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This article is about the bread pie. For the programming language, see Pizza programming language. For the Australian television show, see Pizza (Australian television).

In its basic form, a pizza (occasionally, pizza pie) is an oven-baked, flat, usually circular bread covered with tomato sauce and cheese with optional garnishes. The cheese is usually mozzarella or sometimes "pizza cheese". Various other foodstuffs can be added to this design as garnishes, most typically ground meats and sausages, such as salami, pepperoni, ham, bacon and ground beef; fruits such as pineapple and olives; vegetable-like fruits such as chili peppers, sweet bell peppers and tomatoes; and vegetables such as onions. Mushrooms are also a popular topping. The crust is traditionally plain but can be flavoured with butter, garlic, herbs, or sesame. Pizza is normally eaten hot (typically at lunch or dinner), but leftovers are often eaten cold, typically at breakfast or on a picnic.

Pizza is eaten in restaurants sometimes called pizzerias or pizza parlors. It can also be purchased in grocery stores or supermarkets; in many countries, pizza can also be ordered by phone (or, increasingly, via the Web) to be delivered, hot and ready for eating, to the home.

The word "pizza" is from the Italian word pizza (IPA: [pittsa]), which was originally used to refer to a range of dough-based dishes, and whose derivation is thought to be pizza ← pinza ← Latin pincere "to mash up". The expression Che pizza! is still used to mean "What a mess!". The plural of the word in Italian is pizze (IPA: [pittse]).

Types of pizza

Authentic Neapolitan pizza (pizza Napoletana)

According to the Associazione vera pizza napoletana, genuine Neapolitan pizza dough consists of wheat flour (type 0 and/or 00), natural yeast or brewer's yeast, and water. For proper results, strong flour with high protein content (as used for bread-making rather than cakes) must be used. The dough must be kneaded by hand or with an approved mixer. After the rising process, the dough must be formed by hand without the help of a rolling pin or any other mechanical device, and may be no more than 0.3 cm thick. Baking the pizza must take place in a wood-fired, stone oven at 485°C (905°F) for 60-90 seconds. When cooked, it should be soft and fragrant.

The classic types and their respective toppings include:

• Marinara or Napoletana: tomato, olive oil, oregano, and garlic.
• Margherita: tomato, olive oil, fresh basil leaves, and fior-di-latte (mozzarella made from cow's milk) or mozzarella di bufala.
• Formaggio e Pomodoro: tomato, olive oil, and grated parmesan cheese. Basil leaves are optional.

Turnovers in the pizza family:

• Ripieno or Calzone: fior-di-latte or mozzarella di bufala, sometimes also ricotta cheese, olive oil, and salami, other meats, vegetables, etc.
• Stromboli: mozzarella, meat, vegetables, etc.

Regional specialties

Pizza has become an international food since the toppings can be extensively varied to meet local variations in taste. These pizzas consist of the same basic design but include an exceptionally diverse choice of ingredients, such as anchovies, egg, pineapple, eggplant, lamb, couscous, chicken, fish, and shellfish, meats done in ethnic styles such as Moroccan lamb, kebab or even chicken tikka masala, and non-traditional spices such as curry and Thai sweet chili. A "white pizza" (pizza bianca) uses no tomato sauce, often substituting pesto or dairy products such as sour cream. Pizzas with non-traditional ingredients are known in the United States as "gourmet pizza" or California-style pizza. Pizzas can also be made without meat for vegetarians, and without cheese for vegans. Breakfast pizzas are topped with ingredients such as scrambled eggs.

In San Francisco, California, the Indian Pizza has become a source of pride, wooing residents with with traditional South Asian flavors on top of pizza: curries, prawns, tandoori chicken, etc.

• Hawaiian pizzas are an American invention, usually consisting of a cheese and tomato base with Canadian bacon and pineapple. It is especially popular in the Western United States, where a style commonly called "The Perfect Pizza" consists of pepperoni on one half, and Hawaiian-style on the other. Hawaiian-style pizza is mocked by some (primarily outside the western US) as a variation which has strayed too far from its Italian roots, and loathed by some others for the effect the addition of sweet fruit has on the overall flavor, though its popularity has nonetheless endured and is a favorite of many. Interestingly, "Hawaiian-style" pizza is not particularly popular in Hawaii.

• In New York City, pizza is sold in oversized, thin and flexible slices. It is traditionally hand-tossed and light on sauce. The slices are sometimes eaten folded in half, as its size and flexibility may otherwise make it unwieldy to eat by hand. This style of pizza tends to dominate the Northeastern states, many shops advertising New York-style pizza.

