HISTORY OF PIZZA
Pizza: The Soul of Italy
There are not many nations that can say their national dish has become an international phenomenon. Italy has two such dishes, pasta and, of course, pizza. Both are famous all over the world, both have made the history of Italian food.
In America pizza usually falls into two categories: thick and cheesy Chicago style or thin and more traditional New York pizza. In Italy pizza also falls into two distinct categories: Italian pizza and the rest of the world. It might seem silly considering the basic ingredients, but one taste of a true Italian pizza and that’s it. You will never feel the same about this simple and delicious food again.
Pizza in its most basic form as a seasoned flatbread has a long history in the Mediterranean. Several cultures including the Greeks and Phoenicians ate a flatbread made from flour and water. The dough would be cooked by placing on a hot stone and then seasoned with herbs. The Greeks called this early pizza plankuntos and it was basically used as an edible plate when eating stews or thick broth. It was not yet what we would call pizza today but it was very much like modern focaccia. These early pizzas were eaten from Rome to Egypt to Babylon and were praised by the ancient historians Herodotus and Cato the Elder.
PIZZA ORIGINS
The word “pizza” is thought to have come from the Latin word pinsa, meaning flatbread (although there is much debate about the origin of the word).
A legend suggests that Roman soldiers gained a taste for Jewish Matzoth while stationed in Roman occupied Palestine and developed a similar food after returning home. However a recent archeological discovery has found a preserved Bronze Age pizza in the Veneto region. By the Middle Ages, these early pizzas started to take on a more modern look and taste. The peasantry of the time used what few ingredients they could get their hands on to produce the modern pizza dough and topped it with olive oil and herbs. The introduction of the Indian Water Buffalo gave pizza another dimension with the production of mozzarella cheese. Even today, the use of fresh mozzarella di buffalo in Italian pizza cannot be substituted. While other cheeses have made their way onto pizza (usually in conjunction with fresh mozzarella), no Italian Pizzeria would ever use the dried shredded type used on so many American pizzas.
THE HISTORY OF ITALIAN CUISINE I
How Italy became the cradle of good food and conviviality
It is easy to love good food, and we Italians know a couple of things about it. When you enjoy cooking, you become acquainted with ingredients and flavors with a pleasurable delight; you get to know how they mix with each other, which type of scent their fragrance produce and how they will taste once they touch your tongue. Ah… food: like poetry and painting, it’s impossible to resist the beauty in forms and colors it creates when it’s spread out on a table and, of course, it’s even harder to refrain from tasting it.
When you love food, there are two things you really want to do: eat it and make it. That’s why it’s nice to have a well furnished kitchen, and plenty of interesting recipes to try, as well as a gang of good friends to invite over to justify your spending every single weekend surrounded by pots and pans, making your best impression of a domestic goddess/god. But you know what, there’s something we barely stop thinking about when in the kitchen, the history behind what we’re making and eating. Have you ever thought of it? You guys, on the other side of the pond, are usually more aware of it, as your cuisine is a delicious melting pot of flavors and cultures hailing from every corner of the Earth, the heritage and history of which is usually well rooted into the community. 
In Italy, things are a bit different: we usually care deeply and lovingly about our family’s cooking history: grandmas and moms’ recipes are passed on with care and pride, a symbol itself of one’s own heritage and roots. Some of us are more aware than others of regional characteristics typical of each dish, but it is not usual, when it comes to the kitchen, to look further back than a couple of generations: our knowledge of why we cook in a certain way and why we eat certain things is normally based on oral sources (our elders) and therefore have a limited timespan.
The history of Italian cuisine, however, is as long and rich as the country’s history itself, its origins laying deep into the ancenstral history of Rome, its people and its political, cultural and social power. Italian cuisine has evolved and changed following the evolution and the changes of Italy itself throughout centuries of wars, cultural mutations and contacts: it’s a history as rich, colorful and fascinating as the most amazing of recipes.
This is what we’re going to tell you today: a tale of food, traditions, kings and warriors, the centuries long tale of Italian kitchens.