Origin of Pizza
By oxyde_gyabo
@oxyde_gyabo (701)
Philippines
July 16, 2010 2:28pm CST
We all know it is from Italy. What is the origin of pizza? There is no written record of its inventor but there are records that there are people who created their improvised pizza.
There are different theories and basis and here's mine:
I believe bread was known before pizza and it is a common food. Since having bread alone is colorless, bakers decided to add ingredients other than wheat. They placed in vegetables and fruits and raisins. But a baker somewhat learned that he can place the ingredients on top of the bread and to avoid it from falling from the round bread, he made in thin and flat. Over time, they find that the toppings that people like is cheese because of it's salty appealing taste. The popular vegetable/fruit that was easy to grow during that time is tomato because up till now tomato is easy to grow since a single plant grows tons of fruits and it is fairly cheap. So the common topping used is cheese and tomato. Italians learned to create a variety of topping to make the pizza attractive. And after centuries, pizza had different popular kinds such as mushroom, hawaiian, meaty etc.
Please share your ideas and let's talk about pizza :D
2 responses
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
16 Jul 10
Some version of what is now called pizza (a flat bread topped with something sweet or savoury or both) has been baked since at least Greek and Roman times. It makes a good meal to take into the fields and was often folded over before baking (now called calzone).
Tomatoes are a very recent introduction. They seem to have been known by the 1540's in Spain and Italy but they were only used as a table decoration in some areas. It was some time before it was considered safe to eat the 'golden apple' (early tomatoes were yellow or light orange and called 'pomo d'oro' or 'golden apples'.)
Nowadays the tomato is almost inseparable from Italian, Spanish, Indian and many other cuisines but it must have replaced other sweet-sour mixtures of fruit, honey and vinegar.
1 person likes this
@oxyde_gyabo (701)
• Philippines
17 Jul 10
Wow, I didn't know people didn't eat tomatoes before because it was for decoration. Ah, so tomatoes were the fruits called golden apples. Thank you for that cool trivia.
If the pizza was also known at Greek and Roman times, could it be possible that they invented it before Italy?
Calzone is a folded pizza? I haven't seen one yet. Maybe when I get to a bakery I'll ask for one. :D
I agree that tomato is inseparable to many cuisines and I also like pizza to always have tomato.
@oxyde_gyabo (701)
• Philippines
18 Jul 10
Yeah, that person is worth an award for creating one of the most famous food worldwide. I love pizza too and my life would be dull without pizza.
