The Incredible History of Pizza
With a one thousand-year history and a world-renowned tradition, pizza is one of the most important symbols of Italy. And it has a fairy tale origin story with roots in the distant past.
The first recipe for pizza as we know it today is found in a treaty printed in Naples in 1858, which describes how in those years, “true Neapolitan pizza” was prepared. When the city was still the capital of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Francesco De Bourcard, in his Customs and Traditions of Naples and Environs, mentions a kind of Margherita pizza before the term existed, one made with mozzarella and basil. Tomato was still optional, while for condiments, he states, you can use “whatever comes to mind.” Then, toward the end of the 19th century, the pizza with tomato and mozzarella also arrived in America, thanks to Italian emigrants to New York, and it was prepared exactly like in Naples.
From the South to the conquest of the world
Between the 19th and 20th centuries, pizza became even more popular. And
in time, variations for all tastes were born. The second wave of the
dish’s pizza’s popularity took place after the Second World War, when
the pizza left the borders of Southern Italy and pushed upward to the
top of Italy’s boot.
With the industrial boom in the Milan-Turin-Genoa triangle, thousands of
migrants moved north with their families, bringing with them their
customs and traditions. At first, they started by making pizza for their
fellow migrants, then gradually, once they were successful, also for the
locals. By the 1960s, pizzerias were springing up all across the
country—and, over the next few years, across the world, from China to
the Middle East, Eastern Europe to South America. Nobody can do without
this “classic” dish anymore. And today, the art of Neapolitan
pizza-making is a candidate for UNESCO World Heritage status. It’s hard
to imagine better recognition for a dish with such universal popularity.