Cooking with Patty, my personal collection of Italian recipes

Pizza is probably the most globally recognizable food today. Originally a food for the poor it has now become a dish for everyone. Pizza is the result of a transformation developed over the centuries, and it is a portrait of the people that have contributed to its own existence. It is a portrait of Italy.

The ancestor of pizza is the simple flat bread. It dominates history as one of most used foods for the poor who were forced, during the centuries, to eat only whole cereals and the few other products that mother nature was offering. They used their own imagination and fantasy to create something tasteful for their meals. Barley was the most common ingredient used to prepare bread and the first bread to take the form of the pizza. Other grains were also used, like spelt (Triticum dicoccum), which for three centuries was the favorite grain of the Romans.  The grains were crushed, mixed with water and flattened down on a round thin pan. Then they were cooked over hot stones. This dough was used throughout Europe and Asia. Around 200 b.c. during the Roman empire, wheat flour started to substitute the other cereals becoming the standard grain used. Thanks to the fortuitous discovery of the leavening process bread itself was getting closer to the one we’re consuming today.

Through the centuries that followed pizza took its own course and developed into the dish that we now know. This dish has inspired many writers and artists in our history and it’s from their documents and notes that we know that pizza has truly old origins. Its existence is certified long before the discovery of the Americas around the year 1000 in the city of Naples. At that time pizzas were prepared with lard, cheese and herbs. The pizza as we know it today was developed after the introduction of the tomato which originally came from the Andes, and brought back to Europe by the Spanish. They set the stage for the modern pizza.

Tomatoes weren’t an immediate success though. At first nobody thought that they were eatable. The fruit was small and yellow and they were used for decoration. It was in 1694 that the first writing about the tomato as a food appeared in a book written by, Antonio Latini, who wrote that the tomato was cooked like zucchini and eggplants. Then later in 1839 in an other publication by, Ippolito Cavalcanti, it’s written that the tomato was used as a sauce for vermicelli. It is believed that tomatoes were used to prepare pizza starting from 1850.

The most famous pizza of all is the, “Pizza Margherita” and for this one we have a precise date. In 1889 King Umberto I and the Queen Margherita went, as usual, for the summer period to their residence in Capodimonte. The sovereigns heard about this dish called pizza, so they asked to try it. The most famous pizzaiolo of Naples, don Raffaele Esposito, was called to prepare it for them. He prepared two traditional ones and a third one created especially for them in their honor. On this third pizza he put tomatoes, mozzarella and basil reproducing the colors of the Italian flag. Queen Margherita especially liked this pizza and don Raffaele launched it the next day in his pizzeria. The new pizza was then called, “Margherita.”

The pizzeria is almost as important as the pizza itself. The first pizzeria was built in Naples in the year 1830 at Port’Alba since then they have been built everywhere in Italy, and have greatly contributed to the diffusion of the pizza itself. Eating in a pizzeria in Italy is a wonderful experience. Many still use the wood burning brick ovens and maintain a very characteristic look. The pizza is cooked directly on the brick surface close to the fire where the temperature reaches 750°F. In most pizzerias you can watch the pizzaiolo preparing and cooking the pizza, which is really something to see.

In Italy almost everybody loves pizza. When we go outside with friends or family the first choice is often pizza. It’s a food, in my opinion, that makes you feel good not only for its taste, but also for the colors themselves. There is nothing like going out to eat in a characteristic pizzeria with friends or family. We enjoy sitting in a pizzeria with friends eating and chatting away. Conversation at the table is very important to us and nothing sets the mood better than a pizzeria.

A good pizza is actually a very simple dish made with fresh ingredients. It makes for a very healthy and satisfying meal. Pizza is also easy to make at home. It doesn’t have the same taste as a pizza baked in a wood burning brick oven, but it is good just the same. In my family we usually prepare it on Sunday night, actually I should say that it has now become a tradition. The toppings are various depending on the season and personal tastes. I love the simple “Pizza alla marinara“, made with tomatoes, chopped garlic, olive oil and oregano, it’s delicious. We all like pizza with bell peppers, we make that one every time. The wonderful thing about pizza is that you can invent your own. Just keep the basics in mind and you are set.

I’ve been to the States and I’ve tasted the pizza there. It is very good, but it’s not like Italian pizza. You really cannot compare the American pizza with the Italian one, they’re two different things. Pizza was brought to the States by the Italians and of course its development in the States is related to the environment. Pizza, like any other dish, evolves differently when it’s brought to an environment other than the original one. It integrates with the customs, the culture, and the ingredients of its surroundings.

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