As part of my ongoing blog series on the history of mostly trivial things, I happened upon some facts about my favorite solid consumable – the pizza pie.

Italian or Greek?
One of the major controversies in pizzaology (ok, so I invented a word! Sue me!) is whether the pizza was invented by the Italians or the Greeks. The earliest possible reference to pizza is by a Roman poet, Avid, but talks about the Greeks:

“Their homely fare dispatchÃ�d, the hungry band

Invade their trenchers next, and soon devour,

To mend the scanty meal, their cakes of flour.

Ascanius this observ�d, and smiling said:

�See, we devour the plates on which we fed.�

Most pizza historians see the reference to devouring the plates as an example of pizza consumption since pizzas are flat and do not really require plates in order for them to be eaten. If this is the case, then the Greeks might have invented pizza, which also credits them with the invention of fast food.

Volcanoes and Anchovies!
Marcus Porcius Cato, one of Rome’s great statesmen during the Punic Wars, is credited with the first official mention of pre-pizza in history. He observed that some of his fellow Italians consumed, “flat rounds of dough dressed with olive oil, herbs and honey baked on stones” as well as, “sheets of fine flour topped with cheese and honey, and flavored with bay leaves.”

The Greeks may have invented pizza, but the Romans were the first to profit from it. Archaeological digs in the ancient city of Pompey, which was abruptly and rudely buried under ash by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, have uncovered shops which apparently operated as pizzerias, serving these delectable, cheesy meals to the residents. One can imagine the happy customers being frozen in time just as they were about to consume an extra large pie with extra anchovies.

What Do You Want on Your Tombstone?
The tomato was unknown to the Mediterranean world, since it is native to Central and South America, so most ancient pizzas were probably more like focaccia which I find to be dry and disgusting.

When the tomato finally made it to Europe in the 1600’s, most Italians believed it was poisonous. It is, after all, a part of the nightshade family of plants (Family solanaceae) which contains a number of plants that are lethal to humans. One can only wonder how Italians ever survived without the tomato!

It was the poor of the Naples region who finally summoned up the bravery (or desperation) to add sun-dried tomatos to their pizzas. The tomatos were added to the dough and baked in. The innovation of simmering the tomatos to make a sauce came later.

Say Extra Cheese!
Mozzarella cheese, that staple of true pizzerias everywhere, was also unknown to the ancients. It was made from the milk of an Indian water buffalo species which was imported to the region of Naples in the 1500’s. This particular type of mozzarella, called mozzarella di bufala campana is more watery than American mozzarellas which are mostly mozzarella fior di latte (Mozzarella made from milk) which is made using the milk of domestic cows and has a firmer consistency.

Prior to the innovation of putting mozzarella on the pizza, the inhabitants of Naples and the surrounding province of Campania made their pizzas with feta and other soft cheeses, which were sprinkled over the bread rather than baked into it.

Pizza was enjoyed mostly in Naples and Campania during the period before the establishment of the nation of Italy. One king of Naples, Ferdinando II of Borbone, enjoyed the pizzas made by one particular maker, Ntuono Testa, and by the mid 1800’s, people were traveling to Naples and sampling the local food – pizza – which the Neopolese consumed for both lunch and supper in tremendous quantities.

I’ll Take One Large to Go!
By 1830, the Neopolitan pizza had taken shape as a round pie covered with tomato and mozzarella. They were sold from open carts and baked in central bakeries. In that year, however, Antica Pizzeria Port’Alba – the first pizzeria – was opened in Naples.

While Antica served something similar to modern pizza, it still varied somewhat. In 1889, Raffaele Esposito made three special pizzas for the visiting king and queen, Umberto I and his wife Magherita of Savoy. Supposedly, Magherita preferred the pizza that she considered “most patriotic” because it incorporated the colors of the Italian flag – green bay leaves, red tomato sauce and white mozzarella cheese. This set the standard that most pizzerias used.

Coming to America
In 1897, Gennaro Lombardi opened a small family grocery store in New York’s Little Italy. He hired Antonio Totonno Pero to make pizzas for his customers and Totonno hit on the idea of selling pizza by the slice rather than whole. An entire pizza cost 5 cents, and was generally cut into 1 cent slices.

In 1905, Lombardi opened a pizzeria with Totonno still working for him, but in 1924, Totonno started a competing restaurant – Frank Pepe’s Pizzeria Napoletana in New Haven.

In 1926, Anthony Polcari opened Pizzeria Regina in Boston’s North End and started the New England addiction to Pizza that remains a driving force in our economy to this day, but consumption was generally limited to Italian immigrants. People outside of the Italian-American community were still essentially unaware of its existence.

Incidentally, the original Lombardi’s was shut down in 1984 and reopened in 1994 in a different location. Frank Pepe’s and Polcari’s still operate today.

World War II and Hungry Soldiers Change the Way We Eat
Then came World War II. The American troops landed in Italy and fought their way up the boot-shaped country in some fierce engagements. The Italians, with their priorities in the right place, immediately began to sell food and drinks to the hungry Americans. When General Dwight D. Eisenhower toured the country during the Allied occupation, he found the local pizzeria owners scrambling to meet the demands of the Americans who gladly traded a huge portion of their income for palatable food after living on ships and eating C-rations.

When the war was over, the Americans of every nationality returned to their home land with a longing for the Italian food they had relished during the war. They sought out pizzerias and being one of the wealthiest and best established generations of their time, began a boom.

In 1943, Ike Sewell developed the deep dish pizza. His restaurant, Pizzeria Uno’s, struggled until the returning G.I.’s discovered it.

In 1959, another non-Italian, Tom Monaghan, borrowed $500 from his brother to start a pizza shop in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Monaghan, who had served in the Marine Corps, hit on one of those rare, genius ideas. His pizzeria, DominiNick’s, delivered pizza to people’s homes. The dormitories of a nearby University of Michigan became their biggest customers as college students discovered the art of the late night pizza cram.

Just So You Know
Pizza sauce is not the same as tomato sauce. It is thicker, which keeps the bread from getting soggy.

Also, there are four recognized form of pizza:

1. Neopolitan pizza – a hand-tossed crust is covered with pizza sauce and mozzarella and baked until the cheese melts
2. Greek pizza – a thicker crust is pressed to a pizza pan, covered with pizza sauce and then topped with assorted cheeses, usually including mozarella but also harder cheese like parmesan and Greek cheeses
3. Deep dish/pan – a crust is pressed into a deep pan, then sauce and toppings are mounded on the crust; cheese is generally added last
4. Sicilian pizza – this is like neopolitan but the crust is much thicker and it is formed into a square or rectangle rather than round