• In Chicago, Illinois, the Chicago-style pizza, or deep dish pizza, contains a crust which is formed up the sides of a deep dish pan and reverses the order of ingredients, using crust, cheese, filling, then sauce on top. Some versions (usually referred to as "stuffed" pizza) have two layers of crust with the sauce on top. Deep dish pizza was purportedly invented and first served in 1943 at Uno's Pizzeria, which, as of 2005, was still operating along with its twin restaurant, Due's, in the River North neighborhood of Chicago.

• In New Haven, Connecticut, the local specialty is known as apizza. This thin-crust pizza originated with the Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana in the Wooster Square neighborhood of New Haven. The canonical New Haven-style pizza is a white clam pie.

• In St. Louis, Missouri, Saint Louis-style pizza is made with a thin crispy crust, often heavily seasoned with salt and oregano, topped with provel cheese, and served in small squares rather than pie-like slices.

• In Buffalo, New York, pizza is made with a thicker, doughier crust than traditional New York style pizza, with a slightly thicker and sweeter sauce, mozzarella cheese and (usually) pepperoni cooked until it is burned and crispy on the edges. It is generally served with Buffalo wings, which are ordered by the dozen or the bucket.

• In Utica, NY, a type of pizza called tomato pie is common. This type of pizza is usually served cold, and is topped only with a light layer of Pecorino Romano cheese

• In the Youngstown, OH area, one can find what is known as "Brier Hill Pizza". This style of pizza originated in the Brier Hill neighborhood, which was Youngstown's "Little Italy". It features a thick sauce topped with a mixture of Parmesan and Romano cheese and green peppers.

• In Rhode Island, there exists a type of pizza called strip pizza, which is commonly sold in bakeries. This form of pizza has a thick, chewy, almost bread-like dough and is topped with a very thick tomato sauce. It has a minimal amount of cheese, and is always served cold. It is usually (but not always) wrapped in individual strips (hence the name).

• In Scotland, fish and chip shops commonly sell a "pizza supper". This consists of a portion of fried chips (french fries) and a frozen pizza which has been deep fried rather than baked. Although its nutritional value is dubious, it is nevertheless a popular meal.

• In Canada, a popular pizza topping combination uses bacon, pepperoni and mushrooms and is called a 'Canadian Pizza'. In Quebec, the Canadian Pizza topping combination is called a 'Québécois Pizza'. There is no difference between the two and the differentiation is merely political. A pizza with mushrooms, pepperoni, and green bell pepper is referred to as "All-Dressed".

• In Australia, a commonly sold style is the Aussie pizza, which is topped with ham, bacon, cheese and egg. It is generally loved or hated by pizza lovers, and is featured on most pizza shop menus across the country.

• In Japan and South Korea, pizza toppings may include sweet corn, diced potatoes, scrambled eggs, mayonnaise, Camembert cheese, curry sauce, and various kinds of seafood. Japanese pizzas are commonly served with Tabasco sauce, to be added as a condiment.

Crusts and baking methods

Pizza may be baked with a thin bread bottom (Italian or "hand-tossed" style) or with thicker bread (pan pizza).

In restaurants, pizza can be baked in a gas oven, a conveyor belt oven or, in the case of more expensive restaurants, a wood- or coal-fired brick oven. In the latter case, the pizza is slid into the oven on a long paddle called a peel and baked directly on the hot bricks. When making pizza at home, it can be baked on a "pizza stone" in a regular oven to imitate the effect of a brick oven. Another option is grilled pizza, in which the crust is baked directly on a barbecue grill. Greek pizza, like Chicago-style pizza, is baked in a pan rather than directly on the bricks of the pizza oven.

In home-made pizza, there are many variations on the bread used for crust. In the United States, creations such as pita pizza, bagel pizza, and tortilla pizza are popular, especially with children. In Japan, where full-size ovens are a rarity in the home, pizza toast is a popular version.

Frozen pizzas are generally inferior in quality to pizzeria-made pizzas, though there do exist exemplary frozen pizzas. Recently, frozen pizzas with a rising-crust have appeared on the market.

Making an American pizza

Ingredients: flour, eggs, corn flour, yeast, sugar, salt, spices, tomato sauce, cheese ...

History

The history of pizza can be traced back to the greek colonies of Magna Graecia (southern Italy).

Pizza arguably has its first written mention in Book VII of Virgil's Aeneid:

Their homely fare dispatch’d, the hungry band

Invade their trenchers next, and soon devour,

To mend the scanty meal, their cakes of flour.

Ascanius this observ’d, and smiling said:

“See, we devour the plates on which we fed.”

In the 3rd century B.C., the first history of Rome, written by Marcus Porcius Cato, mentions a "flat round of dough dressed with olive oil, herbs, and honey baked on stones". Further evidence is found in 79 A.D. from the remains of Pompeii; archeologists excavated shops that closely resemble a present day pizzeria.

