The History best of Pizza in Italian Food 1

The History best of Pizza in Italian Food 1 Italian food is unique amongst world cuisines in that it has birthed not one, but two international sensations.

Of course I’m talking about pasta and pizza. Pizza is one of the most widely eaten foods today. While most people think of pizza in America as Italian food, it really is not like the pizza of authentic Italian food. It is said that with one taste of pizza made in the style of authentic Italian food, The History best of Pizza in Italian Food 1

you will never go back to the Americanized version. Even when eating at Italian food restaurants it is hard to capture the distinguished taste of true Italian pizza.

Pizza is one Italian food that has been around in one form or another for centuries. It has a long history in the Mediterranean where it began as a seasoned flatbread that was used more as an edible plate to hold other food, rather than as a food by itself.

However, these earlier pizzas established a name for Italian food very early on and were eaten in Greece, Rome, Egypt, and Babylon and were emphatically praised by many historians of the day.

It was in the Middle Ages that pizza began to take a form that would be more familiar to Italian food lovers today.
Pizza started out being just a dough topped with herbs and olive oil. Once mozzarella cheese began to be produced from Indian Water Buffalo it quickly became a signature aspect of pizza.

Today at any true Italian food eatery this fresh mozzarella di buffalo is nonnegotiable. The dried shredded mozzarella that is often associated with Italian food would actually never be used on a pizza made by a true Italian food chef.

It wouldn’t be until the tomato became popular in Italian food in the 18th century that we would see modern pizza. During this time pizza began to take an even more prominent role in Italian food. In Naples pizza was sold on the streets for every meal.

This once peasant food was quickly taking hold of all of society, including the upper class. In fact, by 1830 the first ever pizzeria was opened in Naples. Ever since this time pizzerias have been found all over the world converting people to the love of Italian food.

Traditional Italian pizza is cooked in a wood fired oven. The reason American pizza is often not thought of as a true Italian food is because the large restaurant chains that specialize in pizza do not cook it in a wood fired oven. Pizzas featured in Italian food restaurants should use only the freshest ingredients. In Italy pizzas change with the seasons as new ingredients become available.

The great thing about pizza that has made it so popular is the fact that it can be topped with a vast array of toppings. Each region of Italy has its own particular style of pizza that they specialize in, making use of the ingredients most readily available to them.

So for real Italian food pizza it is necessary to step out of the confining ideas of just a few types of pizza and open your mind to the different possibilities. Italian food is full of variety and you could literally spend a year in Italy just trying all the different styles of pizza that made Italian food so universally popular.

Changing Pizza Trends

For years, pizza has been a favorite food of American culture. Pizza, holding its own against all time greats such as hamburgers and hotdogs, has become somewhat of a staple on the American menu and on its table.

The History best of Pizza in Italian Food 1

However, since its comeuppance in the category of favorite foods in the U.S., pizza has come a long way as far as what is termed as great toppings and what is termed as just plain weird.

Some new trends in the way that pizza is made and topped have come to the forefront. Foods that are used for toppings today and are popular, in the 1960’s would have been turned away as ridiculous.

Over the past few decades, tastes have changed in America. While many pizza lovers prefer traditional pizza styles and toppings such as pepperoni, sausage, onions, peppers, mushrooms and olives, pizza connoisseurs that are new to the scene are fond of trying the non-traditional in order to find pizza topping greatness.

Some newer toppings that are not so radical that the traditional pizza fan can not get past them are toppings such as chicken, ham and pineapple, and ground beef, to name a few. However, there have been toppings that have totally offended the sensibilities of that traditional pizza enthusiast.

One of the things that has completely affected the new wave of pizza traditions in this industry is the fact that the great people of the gourmet foods industry have begun to take a part in the pizza industry, helping to make it their own. Suddenly, pizza is no longer only for the superbowl party,

or the kids’ birthday party, or a late night fix when the busy career woman comes home tired from work and doesn’t want to cook. It has become the object of attention for society’s elite in the gourmet foods circuit.

More and more these days, fine dining and gourmet restaurants are beginning to offer their unique take on the creation of pizza. The gourmet food industry brings flair to pizza by offering daring topping choices and letting creativity and taste come to the forefront.

While some might say the toppings they choose are ridiculous, which some of the more daring topping ideas may be, some of the new trends in pizza are really beginning to take off with the more elite crowd.

Some new toppings include seafood such as oysters and crayfish. Other new toppings that have been tried are game meats like venison and duck. Even wackier are toppings such as peanut butter and jelly and bacon and eggs.

While you won’t find most pizza lovers willing to try mashed potato pizza, many are stepping out on a limb and trying the new toppings the renovated pizza industry has to offer. Whatever your favorite toppings are, America is in agreement of one thing about pizza: it’s impossible to live without.

What Is So Special About Gourmet Pizza?

Pizza has been around for thousands of years. When did out of the ordinary and delicious gourmet pizza make its debut? What would the forefathers of pizza think of this culinary masterpiece?

Everyone knows that a standard pizza comes with pepperoni, cheese, ground beef, peppers, onions, anchovies and sausage. Today gourmet pizza is created with any kind of topping.

