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History of Pizza |
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While certainly ancient, the earliest origins of pizza are not at all clear. One interesting legend recounts that the Roman soldiers returning from Palestina, where they had been compelled to eat matzoh among the Palestinian Jews, developed a dish called picea upon gratefully returning to the Italian peninsula. Most sources, however, agree that an early form of pizza resembling what today is called focaccia was eaten by many peoples around the Mediterranean rim, e.g., by Greeks, Egyptians etc. These dishes of round pita-like, cooked bread with oil and spices on top are the ancestors of pizza, but are not properly speaking pizza. The tomato was unknown and the Indian water buffalo had not yet been imported to Campania, the area around Naples. With the discovery of the New World, the tomato made its way to Italy through Spain. It was considered a poisonous ornamental and so in the first centuries of its import was not eaten. The Neapolitan people seem to be the first to wholeheartedly adopt the tomato into their cuisine, so that in our day the (plum) tomato is the most characteristic element of Neapolitan cuisine. Over the centuries, a veritable tradition of pizza was developed among the Neapolitan poor. It is not surprising, then, that a modern pizza, that is, with mozzarella di bufala and tomato was made in 18711 in Naples for Princess Margherita of Savoia by Raffaele Esposito. This patriotic pizza, of basil, tomato and mozzarella, in honor of the new tricolor Italian flag's red, green and white, became the pizza alla Margherita. This form of pizza was then made known, popularized and adapted in all the world through waves of emigration from Naples in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The History of the American style pizza pie. The United States is among the most pizza enthusiastic countries one can find today. How did this come about? Italian immigrants to New York City began making a version of pizza when they arrived in their new American home at the turn of the 20th century. The first pizzeria in the U.S. was opened by an Italian immigrant in 1905. In addition, American GI's returning from Italy gained a familiarity with the dish and it is in the post-WWII period that pizza really takes off in the United States. 1 Date per VPN Discipline and Specifications Manual. See also http://www.averanapoli.it/ingstoria.htm From the A.V.P.N. "Disciplinare" Manual: Art. 4: Traditional Characteristics: The pizza represented by a disc of dough on which potentially any alimentary product can be placed and which serves the function of a plate will likely be found to be present in excavations of virtually all of the most ancient known [Mediterranean] civilizations under various forms. However, the actual term “pizza” begins to circulate in Italy for the first time in 997 in the Codex Cajetanus of Gaeta Italy. The true “pizza napoletana” as it is understood in Naples is a disc of dough on which tomato is spread. This use of the term pizza was born after a specific historical event: the discovery in 1492 of the New World by Christopher Columbus. It was precisely the Genoese navigator who brought the tomato plant to Europe. In 1596, the tomato plant was exported to Naples by Spain where it was used as an ornamental plant. The first historical indication of the use of the tomato in the kitchen is found in the “Cuoco Galante (Naples - Ed. Raimondiane 1733) by Vincenzo Corrado Oritano” head chef of Prince Emanuel of Francavilla. The same Corrado in a successive tract on the foods most commonly used in Naples declares that the tomato was used to top both pizza and pasta, thus grouping together these two traditional products which helped to make Naples’ culinary fortune and establish its place in the history of world cuisine. From this information, one can reconstruct the appearance of “pizza napoletana” as a disc of dough topped with tomato. The first pizzerias, without doubt, were born in Naples and until the middle of the 20th century the product was exclusively a commodity of Naples and its pizzerias. From 1700 various botteghe were active in the city, called «pizzerie», whose fame arrived so far as the King of Naples, Ferdinando di Borbone, who in order to try this typical dish of the Neapolitan tradition, violated court etiquette by entering into one of the most renowned pizzerias. From that moment, the «pizzeria» was transformed into a fashionable locale, a place designated exclusively to the production of the «pizza». The most popular and famous pizzas in Naples were the «marinara» born in 1734 and the «margherita» from 1796-1810, which was offered to the Queen of Italy on a visit to Naples in 1889 precisely for the color of its condiments (tomato, mozzarella and basil) which brought to mind the flag of Italy. Over time, pizzerias were born throughout the cities of Italy and even abroad, but every one of these, if in a city diverse from Naples, always tied its very existence to the phrase «pizzeria Napoletana» or, alternatively, used a term which could evoke in some way its tie with Naples, where for almost 300 years this product has remained virtually unaltered. In 1984, in the month of May, nearly all the old-line pizzaioli (pizzamakers) in Naples participated in the creation of a brief disciplinary manual signed by all and registered by an official act by the notary Antonio Carannante of Naples. by Dino Cardone for VPN |
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Copyright© 1998 and following by Verace Pizza Napoletana Association® |
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