The history of pizza began in antiquity, as various ancient cultures produced flatbreads with several toppings. Pizza today is an Italian dish with a flat dough-based base and toppings, with significant Italian roots in history.
A precursor of pizza was probably the focaccia, a flatbread known to the Romans as , to which toppings were then added. Modern pizza evolved from similar flatbread dishes in Naples, Italy, between the 16th and mid-18th century.
The word pizza was first documented in 997 CE in GaetaSalvatore Riciniello (1987) Codice Diplomatico Gaetano, Vol. I, La Poligrafica. and successively in different parts of southern Italy. Furthermore, the Etymological Dictionary of the Italian Language explains the word pizza as coming from dialectal pinza, 'clamp', as in modern Italian pinze, 'pliers, pincers, tongs, forceps'. Their origin is from Latin pinsere, 'to pound, stamp'."pizza" (), Online Etymology Dictionary.
Origins
Foods similar to pizza have been prepared since ancient times. References to pizza-like dishes appear throughout early history.
In the 6th century BCE, Persian soldiers serving under Darius the Great baked flatbreads with cheese and dates on top of their battle shields. In ancient Greece, citizens made a flatbread called plakous (πλακοῦς, gen. πλακοῦντοςplakountos)Plakous, Liddell and Scott, "A Greek–English Lexicon", at Perseus. which was flavored with toppings such as herbs, onion, cheese, and garlic. Another term for this type of flatbread was placentae (a term for pastries of flour, cheese, oil, and honey). They are mentioned by Athenaeus of Naucratis, a 2nd-century grammarian, who writes that they were topped with fruit puree called coulis and used as sacrificial offerings. One example of a Roman bread that was covered with numerous toppings (such as cheese spreads called moretum, and fruits) was called adorea or libum adoreum. These flat breads were made with wheat, honey, and oil. A painting of this ancient Roman food was found at Pompeii.
Examples of other flatbreads that survive to this day from the ancient Mediterranean world include focaccia (which may date back as far as the ancient Etruscans); manakish in the Levant, coca (which has sweet and savory varieties) from Catalonia, Valencia, and the Balearic Islands; the Greek pita; lepinja in the Balkans; and piadina in the Romagna part of the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy.
By the late Medieval and early modern eras, flatbreads, cakes or pastries eaten with toppings, such as galettes and cocas, were common throughout the Mediterranean region. In 16th-century Naples, some galettes were referred to as "pizza"; it was known as a dish for poor people, particularly as street food, and was not considered a kitchen recipe until much later. It was not until the Spanish brought the tomato from the Americas and developed the modern tomato that "pizzas" in their modern conception were invented. It is said that the tomato reached the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily, when it was part of the Spanish Empire, through either Pedro Álvarez de Toledo in the 16th century or viceroy Manuel de Amat, who may have gifted some seeds to the Neapolitans in 1770 on behalf of the Viceroyalty of Peru.
Sicily also has a distinct tray-baked tradition. In Palermo, sfincione is a soft, thick bread topped with tomato, onion, anchovy, hard cheese, and breadcrumbs and sold chiefly in bakeries rather than pizzerias. Nearby Bagheria has a white version without tomato sauce, using primosale cheese and sometimes ricotta; it is traditionally associated with Christmas but is available throughout the year. A local origin story reported by La Cucina Italiana connects Bagheria's sfincione to the cooks of the Branciforte household and to a preparation made by the nuns of San Vito in the 17th century. The account is a record of local tradition rather than archival proof for the date of the modern recipe; it also describes families bringing ingredients to neighbourhood ovens and the survival of 19th-century bakeries.
Modern era
In 1843, Alexandre Dumas described the diversity of pizza toppings.
An often recounted story holds that on June 11, 1889, to honor the queen consort of Italy, Margherita of Savoy, the Neapolitan pizza maker Raffaele Esposito created the "pizza Margherita", a pizza garnished with tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil, to represent the national colors of Italy as on the flag of Italy. But the pizza Margherita already existed: "The most popular and famous pizzas from Naples were the 'Marinara', created in 1734, and the 'Margherita', which dates from 1796–1810. The latter was presented to the Queen of Italy upon her visit to Naples in 1889, specifically on account of the colour of its seasoning (tomato, mozzarella, and basil), which are reminiscent of the colours of the Italian flag." Later research casts further doubt on this legend, also undermining the authenticity of the letter of recognition, pointing that no media of the period reported about the supposed visit and that the story was first promoted in the 1930s–1940s.
In 1830, a certain "Riccio", had described a pizza with tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil in the book Napoli, contorni e dintorni.
