LA PIZZA in ITALIA History and Cult of Pizza
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Pizza LA PIZZA IN ITALIA History and Cult of Pizza To talk about pizza let’s start with the melting pot of the Internet. A Google search shows that the word pizza comes out on top (approximately 234,000,000 results), with “Hamburger” at 163,000,000 and “Spaghetti” 172,000,000), testimony to the popularity – virtual in this instance – of this much-loved food whose origins are still unclear. Antonio Pace, President of Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana – AVPN (Real Neapolitan Pizza Association), is convinced that not Japanese wanted everyone knows the history of the pizza: “It’s only right to remember how in the 1980s Americans believed to know what pizza that [pizza] was a typical U.S. foodstuff and the Japanese wanted to know what pizza was called in Italy.” What we know for certain is that the name “pizza” goes way back in time. It appears in tenth- was called in Italy century medieval documents, but also has roots outside the Italian Peninsula, having been influenced by Goth and Longobard words such as bissa and bizza (meaning “bite”; bissen in modern German), which invaders of the peninsula gave to the focaccia bread (without a topping) that the Italians were accustomed to eating, the impoverished food of a people who had not been wealthy for centuries. Modern pizza has an ancient past, as demonstrated by myriad literary references. For instance, the Roman poet Virgil, in his famous Latin epic poem “Aeneid”, describes how Aeneas was obliged to eat his mensa so as not to die of hunger: mensa was a type of oven-baked bread made from wheat and was used as a base for the topping, anticipating the modern gourmet pizza trend. The great encyclopaedist Pliny the Elder, in his work Naturalis Historia, lists the recipes of two types of focaccia: pastillus (bran and must) and offa (water and barley). In Petronius’ Satyricon, on the other hand, we read repeated mentions of an unusual focaccia called placenta (from Ancient Greek plax, meaning flattened surface). La Pizza in ItAnotheralia forbear might be the Testarolo, typical of the Ancient Roman city area of Luni, in the Ovens were unearthed LA PIZZA IN ITALIA at the Pompeii History and Cult of Pizza archaeological site, which date back Massa e Carrara province, regarded by some as the oldest dried pasta in the world, given that it to the fifth was documented at the time of the Roman Empire. Testaroli are made from wheat flour (farro, or spelt, most likely, in Ancient Roman times), salt and water, and look like very thin rounds. century BCE The name originates from the container/oven in which they are cooked: the “testo”. Modern testaroli are traditionally served with a very famous Italian sauce, pesto alla genovese, which is used as a pizza topping in its own right. In addition to these ancestors of the pizza, we could add one more theory. Relatively recently a grinding stone, pestle and hot stone were unearthed in an archaeological dig near Bilancino, in Tuscany. Further analysis under a digital microscope and radiocarbon dating revealed traces of starch that went back to 28,000 BCE. The oldest flour in the world therefore dates to 30,000 years ago. Archaeologists, not content with the scientific evidence (the firstgrinding “ stone” to make the earliest “flour”), reproduced a primitive focaccia, a distant relative of bread and therefore also today’s pizza. They dried typha roots, a common wetland species, grinding them to make a “flour” used to make crackers that were cooked on a hot stone like the one found at the Bilancino archaeological site. Closer to our time, it is worth remarking that the Campana bread-making tradition – Naples is the capital of the Campania region – has millennium-old roots. Ovens were unearthed at the Pompeii archaeological site, which date back to the fifth century BCE and share the same design as today’s traditional pizza ovens in Naples, deemed essential by pizza makers whose art has been recognized by UNESCO as “intangible cultural heritage of humanity” (2017). From archaeology we move to literature to seek out other testimonies.La French writer Pizza Alexandre in It alia An art recognized LA PIZZA IN ITALIA by UNESCO too History and Cult of Pizza Dumas visited Naples in 1835 and was enchanted by pizza and by the fact that Neapolitans lived, almost exclusively it seemed to him, on pizza and watermelon alone. Far older Italian literary references exist, however. The novella “Le doie pizzelle” (Lo cunto de li cunti, 1634-36) is a tale of magic and deception with pizzella as the lead character. (Pizzella is fried pizza, not the more widespread wood-fired pizza.) The word “pizza” appeared formally in Naples in the first half of the sixteenth century. At the wedding breakfast