italian Pizza

Pizza

When you think of pizza, what comes to mind? Most picture a crispy round pie, laden with grease, cheese, and bright red tomato sauce. Like man and machine, the humble pizza pie has come a long way since its invention many years ago!

We all know that pizza originated in Italy, but do you know how this beloved delicacy got its start? What did the first Italian Pizza look like, and would you even recognize it today?

If you’re curious about the origins of pizza, read on to learn the history of everyone’s Friday night favorite! You might even learn some rustic pizza recipes to prepare the next time you have company!

Ancient Pizza

Pizza has been around in one form or another since antiquity. Not all of the earliest pizzas looked like the pizzas you might order today. Many of them resembled flatbreads, more like open-faced sandwiches with sweet and savory toppings.

Darius the Great of Persia was cooking up flatbread-style pizza as early as the sixth century BC. The Persians topped their pizza with cheese and dates. Without woodfired pizza ovens, they had to bake their pizzas on the shields that they used in battle!

You can even find something like pizza mentioned in Ancient Greek literature. If you read The Aeneid in school, you might have noticed that the characters enjoyed eating a meal of pitas topped with vegetables. This early pizza was even significant to the plot, as it appeared in a prophecy earlier in the epic poem!

Some of pizza’s earliest ancestors still exist today, only with different names. Have you had focaccia, pita bread, lepinja, or coca? If so, you have already experienced a piece of pizza history pre-dating the Italian pizza!

The Early Italian Pizza

Think about the best pizza you’ve ever had. It probably wasn’t a pile of vegetables on top of a pita! The pizza you know today was probably derived from the Italian pizza, which began its life in sixteenth century Naples.

A lot of us use pizza as a survival food while living in college dorms. In the sixteenth century, pizza was food for the poor. It was a “street food,” resembling a galette, and was rarely prepared in the kitchen like a proper meal.

Tomatoes wouldn’t become part of pizza history until after Europeans had come into contact with the plant in the Americas. These tomatoes, along with oil and fish, would top the galette crust.

Believe it or not, the earliest Italians thought that tomatoes were a poisonous plant and would not cook with them! The poorest Italians were the first to take a risk, and that risk certainly paid off. The rumors of the dish were enough to bring tourists into the poorest parts of Naples to sample the delicacy!

Pizza Margherita

It wouldn’t be until about the nineteenth century that all of the components of our favorite modern pizza would combine. Although apocryphal, the first Margherita pizza was supposedly prepared in honor of Margherita of Savory. She was a beloved Italian queen.

The chef responsible was Raffaele Esposito. He decorated the pizza with red sauce, white cheese, and green basil to represent the flag of Italy. The popularity of the monarchy would lead to the popularity of the dish, cementing these toppings as the “default.”

In many pizzerias, you can order a Margherita Pizza by name, even today! It is a simple, rustic slice – and a piece of pizza history!

During the 19th century, there were already about 120 operational pizzerias in Naples. They employed both pizza makers and pizza sellers. The pizza sellers worked on the street, as it was still a street food for many years.

Pizza Sweet Pizza

Even until the early 20th century, pizza looked and tasted different than you might expect. In fact, it was a sweet dish rather than a savory one! Today, “dessert pizza” is a novel specialty, but it used to be the most common iteration of our cheesy favorite!

The first mention of the Neopolitan pizza, the round, cheesy pizza we enjoy today, would be in a cookbook in 1911. The author described Pizza alla Napoletana as a pizza crust topped with mozzarella, tomato, mushrooms, and sardines.

True Neopolitan Pizza and Pizza Today

Did you know that there are strict standards for what we call Neopolitan Pizza today? The True Neapolitan Pizza Association was founded in 1984 to declare specific rules regarding what could be considered authentic pizza.

The rules state that authentic pizza must be baked in a domed, woodfired pizza oven. The dough must be kneaded by hand, without the aid of any technology, including a rolling pin! An authentic pizza also cannot be larger in diameter than 35 centimeters.

Given those strict standards, even the biggest pizza fans may have never enjoyed a “True Neopolitan Pizza.” Some pizzerias are even stricter in their standards. They may only use one specific kind of tomato, or dictate the direction that sauce and oil can be added to the crust!

The thickness and texture of the crust varies regionally. The famous Chicago Deep Dish would not be considered a true Neopolitan, nor would the massive slices served up in your average New York City pizza joint!

Today, you can frequently get a pizza delivered from the oven to your door in thirty minutes or less. On websites like https://wiseguypizzapie.com/, you can even order your pizza online, without speaking to a single human soul! Pizza has come a long way, and it has taken about seven thousand years to get here!

From Antiquity to the Freezer Aisle

No true pizza fan would deny that the Italian pizza has come a long way from its origins in the Mediterranean. Today, you can pick up a frozen pizza from the supermarket and have a hot slice ready in just a few minutes. Pizza is a beloved, accessible food, and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon!

Did this article make you hungry? Put your pizza in the oven and then check out the rest of the blog while it’s cooking. You’ll find plenty of articles about all of the foods you love!