[إيليا]

The History of Pizza


The root word of Pizza in Latin is PICEA, which describes the
blackening of the crust caused by the fire underneath.

It's impossible to date the first pizza, since it was never
made as such, but rather evolved over thousands of years. Considered
a peasant's meal in Italy for centuries, modern pizza is attributed
to Raffaele Esposito of Napoli (Naples). In 1889, Esposito baked
pizza especially for the visit of Italian King Umberto I and Queen
Margherita. He covered the humble rounds of dough with tomato sauce,
mozzarella cheese and basil. The pizza was very patriotic and
resembled the Italian flag with its colors of green (basil), white
(mozzarella) , and red (tomatoes), and was favored by the Queen. This
pizza was named Pizza Margherita. Now Naples is known as the pizza
capitol of the world. In 1830 the world's first true pizzeria,
Antica Pizzeria Port' Alba, opened and is still in business today in
Naples!