Pizza is the most and best known dish of Italian cuisine throughout the world.  Everyone, even in the most remote places on earth, has tasted a pizza once in his life. It was born in Naples where it was first seasoned with tomatoes and afterwards with numerous different ingredients and it is a concentrate of the flavors, smells, sensuality and fantasy of this splendid city.  It is a complete aliment that gloriously and triumphantly satisfies the five senses.  The sight is enchanted by the contrast of the white of the mozzarella, the red of tomato and the green of basil; the hearing by the crackling of the wood fire; the smell by its characteristic scent; the taste by the deliciousness of its flavor; the touch, as you lift the first morsel with your fingers to reach your mouth.  The use of the word pizza is so widespread that some people are even doubtful about its origin. It is absolutely Italian as it derives from Latin.  Here is everything there is to know about it.

HISTORY

Pizza is a very old form of food. Egyptians, Greeks, Romans ate dishes that resemble pizza in their ingredients, composition and cooking. Pizza presents itself as a food typical of the civilizations that flourished around the Mediterranean sea. And in Naples, pizza will find its fatherland and the starting point of its worldwide diffusion.  Flat round bread evolved into pizza in the 18th century when tomatoes made their way into cooking. When introduced from Peru they were considered love fruits, and were thought to be poisonous.  Pizza was originally sailor's food. Baker's would prepare pizza for sailors returning from fishing at dawn with fresh tomatoes, oil and garlic and a sprinkling of oregano. This is the classical Marinara pizza. Anchovies were also added making a very healthy complete meal. At these times pizza was baked in ovens and then sold in the streets of Naples: a boy, who balanced on his head the typical "stufa" (a tin stove to keep pizza warm), brings directly to his customers the pizza, already made with different seasonings, after attracting their attention with his loud and typical calls. Eating pizza near the pizza vendor's oven, in the streets or at home, was a sign of the growing popularity of pizza, by then fully established as a typically Neapolitan food. The pizzeria, in its modern sense, is born. The oven, the marble bench where pizza is prepared, the shelf upon which the different ingredients of pizza are shown, the tables where customers ate pizza, the outer display where fried pizza is stored to be sold to the passers-by: all features still to be found in the modern Neapolitan pizzeria. The King of Naples Ferdinando II of Borbone greatly enjoyed the pizza made by 'Ntuono Testa at Salita S. Teresa and establishes that the kitchens of his palace should have the pizza oven. As a result pizza became also dish of the aristocracy ! After the Kings of Naples, the Borbone, also the new Kings of Italy, the Savoia, appreciate the Neapolitan pizza: in fact they left a mark in the history of pizza: Pizza Margherita. The Ancient Pizzeria Brandi still retains a document signed "sincerely, Galli Camillo, head of the table of the Royal Household", dated June 1889. It is an acknowledgement to S.G. Raffaele Esposito, of the then pizzeria "Pietro e Basta CosÏ", for the qualities of pizza, among which the celebrated one with pomodoro and mozzarella, he prepared for Her Majesty the Queen Margherita, that, as emphasized in this letter, were found to be excellent. The pizza with pomodoro and mozzarella was so named "Pizza Margherita" by the pizzaiuolo Raffaele Esposito, and that is the name by which this pizza is still universally known .