They are topped with anything from broccoli to chocolate. There are gourmet pizzas for breakfast that can be topped with scrambled eggs, bacon and cheese. And, there are vegetarian gourmet pizzas that are topped with a medley of vegetables.

The gourmet pizza is relatively new and was created for the privileged. It has grown in popularity in nearly every household in the United States. Pizza parlors are popping up all across the country.

A Sunday afternoon of football will be a definite hit with the gang if a gourmet pizza with all the toppings is served. A sure pleaser for chocolate lovers is a dessert pizza topped with marshmallows and chocolate.

Gourmet pizza was conceived with the belief that less is better. Only by using the finest quality ingredients and one or two toppings, can a pizza acquire the status of a gourmet pizza.The History best of Pizza in Italian Food 1

Only the freshest and highest quality meats and freshest mozzarella can be used. The difference in a standard pizza and a gourmet pizza will be proven with each bite.The History best of Pizza in Italian Food 1

An ordinary consumer, with a little imagination, can create a gourmet pizza at home. A variety of pre-baked pizza shells are available in all types of food stores. With some imagination and experimentation, a home chef can make a mouth-watering work of art.The History best of Pizza in Italian Food 1

Most food stores carry a line of pizza shells, cheeses and gourmet sauces. Cheeses other than Mozzarella can be used.

Gourmet pizza shops continue to grow, offering a variety of pizzas from different cultures. Every culture brings an innovative way to make the gourmet pizza. These tasty delights will bring dining pleasure for years to come.

Where Do the Pizza Toppings Belong?

In the pizza industry, there has been many a conflict over how to make the best and most perfect pizza. Debates over the subject include what type of crust to use, the type of pizza sauce, type of toppings and even the type of cheese that makes the best pizza pie.

From New York Style to Chicago Style to California Style, differences in technique are what make the Pizza World go around.

Another one of those pizza arguments is where on the pizza the toppings should go. It is debatable that toppings under the sauce look better or worse than toppings above the sauce and cheese. There is even an issue over which one tastes better.

Chicago Style pizza is a recipe steeped in tradition. This deep-dish style pizza goes against the traditional grain of most of the other pizza recipes in the U.S.

Instead of placing the toppings you choose on the top of the pizza sauce and cheeses, the sliced mozzarella cheese is placed in a layer on the crust, which is placed in the bottom of a deep-dish pizza pan.

On top of the mozzarella cheese is placed the toppings of choice, such as Italian sausage, onions, green peppers, and mushrooms. The next layer is the sauce, which is the top layer.

To many people who are not from Chicago or familiar with this style of pizza, this is something that is brand new. It may even seem backward to those who live elsewhere in the country and are used to another style of pizza.

Many people say that Chicago Style is the best because it helps to keep the crust crispy because the sauce is on top, and not directly on the crust, making it soggy.

This other type of pizza places the sauce on the crust, shredded cheese layered above the sauce, and the toppings scattered above the cheese.

This is what most people in the United States think of when they think of pizza. Many people don’t even know of a different way of making pizza. Some say Americans love the tradition of sauce directly on the crust.

While the theory of the “best” pizza is definitely up to the individual and personal preference, arguments over whose style is the “best” is an ongoing battle in the pizza universe.

The argument will never be settled between the die-hards from their respective regions. But, the good news is, that the United States has become more and more open-minded when it comes to food. The real winners in this debate are the ones who eat a little bit of both types of pizza.

The real winners realize that there is no best, only different. Every once in a while, treat your senses to something out of the ordinary. If you are used to Chicago Style and the toppings beneath the sauce, check out a new thing and have some New York Style or California Style pizza.

The same goes for you New Yorkers and others. If you are always having the same old toppings-on-the-top pizza, go crazy and try some Chicago Style pizza. Open your palate up to the unique taste of something extraordinary.

Pizza

The pizza pie is an ubiquitous symbol of both Italian cooking and Americana. Oven-baked, thin-crust or deep-dish, round or square, it is a common favorite throughout the United States, with a wide number of regional variations.

The most traditional pie is the pizza Napolitano, or Neapolitan pizza. Made of strong flour, the dough is often kneaded by hand and then rolled flat and thin without a rolling pin.

The pizza is cooked in an extremely hot wood-fired stone oven for only sixty to ninety seconds, and is removed when it is soft and fragrant. Common varieties of Neapolitan pizza include marinara, made with tomato, olive oil, oregano, and garlic, and margherita, made with tomato, olive oil, fresh basil leaves, and mozzarella cheese.

New York was home to the first pizza parlor in the United States, opened in Little Italy in 1905 by Gennaro Lombardi. It is not surprising, then, that New York-style pizza dominates in the Northeastern part of the country. It is thin-crusted, and made with a thin layer of sauce and grated cheese.

The dough is hand-tossed, making the pie large and thin. As a result, it is served cut into slices, traditionally eight, which are often eaten folded in half. It can be served with any number of toppings, including pepperoni, the most popular topping in the United States, or as a “white pizza”, which includes no tomato sauce and is made with a variety of cheeses, such as mozzarella and ricotta.

