A History of Pizza
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A History of Pizza
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Re: A History of Pizza
#2By co-incidence I saw this on twitter today:
> A beautifully preserved thermopolium (cook shop), one of the places in #Pompeii where one could purchase hot and ready-to-eat food. Most Romans resided in insulae and did not have facilities to cook at home and relied on thermopolia to buy their hot meals. (photo)
https://twitter.com/carolemadge/status/1184381800656920577
The baking ovens in Pompei are - of course - wood-fired brick structures with domed tops on the inside. Like a pizza oven.
http://www.pompeiin.com/en/Bakeries_in_Pompeii.html
I would be completely unsurprised if there is an unbroken lineage from these shops (in other towns that were not obliterated by Vesuvius) through to Pizzerias in present-day Napoli.
Re: A History of Pizza
#3"Some even had tomatoes on top. Only recently introduced from the Americas, these were still a curiosity, looked down upon by contemporary gourmets".
Well that settles it. Next time a pizza traditionalist blasts me for having pineapple on my pizza, I'll counter that he shouldn't have tomatoes on theirs.
Re: A History of Pizza
#4"Some even had tomatoes on top. Only recently introduced from the Americas, these were still a curiosity, looked down upon by contemporary gourmets". Well that settles it. Next time a pizza traditionalist blasts me for having pineapple on my pizza, I'll counter that he shouldn't have tomatoes on theirs.
And the use of tomato paste or sauce underneath, rather than sliced tomato on top, seems to be an even later innovation.
Re: A History of Pizza
#5"Some even had tomatoes on top. Only recently introduced from the Americas, these were still a curiosity, looked down upon by contemporary gourmets". Well that settles it. Next time a pizza traditionalist blasts me for having pineapple on my pizza, I'll counter that he shouldn't have tomatoes on theirs.
There's a kind of pizza that I've had at a Turkish restaurant that comes without tomatoes. Really nice.
I'd assume a common origin with the Italian variety via the Romans (ancient).
Re: A History of Pizza
#6Happy to see a reference about the pineapple pizza invention.
Re: A History of Pizza
#7"Some even had tomatoes on top. Only recently introduced from the Americas, these were still a curiosity, looked down upon by contemporary gourmets". Well that settles it. Next time a pizza traditionalist blasts me for having pineapple on my pizza, I'll counter that he shouldn't have tomatoes on theirs.
There's a kind of pizza that I've had at a Turkish restaurant that comes without tomatoes. Really nice. I'd assume a common origin with the Italian variety via the Romans (ancient).
Many varieties of Italian pizza are "white pizza" / "pizza blanca" and have no tomatoes.
Re: A History of Pizza
#8Boo, no mention of New Haven's early contribution. Not that I'm biased (I am, they have the best pizza in the world, objectively speaking, of course)
Re: A History of Pizza
#9Boo, no mention of New Haven's early contribution. Not that I'm biased (I am, they have the best pizza in the world, objectively speaking, of course) http://www.ctvisit.com/articles/new-haven-apizza-history
The pizza on that page looks extremely greasy and - most importantly - burned! Hope it's not representative of New Haven pizza in general.
Re: A History of Pizza
#10Boo, no mention of New Haven's early contribution. Not that I'm biased (I am, they have the best pizza in the world, objectively speaking, of course) http://www.ctvisit.com/articles/new-haven-apizza-history
I can think of a few contenders for best pizza that I have had (mostly in Italy) - but the worst was undoubtedly a ghastly slice of horror that I purchased at the big conference centre in Atlanta - the pizza topping had been burnt and this was remedied by heaping on more cheese and mystery meat to obscure this fact.