between Bona Sforza, daughter of Gian Galeazzo, and Sigismondo I, King of Poland, white pizzas and “pagonazze” pizzas were served (it is supposed they were so richly topped that the guests became “blue in the face” – “paonazzi” in Italian), as well as “fiorentine” pizzas (namely, sweet pies). It should be noted that Pellegrino Artusi’s pivotal publication on the history of Italian gastronomy La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene – the first edition dates to 1891 – catalogues 790 recipes but only one of them is dedicated to pizza, Recipe 609 to be precise. The “pizza alla napoletana” narrated by the supreme gourmet from Romagna will leave you puzzled as it is a recipe that resembles the dessert pastiera napoletana rather than a beloved pizza margherita (or marinara!). Another conflicting note is the schiacciata alla pizzaiuola mentioned by Enrico Alliata, Duke of Salaparuta (1879-1946), a leading winemaker and food enthusiast, in his book Cucina Vegetariana e Naturismo Crudo, in which he sets down more than 1,000 “recipes chosen from every village”. The only trace, a very distant relative of our much-loved pizza, is the nineteenth-century schiacciata La Pizza in Italla pizzaiuolaalia, which proves surprising with its pastry base no. 546 (a sweet shortcrust pastry!) LA PIZZA IN ITALIA Naples is certainly the History and Cult of Pizza widely documented cradle of the modern pizza topped with provolone, scamorza and mozzarella cheeses, tomato, garlic and oregano, baked in the oven for half an hour. The Duke’s schiacciata alla pizzaiola, with its sweet shortcrust base, brings to mind the pizza napoletana described by Bartolomeo Scappi, Pope Pius V’s personal chef, in his 1570 work, whose recipe instructs us to pound in a mortar almonds, pine nuts, dates, fresh figs and sultanas, adding rose water to obtain a paste that could be mixed with egg yolks, sugar, cinnamon and grape must. It was spread on a 3cm thick sheet and baked, without forgetting that “all sorts of toppings can be used on this pizza”. Naples is certainly the widely documented cradle of the modern pizza. It is home to the earliest eateries dedicated to the making and eating of pizza, the first pizzerie“ ”, or “pizzarie” as the famous Neapolitan poet, playwright and essayist Salvatore Di Giacomo liked to call them. The oldest official document dates to 1792, which cites one Giuseppe Sorrentino who had rented a space in Naples’ Loreto neighbourhood and had requested from the Ministry of the General Police the issuance of a permit to conduct a “pizzaria” business. Some old pizzerias are still operational today and, in order to safeguard this Neapolitan culinary heritage, on 13 December 2016 the Unione Pizzerie Storiche Napoletane “Le Centenarie” was formed by 10 historic pizza restaurants that have been baking the city’s best pizzas for more than 100 years. When we talk about pizza in Naples it’s obvious that we are referring to a centuries-old tradition and that it is something taken seriously. Aided by waves of Italian migration, including many Neapolitans, in the late nineteenth century, the first pizza ovens to win over the USA began burning in the bigger cities, where Italian communities were widelyLa represented. In SanPizza Francisco, in It aalialia The first authorized pizzeria LA PIZZA IN ITALIA in the USA was founded History and Cult of Pizza in New York in 1905 Chicago, New York and Philadelphia, pizza was sold in the streets of “Little Italy” with respect for tradition given its nature as cheap and fast street food. The traditional stufa, a copper cylinder with handles and a lid, which was used to transport the pizzas, keeping them hot, made its first appearance in the streets of Chicago. Later, pizza also started to make its way into coffee shops and drugstores. The first authorized pizzeria in the USA was founded in New York in 1905 and is still open today: Lombardi. Chicago played a key role in the history of pizza in the USA: deep-dish pizza dates to 1943 and was invented by Pizzeria Uno, still thriving. It would therefore seem clear that pizza also boasts a centuries-old tradition in the USA and that it is taken equally seriously there. The paternity of pizza has even appeared before the Court of Historical Review and Appeals, in San Francisco. This is not a real tribunal whose verdicts bear legal weight; the judges are called upon for opinions about historic matters, having listened to the counterparties gathered out of respect like in an actual trial. In May 1991, the dispute among certain scholars ended up before the court to establish who invented the pizza as we know it today. The president George T. Choppelas, a composed San Francisco municipal court judge, gave equal consideration to the opposing theories, asking witnesses and speakers to pose their arguments.