Let us begin our pizza story at the very beginning, before pizza was pizza, before even all the ingredients were known to the country that proudly claims this creation. Let’s begin our story in 800 B.C.E., in the age of the Etruscans, or in 800 B.C.E., in the age of the Greeks, or 500 B.C.E., with the beginning of the Romans, or 4300 B.C.E, when wheat arrived in Italy? Truth be told, no one knows exactly when pizza began, because no one knows exactly what constitutes as a pizza. If pizza can be simply a baked bread with toppings, you may consider the founders to be anyone who ate bread and seasoned it (an invention that separated us from cavemen). If pizza is more specifically described as risen bread with toppings, now we eliminate most of the nomadic tribes who didn't have time to let their dough rest and are left with the sedentary people. If pizza is a risen bread, with sauce, now we can possibly credit the Etruscans who used to top their bread and then use it to soak up the sauces and soups they ate. If pizza is a risen bread instead cooked with its toppings, then the Greeks have the documented right to call it their own creation. Just as the definition, the etymology is also not clearly found. We may theorize, the word “pizza” is a variation of the word of its "predecessors", the Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic term for flat bread, “pita”. Or maybe someone remembered how the Romans made use of the Latin term “picea” to describe the blackening of the bread in the oven. Or maybe the word itself is a derivative of the Italian verb “pizzicare”, to pinch, telling of the way the dough was pinched on its edges to mimic a plate and collect sauce. Overall, no one knows exactly where the word comes from or the invention…so who can claim it, especially if we cannot define it? How would you describe a pizza?

Might you describe pizza as something simple: a fluffy, cloud-like dough that radiates a soft warmth, covered in a delicate, enticing sauce, enhanced with herbs to add to the dancing flavours, then decorated with a fresh, milk cheese that bubbles in the oven and melts in your mouth? Something simple, something delicious?

Pizza, I’m sure you would consider it to be described as delicious without a second thought. You would also expect that thought to be universal, considering its global popularity. Would it shock you to know that there was a time pizza garnered a reputation of ‘a species of most nauseating cake. . . [that] altogether looks like a piece of bread that had been taken reeking out of the sewer”, and nearly an entire country considered pizza to be “complicated filth that matches the dirt of the vendor”? Would it further your surprise if I told you, this country was Italy?

Today, yesterday, and many years before, Italians have been some of the harshest food critics known to man. They take pride in their food and every step and every ingredient it takes to make it. Pizza though, pizza is a different story. Pizza, by its modern day definition (bread, tomato, and cheese) would credit Italy with its creation, but not its immortalization. To an Italian, pizza was a food that was only food because it was edible, purchasable when you had nearly nothing left, and sometimes even when you had nothing left, you had pizza. But it's Italian, it was born on the streets of Naples, in the hands of the “lazzaroni”, those who begged, those who were poorer than the poor, those who had nothing, yet still, they had pizza.

Mind you, all the ingredients to make pizza have at some point or another have been imported into Italy: wheat in 4300 B.C.E. from the Middle East, oil in 1000 B.C.E. from the Greeks, basil in 350 B.C.E. from Southeast Asia, buffalos in 901 C.E. from Asia, and tomatoes in 1500 C.E. from South America.

Let’s begin our story in Naples, before Naples is Naples because Italy is not Italy until its unification in 1861 (and not completely Italy with Rome and Venice until 1870) ... let’s begin our story during the Kingdom of Naples, and the importation of our final pizza ingredient, tomatoes.

Naples during the 1500s was caught between many powers, one of which was the rule of the Spaniards. The Spanish Kingdom during this time was a dominating power not only within Europe, but around the globe. King Fernand and Queen Isabella were the perfect match, not in a loving way, but in a political way, every move calculated to insure their reign would leave an everlasting legacy. The king and queen looked fondly upon the riches spices would bring and so commissioned an Italian man in 1492 to sail the ocean blue (any guesses?). (Congrats to my history buffs who got it) Christopher Coloumbus! Christopher Coloumbus set his sails and severely miscalculated his mark and did not end up in Asia…instead he found the Americas. These countries were rich in new ingredients which would soon change the dietary customs for all Europeans. When Coloumbus returned he brought many things back with him, some of the most notable include: potatoes, tomatoes, and syphilis…more important for our story though, tomatoes!

Tomatoes were beautiful. They had this yellow hue, and wonderful shape, it earned them the name “pomo d’oro”, “apple made of gold”. Spaniards, Italians, Neapolitans, everyone loved them, but only for decoration. Soon these decorative plants would be moved into the garden, where the golden color, touched by the Italian soil, would transform into a juicy, red, delicious, and poisonous crop. The tomato was soon considered a forbidden fruit…deadly.

