The pizza has almost three thousand years of history and in its original form appeared as focaccia.
His presence, in fact, is found since the time of ancient Egypt (where it was eaten to celebrate the birthday of Pharaoh); during the Greek age Herodotus were created several recipes for cakes and pita; in Roman age it was used for cooking buckwheat cakes (whose presence is observed by the same Virgilio).
The origins of this dish are found even in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, with small changes in the preparation.
The first signs of the word “pizza” so far from the Vulgar Latin of Gaeta in 997, probably this word comes from the past participle of the verb “pinsere” or the verb “pansere” which means crush and mash, and is originated from the word pita (from peptòs in Greek, or “baked”) of Mediterranean origin.
But the great innovation that transformed the focaccia in pizza is the presence of tomato seasoning.
This ingredient was latter imported from the XVI century and was used in the eighteenth century from the poor people of the area around Naples to add seasoning to focaccia.
Thus the pizza is born.
The original Napolitana pizza was born around 1730 in the Marinara version which had a tomato sauce, oregano, garlic, extra virgin olive oil and basil leaves.
Erroneously the name of this special pizza is assigned because the presence of the fish seasoning, but it is not true: in fact, the term “Marinara” comes out because the Neapolitan fishermen were used to eat this food after fishing in the bay for many days.
But it is only in 1889 that appeared the pizza as we know it today, and was created by Raffaele Esposito a pizza maker who made three versions to celebrate the visit of King Umberto and Queen Margherita of Savoy. The Queen‘s favorite pizza was the version stuffed with a lot of tomato, mozzarella and basil, because it evokes the colors of the Italian flag. That‘s why was called the pizza Margherita in honor of the queen.
Here is the story of the most delicious and famous dish in the world.