The tomato was first believed to be poisonous (as most other fruits of the nightshade family are), when it came to Europe in the 16th century. However, by the late 18th century even the poor of the area around Naples added it as an ingredient to their yeast-based flat bread, and the dish gained in popularity. Pizza became a tourist attraction, and visitors to Naples ventured into the poorer areas of the city to try the local specialty.

The earliest pizzeria opened in 1830 at Via Port'Alba 18 in Naples and is still in business today. Pizza was still considered "poor man's food" in 1889 when Raffaele Esposito, the most famous pizzaiolo of Naples, was summoned before King Umberto I and Queen Margherita of Savoy to prepare the local specialty. It is said that he made two traditional ones and additionally created one in the colours of the Italian flag with red tomato sauce, white mozzarella cheese, and green basil leaves. The Queen was delighted and "pizza Margherita" was born.

An Italian immigrant to the US in 1897 named Gennaro Lombardi opened a small grocery store in New York's Little Italy. An employee of his, Antonio Totonno Pero (also an Italian immigrant) began making pizza for the store to sell. Their pizza became so popular, Lombardi opened the first US pizzeria in 1905, naming it simply Lombardi's. In 1924, Totonno left Lombardi's to open his own pizzeria on Coney Island called Totonno's. Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana opened in New Haven in 1925. Boston was introduced to pizza in 1926 by Anthony Polcari when he opened Pizzeria Regina in Boston's North End. At this point in time in the U.S., pizza consumption was still limited mostly to the Italian immigrant crowd.

The international breakthrough came after World War II. Although the birthplace of modern day pizza is Naples, local bakers were at a loss to satisfy the demand from American soldiers. While the American troops involved in the Italian campaign took their appreciation for the dish back home, the millions of Italians called to help rebuild the damaged economy introduced their cuisine to the rest of Europe.

With the rising popularity in the 1950s, especially in the US, pizza became a component of the growing chain-restaurant industry. Some leading early pizza chains were Shakey's Pizza (which invented the term pizza parlor; formerly, the term pizzeria was preferred) and Pizza Hut (now owned by Yum! Brands, Inc.), both founded in 1954, the former in Sacramento and the latter in Wichita. Some later entrants to the dine-in pizza market were Happy Joe's, California Pizza Kitchen, and Round Table Pizza. The pizza business today is dominated by companies that specialize in home delivery (or serve it that way exclusively), including Domino's Pizza, Little Caesar's, and Papa John's Pizza. Even Pizza Hut has shifted its emphasis away from pizza parlors and toward home delivery. These national pizza chains often coexist with locally owned and operated pizza chains and independent restaurants. Because pizzas can be made quickly and are easily transported, most pizza restaurants in the United States offer call-in pizza delivery services. The lack of such delivery services at the time in England was the focus of an extended passage in the Douglas Adams novel The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul.

In most developed countries, pizza is also found in supermarkets as a frozen food. Considerable amounts of food technology has gone into the creation of palatable frozen pizzas. The main challenges include preventing the sauce from combining with the dough and producing a crust that can be frozen and reheated without becoming rigid. Modified corn starch is commonly used as a moisture barrier between the sauce and crust; traditionally the dough is somewhat pre-baked and other ingredients are also sometimes pre-cooked; lately, frozen pizzas with completely raw ingredients have also begun to appear.

Quotation

• "When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, That's Amore." sung by Dean Martin, reached US number 2 in 1953.

Pizza in culture

Pizza is a common food in animated television series; reflecting the popularity of the food, as well as the ease of drawing it over and over. Television series that feature pizza parlours as regular locations include Goof Troop and The Weekenders (As part of a running gag, the pizza parlor had a different name, and theme in each episode). The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are also regular consumers of pizzas.

In the film Splendor in the Grass, set in 1929, the character Bud Stamper visits a New Haven pizzeria (see also apizza) as a freshman at Yale University, and has to ask the waitress, "What is pizza?" In the 1920's, pizza would have been an unknown food to a non-Italian Midwesterner.

Pizza has also been used in computer games, one example is Pizza Tycoon.

External links

• PizzaMaking.com - Pizza recipes and discussion forum
• Pizzas-Recipes
• Recipes-Dessert pizzas
• Dessert Pizzas-Recipes
• Associazione vera pizza napoletana — US Chapter
• A more in-depth history of the Pizza
• Lombardi's Pizzeria in New York City, America's oldest Pizzeria
• For the Pizza Makers of Naples, a Tempest in a Pie Dish by Al Baker
• Encyclopizza - The Guide to Preparing Great Pizza
• Pizza recipe with step-by-step illustrated instructions
• Basic Pizza Dough Home made pizza dough with step-by-step illustrations and short movie.
• A Vegan pizza recipe.
• Pizza marketplace

• Italian cuisine
• American cuisine
• Fast food
• Peasant foods
• Pizza
• Globalization