Milestones in the Life of a Pizza

Pizza is a baked pie of Italian origin that is made from s shallow, bread like, crust covered with seasoned tomato sauce, cheese, and, most times, with various toppings such as meats, vegetables, and fruits. The word pizza is believed to have come from an Old Italian word meaning 'a point'. We are going to look at a few of the milestones in the life of the pizza pie, the world's favorite food.

It is said that at the height of the Persian Empire, the soldiers of Darius the Great, baked a kind of bread, flat on top of their shields. These bread dishes were then covered with cheese and dates, a type of nut common around that time and area. This may actually be one of the first pizza type dishes on record since it dates back to around 6^th century B.C.

The excavation of Pompeii, the city that was caught so off guard by an erupting volcano that there are people frozen where they stood under cooled lava, has given the world much of its knowledge of Roman utensils and cookware. In these ashes, evidence was found of a flat flour cake that was baked and widely eaten at that time in Pompeii and nearby Neopolis. Also discovered were shops, complete with slabs and other tools of the trade, which look remarkably like today's pizza ovens and shops.

Around 1522, tomatoes were brought back to Europe from the New World. Since it was thought that these were poisonous, it was the poorer people of Naples, which was the old Neopolis, who started adding tomatoes to their dough to create the first simple pizza, as we know it today. The Neapolitan pies were regarded as the best pies in all of Italy, and people flocked from all around to taste them.

In the late 19^th Century, pizza was sold in the streets of Naples at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It was cut from large trays that had been cooked in the baker's oven and had a simple topping of mushrooms and anchovies. As the popularity of pizza grew, stalls began being set up where the dough was shaped as customers ordered and various toppings were invented to attract more people. These pizza stalls evolved into the modern day pizzerias. Pizza migrated to America in the late 19^th Century with the Italians, and is now served all over the country.