Pizza

History

Flatbreads with toppings have ancient precursors. Persian soldiers under Darius the Great in the 6th century BC baked flatbreads with cheese and dates on their shields. Ancient Greeks added oils, herbs, and cheese to bread.

The Aeneid references a prophecy about eating tables, later fulfilled when Aeneas and his men ate round cakes topped with cooked vegetables. A 2023 fresco from Pompeii depicts a pizza-like dish on a silver platter. The word pizza first appears in a Latin notarial document from Gaeta dated 997 AD, requiring twelve pizzas as payment on Christmas and Easter.

Modern pizza developed from similar flatbread dishes in Naples in the 18th or early 19th century. Before tomatoes were added (possible only after the 16th-century Columbian Exchange), flatbreads were topped with garlic, salt, lard, and cheese. Pizza was sold from open-air stands and bakeries until about 1830, when Neapolitan pizzerias began offering tables for seated dining.

Preparation

Pizza is sold fresh or frozen, whole or in slices. Methods address challenges like preventing sauce from soaking the dough and producing a crust that freezes and reheats without becoming rigid. Frozen pizzas may have raw ingredients and self-rising crusts.

In the US, take and bake pizzerias sell unbaked pizzas for home baking; some grocery stores sell fresh dough, sauce, and basic ingredients for assembly at home. Restaurants bake pizza in ovens with fire bricks above the heat source, electric deck ovens, conveyor belt ovens, or traditional wood- or coal-fired brick ovens. A long paddle called a peel, often sprinkled with cornmeal, slides the pizza onto hot bricks, a screen, or the oven surface.

Home bakers may use a pizza stone in a regular oven or an outdoor wood-fired dome oven for even heat. Grilled pizza is baked directly on a barbecue grill. Some types, like Sicilian pizza, are baked in a pan. Most restaurants use standard pizza preparation tables; mass production by chains can be fully automated.

The crust varies from thin (Neapolitan) to thick (Chicago deep-dish), and may be plain, seasoned, or stuffed with cheese. The outer edge is sometimes called the cornicione. Some dough includes sugar to aid yeast rising and crust browning.

Varieties and styles

Numerous pizza varieties exist, defined by toppings, crust, preparation method, or a combination. Many are named after their region of origin, especially in North America. Authentic Neapolitan pizza uses San Marzano tomatoes and mozzarella di bufala campana or fior di latte; buffalo mozzarella has a European protected designation of origin.

Other traditional Italian pizzas include marinara (the most ancient tomato-topped pizza) and capricciosa (with mozzarella, ham, mushroom, artichoke, and tomato). Sicilian pizza is a thick-crust or deep-dish variety originating in 17th-century Sicily, essentially a focaccia with tomato sauce and other toppings. In Turin, pizza al padellino or al tegamino is a small, thick-crust, deep-dish pizza.

The first US pizzeria opened in New York City's Little Italy in 1905. Common US toppings include anchovies, ground beef, chicken, eggplant, ham, mushrooms, olives, onions, peppers, pepperoni, pineapple, salami, sausage, spinach, steak, and tomatoes. Regional US styles developed in the 20th century, including Buffalo, California, Chicago, Detroit, Greek, New Haven, New York, and St. Louis, with variations such as deep-dish, stuffed, pockets, turnovers, rolled, and pizza-on-a-stick.

Similar dishes

Calzone and stromboli are made from pizza dough folded or rolled around a filling. Coca is a similar dish from Catalonia and neighboring regions, with sweet and savory versions. Farinata (Ligurian) or cecina (Tuscan) is baked in a brick oven and sold by the slice. Flammekueche is a specialty of Alsace.

Focaccia is a flat leavened Italian bread similar to pizza, sometimes called pizza bianca. Garlic fingers, an Atlantic Canadian dish, uses similar dough and is garnished with melted butter, garlic, cheese, and sometimes bacon. Semsek is an Armenian dish of dough shaped into a circle with braided edges, topped with minced meat and puréed roasted vegetables. Khachapuri is a Georgian cheese-filled bread or boat-shaped dough topped with cheese, butter, and an egg. İçli pide (or pide) is a Turkish boat-shaped wheat-based dough topped with tomato, cheese, and other ingredients, sometimes called Turkish pizza.

Lahmacun is a Middle Eastern flatbread with a very thin base and a layer of minced meat often including chopped vegetables. Manakish is a Levantine flatbread dish. Matzah pizza is a Jewish pizza dish. Okonomiyaki, often called Japanese pizza, is cooked on a hotplate.

Panzerotti are similar to calzones but fried. Pastrmajlija (nicknamed Macedonian pizza) is an oval bread pie with chopped meat. Piadina is a thin Italian flatbread from Romagna.

Pinsa is a flatbread with sauce applied after baking. Pissaladière has a slightly thicker crust and a topping of cooked onions, anchovies, and olives. Pizza bagel is a bagel with pizza-like toppings. Pizza cake is a multiple-layer pizza.

Pizza rolls are a frozen snack. Pizza strips are an Italian-American tomato pie. Sfiha is a Levantine flatbread with toppings. Wähe is a Swiss type of tart.

Did You Know?

• Suggested etymologies for pizza include derivation from Byzantine Greek pitta, Latin pinsere ('to pound, stamp'), or Ancient Greek words for 'fermented pastry', 'pitch', or 'bran bread'.
• The USDA reports an average sodium content of 5,100 mg per 14-inch pizza in fast food chains.