Chicago is also home to a major variety of pizza.The Chicago-style pizza is deep dish, meaning it is made in a pan with the crust formed up the sides, or even with two crusts and sauce between, a so-called “stuffed” pizza.

The ingredients are “reversed” in a Chicago pizza, with cheese going in first, and then sauce on top. This particular form of pizza was invented in 1943 at Uno’s Pizzeria in the River North neighborhood of Chicago.

The Midwest also plays host to the St. Louis style pizza. This thin-crust delicacy is made using local provel cheese instead of mozzarella, and is very crispy. Heavily seasoned with oregano and other spices, with a slightly sweet sauce, it is difficult to fold because of the crust and is often cut into squares, instead of served in slices.

A Hawaiian pizza is an American invention that has nothing to do with Hawaii save that one of the main ingredients is pineapple. The pineapple is put atop the pizza, along with Canadian bacon, giving a rather sweet taste very different from pizzas closer to the Italian original.

Hawaiian pizza is very common in the Western United States.
In fact, a number of esoteric pizzas are common on the West coast, and “gourmet” pizza is often referred to as “California-style”

pizza. This is an example of fusion cuisine, and many of the pizzas go far beyond the common tomato sauce and cheese.

Thai pizza, for example, can include bean sprouts and peanut sauce, while breakfast pizza, as the name implies, may be topped with bacon and scrambled eggs. As a “gourmet” food, California pizzas are often individual sized, serving two people at most, and are not cut in slices like other common types of pizza pie.

Pizza is as diverse as America itself, with almost infinite variations – all of them delicious.

A Brief History of Pizza

Pizza, the way we know it today, is a derivation from focaccia (from the Latin word for fire), flat bread that has been prepared since antiquity in different forms and garnished with herbs, olives, fat, raisin, honey, and nuts.

The word pizza in Italian identifies any type of flat bread or pie—fried or baked.

Although you’d find many types of pitas or pizzas around the Mediterranean, it is in Naples that pizza in the form we know it today first emerged, after the tomato appeared on the table in the 1700s.

Naples has many records of pizza since around the year 1000; the first mentions call these flat breads laganae, and later they are referred to as picea. In those times, pizzas were dressed with garlic and olive oil,

or cheese and anchovies, or small local fish. They were baked on the open fire and sometimes were closed in two, as a book, to form a calzone. The History best of Pizza in Italian Food 1

In Naples is also where the first pizzerias opened up, with brick wood-burning oven, covered with lava stones from the Mount Vesuvius.The History best of Pizza in Italian Food 1

The chefs of those times ignored pizza because was considered a poor people’s food, but the new combination with the tomato, when it entered the kitchen around the 1770s,

must have raised some curiosity, even in the royal palace. Ferdinand I Bourbon, King of Naples, loved the simple food of the people and went to taste the pizzas made in the shop of Antonio Testa.The History best of Pizza in Italian Food 1

He liked it so much that he wanted pizza to be included in the menu at the court. He failed after the opposition of his wife, Queen Maria Carolina. His son Ferdinand II also liked all kind of popular food and he loved pizza to the point that he hired Domenico Testa, son of the now famous Antonio, to build a pizza oven in the royal palace of Capodimonte.The History best of Pizza in Italian Food 1

Pizza became very popular, earning its place in Neapolitan folklore. Simple and economical, it turned into the food for all people, even sold on the streets, as shown in many illustrations of the time.The History best of Pizza in Italian Food 1

A famous episode extended the popularity of pizza beyond the limits of the city of Naples. It was 1889, and Margherita, queen of Italy, was visiting the city. She was told about pizza and wanted to taste it.The History best of Pizza in Italian Food 1

A famous cook by the name of Don Raffaele, helped by his wife Donna Rosa, was invited to cook pizza at the royal palace.The History best of Pizza in Italian Food 1

They prepared three pizzas, typical of that time: one with cheese and basil; one with garlic, oil, and tomato; and one with mozzarella, basil, and tomato.The History best of Pizza in Italian Food 1

The queen, impressed by the colors of the last pizza, which resembled the national flag, preferred that one. Since then this pizza is known as Pizza Margherita, and Don Raffaele is credited with its invention, even if we know that it already existed for a long time.The History best of Pizza in Italian Food 1

At the beginning of the last century, with Italian immigrants, the first pizzerias appeared also in the United States, where pizza has become a mass phenomenon. Yet, even today the best pizza is found in Naples, where it is rigorously made with buffalo mozzarella.The History best of Pizza in Italian Food 1

Superior pizzas are considered those obtained by moderate variations of the simplest and most popular: Pizza Napoletana with tomato, garlic, oil, and oregano; Pizza Margherita; Pizza Marinara with tomato, anchovies, capers,The History best of Pizza in Italian Food 1

and olives; and Pizza Four Seasons, divided in four quadrants, each dressed in a different way. Pizza with hot salami, the American pepperoni pizza, is instead found in the Calabria region south of Naples, where this type of hot sausage is produced.

The History best of Pizza in Italian Food 1