After a hundred years in Italy, the fear persisted. Tomatoes became a sort of Robinhood fruit; they killed the rich and did very little to the poor. In fact, despite “the better judgement” of the commoners, the lower class began to eat the tomatoes, as something was better than nothing. To their surprise, the poor did not get sick. How can a tomato pick and choose who to kill based on wealth? It can’t…it did it based on plate (or lack thereof). The wealthy dined on pewter plates, while the poor on wood. As the acidity from the tomato touched the pewter, the lead would be released, poisoning anyone who dared eat the “forbidden fruit”. The poor ate on wood or if they could not afford it, they ate even with their bare hands. Despite their lacking wealth, the poor felt rich as they indulged in the deliciousness of tomatoes with no sickness. With juices trickling down their hands they had to be innovative; how to indulge, to fill themselves, and to keep from “wearing” the tomatoes? In 1734, someone decided to take their staple, bread, which fills you for a penny, and smash the tomato right on top. Flavor to your bread, clean hands, and a delicious combination. Poor people were delighted and satiated. Sailors docking in Naples were particularly fond of the combination and so, the pizza became known as the sailor style pizza or “pizza marinara”.

Pizza became a huge success! Only among the poor… If you could afford literally anything better, you would not have bought pizza. Some ambitious man took pizza to Rome and to no one’s surprise (expect maybe yours) it was a major failure. Pizza remained a poor food and an unappreciated one for many years to come. So when does the turning point come? I implore you, read on.

In 1889, the queen of Italy, married to King Umberto I, on holiday in Naples expressed her unwillingness to continue to eat French cuisine (the cuisine of royalty at the time). She heard about pizza and wanted to try it. She told her husband all about it, he could not care less, but still as he too was tired of French cuisine, they summoned chef Raffaele Esposito to make them pizzas.

Esposito, obviously stressed by this honor, made them multiple types of pizza. One of the pizzas Esposito made he knew would not disappoint as he made it to represent something the queen loved. This pizza was made with green basil, white mozzarella cheese, and red tomato sauce. Do you know what these colors represent? The Italian flag! (If you didn’t get that it's okay its target audience got it…) The queen saw it, recognized it, and she loved it (of course she would, its pizza, right?). The queen loved it so much in fact, that upon her return home she could not stop thinking about it. She had her Head of the Table of the Royal Household write a letter to Esposito thanking him for his delightful creation. Upon receiving the kind words of the queen, Esposito was taken aback, he wanted to honor the queen how she honored him with her words. He hung the letter in his pizzeria where it still hangs today and decided to name the pizza after her (the queen's name was?), Margherita. Believe it or not…this was not the turning point. Pizza still remained unpopular.

If you recall, I stated that we “credit Italy with its creation, but not its immortalization”. The so-called “pizza boom” would happen as a result of those pesky tourists, *tsk tsk tsk*. After World War II, soldiers previously stationed in Italy (American and British) would find themselves returning to various parts of Italy for vacation, craving the Italian food they fell in love with, pizza. Pizza was Neapolitan poor street food, so to the disappointment of many, pizza did not exist throughout Italy. As tourism grew and the great migration of the southern Italians happened (bringing Neapolitan people all over the country) so too did the popularization of pizza in various Italian cities. Granted, due to the lack of proper cooking facilities and tourist catered cooking, the pizzas that spread were not the best, but they were indeed diverse. Some of the new variations would include pizza with wurstel, pizza with french fries, and so on. By the 1950s to 1960s pizza spread all over Italy and soon all over Europe. Pizza became one of Italy’s trademark foods, everyone was loving pizza…just not the Italians.

Pizza was still an unappreciated and disregarded food in the average Italian household. Italians during this time didn’t have a budget to spend on outside food, so they kept to mostly what they knew, home made meals that had been passed down for generations. In the late 1960s, the average household was making enough money for them to be able to enjoy a meal or a snack outside of their home, and so…we have our turning point!

Pizza became regularly consumed, it was an italian fast food. Italians didn’t quite favour the Neapolitan style pizza, so each region had its own variation. The most noticeable was Rome’s. Romans throughout history had more money than the Neapolitans and so an excess of bread was unnecessary and unwelcomed. Romans created a thin crust pizza, to accommodate for their richer taste buds, and loved it.

An Italian could go to a pizzeria and get “pizza a taglio” which literally meant pizza by the slice. You told the pizzaiolo how much you wanted, he cut it, weighed it, and you paid for exactly what you wanted. You can’t get more budget friendly and convenient than that! Apparently you could get more convenient …the pizzaiolo would fold your pizza, known as “al libretto”, like a book, and you could eat it while you walked.

Pizza became a staple in the Italian diet, something to look forward to. In the late 1990s, during the Italian separatist movement (North Italy vs. South Italy), there was a boycott of pizza in the North (as it is associated with the South). This was a bold initiative that ultimately failed as the leader called it off. Pizza wasn’t just the Souths anymore, it was Italy’s and it was delicious.

References

Helstosky, Carol. Pizza: A Global History. Reaktion Books, 2008.

“Mozzarella di Bufala Campana – History.” Mozzarella di Bufala Campana DOP, https://www.mozzarelladop.it/bufala-campana/history#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20most%20credible,the%20Saracens%20and%20the%20Moors

“The History of Buffalo in Italy.” Mozzarella di Bufala Campana DOP, https://www.mozzarelladop.it/the-history-of-buffalo-in-italy

“History and Origin of Basil.” TUMN Blog, https://www.tumn.it/en/blog/history-and-origin-of-basil

“The Tomato Is Italy’s Golden Apple.” Italy Segreta, https://italysegreta.com/pomi-doro-the-tomato-is-italys-golden-apple/