I love pizza. Actually, our whole family loves pizza. But, we don’t know much about pizza. So, I went on a search…and I figured I should share my result is in case anyone else wanted to learn more about this yummy food!
Many different countries eat pizza today. Americans eat about 100 yards of it each day! However, that wasn’t always the case. Like anything else, pizza had to be “invented” before anyone else could enjoy it.
While many attribute the first pizzas to Italy, it actually was first created in Egypt. Well, at least the idea of eating a flat circular piece of bread with some type of sauce and a variety of toppings. As history moves on the Greeks cover their breads with oils, herbs and cheeses.
Then, the Romans created a type of food that was basically a sheet of flour covered with cheese, honey and bay leaves. While I didn’t find info about any other historical cultures eating foods like these I’m going to bet there are. Flat bread, cheese and sauces are all common ingredients and I bet other had the idea to bake and eat them together…it was a quick search!!
Fast forward to when contact was made with the “New World”. One of the foods that was brought to Europe from this new land was….tomatoes! In Italy, tomatoes became a key ingredient in many of their foods, including pizza! They first made 
a sauce from the tomato and topped bread with it and baked it. Then, at one point, cheese was added. It’s said that the bread, cheese, basil and tomato sauce pizza became popular after Queen Margherita of Savoie, Italy visited Napels in 1889; where this type of pizza was first created in her honor by chef Rafaelle Esposito.
This type of pizza became popular in the are and inevitably, was brought to America by immigrants. Once the dish made it to the Americas, the food simply became increasingly popular as time went on. It was affordable as well as tasty and became even more popular as the Great Depression hit. As people continued to enjoy pizza and as more and more people from more and more cultures arrived in America,
pizzas evolved.
There’s now “Greek Pizza” – a type of flat bread pizza that’s usually sold at restaurants with “Pizza House” or “Pizza and Pasta” in their names….and “Greek Pizza” Pizza with Kalamata Olives, red onion, feta, tomato and bell pepper.
Chicago Style Pizza – made in a deep dish so it has a thick crust that is actually pre-baked and is then topped with….tomatoes and cheese!
Sicilian Pizza with it’s thick crust that’s completely different than that of a Chicago style pizza, but very different than a traditional pizza. It originated in Palermo Sicily and is 
customarily dough topped with cheese and THEN tomato sauce. From there the traditional Sicilian topping would be pecorino cheese and anchovies.
New York Style Pizza really is another unique type of pizza, although the name is often takenand used on pizzas that really don’t resemble pizzas from New York in any way. If you’ve ever had a slice, you know what I mean. So big you absolutely have to fold it, greasy, cheesy and not a lot of sauce. Add some parmasean cheese and a few hot pepper flakes – YUM!!! This type of pizza
started to be seen in NYC around 1900 and is now a pizza unto itself.
From there you’ve got many different types and variations on this common theme. Now there is even a few different pizzas that either use no sauce (a white pizza) or even BBQ sauce in lieu of the tomato. Things like pineapple and chocolate are used as toppings. The only limit with pizza really is what you can come up with!
{ 0 comments }