Saturday, October 19, 2019

A History of Pizza

Alexander Lee in History Today:

While on a visit to Naples in 1889, King Umberto I and Queen Margherita grew tired of the complicated French dishes they were served for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Hastily summoned to prepare some local specialities for the queen, the pizzaiolo Raffaele Esposito cooked three sorts of pizza: one with lard, caciocavallo and basil; another with cecenielli; and a third with tomatoes, mozzarella and basil. The queen was delighted. Her favourite — the last of the three — was christened pizza margherita in her honour.

[…]

It introduced the notion that pizza was a genuinely Italian food — akin to pasta and polenta.

​ Always enjoy the story of my favorite food. But I still fall for the trap that Pizza is American sometimes.