Thing is, everyday is some National or International “something-or-other” day. Who knows what’s authentic any more!

Anyway, it's because of this important day that I decided to write up a little History of Pizza for my readers ...

[Pizza has a very long, complex and uncertain history. It’s true that pizza, as we know it today, originated in Napoli, but focaccia flatbreads with toppings were already eaten during the ancient Roman Empire period.]

[At that time though, these focacce were not made with durum wheat flour (as the modern pasta and pizza dough are) and did not require any leavening. They were cooked directly on the fire or on hot stones.]

Wait... is this the birth of the Rehoboth Beach Nicoboli??? Er… NO!

[It is between 1700 and 1800 that pizza became strongly linked to the city of Napoli. In a densely populated city, where many lived in poverty, pizza constituted an inexpensive, quick to prepare and nutritious food.]

[It became so popular that the first ‘oven shops’ dedicated exclusively to cooking pizza opened (we could say they were the first versions of what we know today as pizzerie). Until around 1830, pizza was sold exclusively in street stalls as well as by roving street vendors outside the oven shops.]

[And that is how the history of Neapolitan pizza began. Legend has it that, in 1815, King Ferdinand I invited pizza chef Antonio Testa to the royal residences in Capodimonte to prepare pizzas for the King’s court. From that moment on, pizza began to be appreciated also by the wealthier classes.]

[It is only during the 18th century, when the tomato was first introduced in Italy, that the first ancestor of traditional Neapolitan pizza was born; what today is called ‘Pizza Marinara’; lots of garlic, olive oil, tomato and oregano.]

[Pizza, as we’ve come to know it, was born in 1889 when the Neapolitan chef Raffaele Esposito created the Pizza Margherita (Sandrino’s favorite) in honor of Queen Margherita of Savoy: tomato, mozzarella and basil.]

[The second-coming of the pizza, happened after the Second World War. In fact, the ‘pizzeria’ boom is considered to be recent history. While the pizza shops and vendors in Napoli were already plentiful by the end of the War, in other cities of Italia, not so much.]

[During this period, the pizza ventures outside the confines of southern Italia and arrives in the north. In fact, with the coming of the industrial boom in the ‘triangle’ - an area comprised of Milano, Torino and Genova, thousands of emigrants (from the south) and their families moved there with their ways of doing things, their customs.]

[Starting in the 1960’s the pizzerie (shops) proliferate and ‘invade’ the entire north, all the way up to the regions of Trentino-Alto Adige, Veneto, Toscana, and Emilia Romagna.]

[With the passing of time, the population density reversed (between north and south), so much so that today there are more pizzerie in the northern half of Italia (from Roma-up) than in the southern half.]

[So, from Napoli, our dear friend, "THE PIZZA", has come a long-way over the years. The rest is modern history.]

Let's end this article with a couple of interesting facts regarding the beginnings of pizza as a popular food item in the U.S. ...

As already mentioned, Italian immigrants introduced the pizza to America in the late 19th century. Of course, this was initially the case for the cities with large Italian populations, such as San Francisco, Chicago, New York City and Philadelphia (and yes… Wilmington, too). In these cities pizza was initially sold along the streets of the Italian neighborhoods - the cities' “Little Italy”.

Take Chicago, for example...

The pizza was introduced by a pizza-peddler who walked up and down Taylor Street with a container full of pizzas, balanced atop his head. The container had handles on the side and a cover to keep the pizzas warm. This was the traditional way the pizzas were sold to the public back in old Napoli.

Not much time passed before small cafés and grocery shops began selling pizzas to their Italian-American clientele.

I'll end by saying that I suppose many feel that pizza is not the healthiest food because of the use of refined flour. Personally, I believe that pizza is The Perfect Food, though I must admit that I curb my consumption (at the insistence of my wife). There is indeed gluten-free pizza, but - for me - it’s not worth the trouble.

My philosophy regarding such matters is that - for now - it’s okay to eat what one likes… once-in-a-while, and with limited portion size.

Oh well, I guess that means I’ll have to limit myself to one pizza per day instead of two! In any event, completely depriving oneself of those foods that are truly loved and that provide comfort – like pizza and pasta and gelato and cannoli and calamari and tiramisu and risotto and octopus – is simply counter-productive!

[We've arrived at the end of another tasty issue of our super fun 🇮🇹Newsletter Italiana!]

🇮🇹Newsletter Italiana!]

is written and published by

Sandro "Sandrino" Cuccia

sandrino@hey.com