History of Pizza
Have you ever seen an Italian person who has never tasted pizza? Your answer will absolutely be “no”. Although pizza is an Italian food, it has no borders today. One can taste different kinds of pizzas all over the world.
Though flatbreads have been around for 5000 years, the word “pizziare” started appearing in Italian writings as far back as 1000 B.C. The word “pizza is believed to have originated from an “Old Italian” word meaning “a point,” which in turn became the Italian word “pizziare,” which means to pinch or to pluck.
Tomatoes were first introduced to Italy from South America in 1522. Although at first many people believed that the tomato was poisonous the poorer peasants of the region finally overcame their doubts about tomatoes in the 17th century. They began adding tomatoes to the bread dough, and the first pizzas were created.
The other important pizza ingredient, “Mozzarella” wouldn’t become popular until the last half of the 18th century. The first mozzarella was made with ater buffalo milk. However, the cheese and tomatoes did not meet on a pizza until 1889.
In 1889, an Italian tavern owner whose name is Don Raffaele Esposito developed a pizza featuring tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and basil – ingredients bearing the colors of the Italian flag. He named it the Margherita Pizza, after the Queen of Italy whose name is Margherita Teresa Giovanni. Thus, modern-day tomato- and-cheese pizza was born.
In the later half of the 19th century, pizza migrated to America with the Italians. By the turn of the century, the Italian immigrants had begun to open their own bakeries and were selling groceries as well as pizza. Gennaro Lombardi opened the first true U.S. pizzeria in 1905 at 53 1/3 Spring Street in New York City, a part of town known as “Little Italy.”