The history of pizza

Pizza is so iconic that I think a bit of its history is fun to know.

It started as a poor man's food. And it did start in Italy. To be more precise, in the city state of Naples.

But it was a "despised" food by the bourgeoisie. It was seen much like the food from a junk food place is today. Just more unhygienic. Covered in flies and insects.

Before 1800 there was not much agreement on what a pizza was. For example, it was also the name of sweet pies. So a cake. In 1500 you could get Pizza Napolitana which was an almond tart.

The tomato originated in America which the Spaniards and Italians only first discovered in the 1500's, so that definitely rules out the existence of the modern pizza with tomato sauce, until at least before approximately 1600-1700.

When we reached about the year 1800, pizza was also the name of a flat bread made with a heavy leavened dough with fat on top, which was baked crisp. Once in a while there was also cheese, anchovies or other things used as topping.

Pizza bakers and regular bakers regularly used residual heat in their wood fired ovens for baking flat bread with a bit of cheap topping. They then sent a bunch of street vendors in the city who sold them for a dime apiece. Or a "Soldo" as they where called it in Italy. In Danish the word for spending money on useless thing is called to "solde". An accident? I think not.

There was also dedicated pizzerias in that period.

The white bread was only introduced for the lower classes during industrialization. That is the end of 1800. It simply required too much manual work to sieve all the rough parts of the meal when it was ground. Therefore, the first pizzas must also have been made from whole wheat bread. So if you are a purist, you can safely make your "classic Italian style" pizza of wholemeal.

It has also been common to top them with the cheapest ingredients. Fat, herbs, vegetables, etc. It was food for the poor, and the trick was getting flavor into the bread at a low price.

There is a bit of uncertainty about how the classic "Pizza Margherita" began, but in 1889 Queen Margherita of Savoy was on a month long visit to Naples. The local pizzeria owner Raffaele Esposito sent 3 kinds of pizza to the Queen.

One with oil, one with anchovies, and one with tomato sauce, basil and mozzarella.

She thanked nicely for them in a letter. The letter still exists in the pizzeria, which is now called "Pizzeria Brandi"

Pizza with tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil was then named after the Queen. Because rumor has it that it was the one she liked the best.

The red, white and green colors are also the same as the Italian flag. Which probably has helped pushing the myth.

I personally have a suspicion that her thank must have been just like when any head of state gets an abundance of gifts for any occasion. I am also not sure that she tasted all the many gifts that she thanked for ... Especially when it comes to cold day old pizza:-S

The pizza later spread to the United States and New York in the early 1900s from where it became popular all over the world, and in the rest of Italy:-S

Important

There should be a law against putting pineapple on your pizza.