Emmanuele Rocco described in 1849 the main types of pizza, today called marinara, Margherita, and calzone in Francesco De Bourcard's second volume of Usi e costumi di Napoli e contorni descritti e dipinti: Slowly the flatbread with toppings started to be appreciated by all social classes, although initially it was produced by bakeries and meant to be eaten while walking. In the first decades of the 19th century this changed with the opening of the first pizzerias with tables in Naples. The first was Antica Pizzeria Port'Alba in 1830, followed by the opening of Le stanze di Piazza Carità (today Mattozzi) by Antonio la Vecchia in largo della Carità in 1833. The scholar and minister of public instruction Francesco de Sanctis describes the latter in his memoirs as the place he used to go eat pizza with his friends when he was 16:
Pizza evolved into a variety of bread and tomato dish often served with cheese. Until the late 19th or early 20th century, the dish was often sweet, not exclusively savory, and earlier versions that were savory resembled the flatbreads now known as schiacciata.Alexandra Grigorieva, "Naming Authenticity and Regional Italian Cuisine", in Richard Hosking, ed., Authenticity in the Kitchen: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2005 (Prospect Books, 2006): 211–216. Pellegrino Artusi's classic early-20th-century cookbook, La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene gives three recipes for pizza, all of which are sweet.Pellegrino Artusi, La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene (1911; rpr. Torino: Einaudi, 2001). After the feedback of some readers, Artusi added a typed sheet in the 1911 edition (discovered by food historian Alberto Capatti), bound with the volume, with the recipe of pizza alla napoletana: mozzarella, tomatoes, anchovies, and mushrooms.Mattozzi, Antonio e Donatella (2016), "Pizze, pizzerie e pizzaiuoli a Napoli tra Sette e Ottocento", p. 35, in Pizza. Una grande tradizione italiana. Bra: Slow Food Publisher. By 1927, Ada Boni's first edition of Il talismano della felicità (a well-known Italian cookbook) includes a recipe using tomatoes and mozzarella.
Innovation
By the late 18th century, it was common for the poor of the area around Naples to add tomato to their yeast-based flatbread, thus the pizza began.
According to documents discovered by historian Antonio Mattozzi in the State Archive of Naples, in 1807, 54 pizzerias existed; listed were owners and addresses.Mattozzi, Antonio (2015), Inventing the Pizzeria: a History of Pizza Making in Naples, Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 16–17. In the second half of the 19th century the number of pizzerias increased to 120.Mattozzi, Antonio, Inventing the Pizzeria, Distribution Maps, p. xxxiv.
In Naples, two other figures connected to the trade existed—the pizza hawker (pizzaiuolo ambulante), who sold pizza but did not make it, and the seller of pizza a ogge a otto, who made pizzas and sold them in return for a payment for seven days.Mattozzi, Antonio Inventing the Pizzeria, p. 28.
The pizza marinara method has a topping of tomato, oregano, garlic, and extra virgin olive oil. It is named marinara because it was traditionally prepared by the seaman's wife la marinara for her seafaring husband upon returning from fishing trips in the Bay of Naples.
Pizza Margherita is topped with modest amounts of tomato sauce, mozzarella, and fresh basil. It is widely attributed to baker Raffaele Esposito, who worked at the restaurant "Pietro... e basta così" ('Pietro... and that's enough'), established in 1880 and remaining in business as Pizzeria Brandi. Although recent research casts doubt on this legend, the tale holds that, in 1889, he baked three different pizzas for the visit of King Umberto I and Queen Margherita of Savoy. The Queen's favorite was a pizza evoking the colors of the Italian flag—green (basil leaves), white (mozzarella), and red (tomatoes). According to the tale, this combination was named pizza Margherita in her honor. Although those were the most preferred, there are many variations of pizzas today.
Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana ('True Neapolitan Pizza Association'), which was founded in 1984, has set the very specific rules that must be followed for an authentic Neapolitan pizza. These include that the pizza must be baked in a wood-fired, domed oven; the base must be hand-kneaded and must not be rolled with a pin or prepared by any mechanical means (i pizzaioli—'the pizza makers'—make the pizza by rolling it with their fingers) and that the pizza must not exceed 35 centimetres in diameter or be more than one-third of a centimetre thick at the centre. The association also selects pizzerias globally to produce and spread the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana philosophy and method.
There are many famous pizzerias in Naples where these traditional pizzas can be found, such as Da Michele, Port'Alba, Brandi, Di Matteo, Sorbillo, Trianon, and Umberto. Most of them are in the ancient historical center of Naples. These pizzerias follow even stricter standards than the specified rules. For example, using only San Marzano tomatoes grown on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius and drizzling the olive oil and adding tomato topping in only a clockwise direction.
The pizza bases in Naples are soft and pliable. In Rome, they prefer a thin and crispy base. Another popular form of pizza in Italy is pizza al taglio, which is pizza baked in rectangular trays with a wide variety of toppings and sold by weight.
In December 2009, the pizza napoletana was granted Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status by the European Union.
In 2012, the world's largest pizza was made in Los Angeles. It measured 1261.65 square meters in area. From the given area, the circular pizza had a diameter of approximately 40.08 m, or 131.5 ft.
In December 2017, the pizza napoletana was inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists.
Pizza outside Italy
Pizza in the United States
Pizza first made its appearance in the United States with the arrival of Italian immigrants in the late 19th century.
Directory and newspaper evidence places Giovanni Albano's pizzeria at 59½ Mulberry Street in Manhattan in 1894. Peter Regas argues that Filippo Milone probably operated a combined pizzeria and grocery at 53 Spring Street beginning in 1898 and documents Giovanni Santillo's Antica Pizzeria Napoletana there by August 1904. These findings disprove the older claim that Gennaro Lombardi established the first US pizzeria in 1905. Other early printed references include a 1903 description of “pomidore pizza”Do Fiery Foods Cause Fiery Natures? NY Tribune Illustrated 1903-Dec-06 p35 last column and a 1904 article in The Boston Journal.