The origin of the word听pizza
The word pizza听as we now know it is recorded in English in the early 1800s, though early English lexicographer John Florio enters pizza for “a small cake or wafer” in his historically important 1598 Italian-English dictionary.听Pizza, of course, is borrowed from Italian, but the deeper ingredients of the word, if you will, are unclear. Some think the Greek pitta (pita, with a root sense of “bran bread”) is the source. Others look to the Langobardic (an ancient German language in northern Italy) bizzo, meaning “bite.”
黑料网ever the origin, we say, “delicious.”
Who invented pizza?
When it comes to the history of pizza, Italians are credited with inventing modern pizza, but a baked bread with toppings has many other ancestors in other cuisines.
Italy’s version of the dish, especially from Naples, is the one we are most familiar with, though 辫颈蝉蝉补濒补诲颈猫谤别 from Provence, coca from Catalonia, and lahmacun (among other forms) from the Middle East all bear a remarkable resemblance to pizza.
As the legend goes, modern pizza鈥攁n open-faced pie slathered in tomato sauce and mozzarella鈥攚as given to us in the 18th century by the baker Raffaele Esposito in Naples, Italy. In 1889, he made a patriotic pie topped with mozzarella, basil, and tomatoes, ingredients in the colors of the Italian flag, in honor of King Umberto and Queen Margherita鈥檚 visit. It is rumored the Queen enjoyed the pie, and thus, it became known as a Margherita.
In the US, Italian immigrants sold pizza in their stores, and the first pizzeria (Lombardi’s) was opened in 1905 by Gennaro Lombardi on Spring Street in New York City, but pizza did not truly not catch on stateside until World War II. Stationed in Italy, many American and European soldiers tasted pizza and brought an appetite for this now-ubiquitous dish home with them. Today, you鈥檒l find pizza sold in Italian food restaurants and by street vendors around the world, which means you鈥檒l never need to look far if you鈥檙e craving a flatbread pizza with crunchy crust baked with olive oil. Tasty!
Is it a pie, a pizza, or a pizza pie?
黑料网 do you call your pizza? On the East Coast of the US, pie or pizza pie are popular terms for an entire pizza. In other regions (and outside the US), these terms would never be used. However, the use of pie for pizza dates back to the 1800s. In 1903, a New-York Tribune article noted 鈥淧ie has traditionally been considered a Yankee dish exclusively鈥� and goes on to describe a 鈥減omidore pizza,鈥� a dish made of dough and tomatoes. Za is another version of听pizza. This is known as a clipping: a whole word shortened while retaining its original meaning.听
As there are many names for pizza, so too are there lots of different styles of pizza. Some of the more popular (and delicious) styles of pizza include:
- New York
- Neapolitan
- Chicago deep dish
- Sicilian
- Californian
- Detroit
- St. Louis
- Hawaiian
- Greek
- Roman
If you want to sound like a true pizzaiolo (a pizza maker), you鈥檒l call your discarded crust bones and judge a pizza by its leopard spots (the black spots on the crust) or its hole structure (the holes in the bread鈥檚 interior).
