Pizza, Pizza, Pizza!

What’s both a snack and a meal, has near-infinite variety and widely available (especially here in New Jersey)? It’s pizza!

Pizza’s roots go back a long way. Flatbreads with toppings historically date back to the 6th century BCE. Wikipedia tells us that the word itself might come from a Latin document from 997 CE from the town of Gaeta, where someone needed payment in "twelve pizzas, a pork shoulder, and a pork kidney on Christmas Day, and 12 pizzas and a couple of chickens on Easter Day". But the modern pizza would have to wait until the arrival of tomatoes, brought back from the Americas by the Spanish in the 16th century. Even then, sources are vague as to the modern pizza’s origins; signs point to it appearing in Naples, Italy sometime in either the 18th or early 19th century. In the latter time is when Italian immigrants brought pizza to the United States. It finally took off in the 1940s at the end of the Second World War.

What makes a pizza? The starting point has three ingredients: dough for the crust, tomato sauce, and cheese – although there are varieties that skip sauce, or cheese, too. Crusts can vary from thin (as in a Trenton tomato pie) to very thick (such as Chicago deep-dish). Sauce can be canned or crushed, purchased or made from scratch. Cheese is usually mozzarella (buffalo variety for a Napoli pizza) but that can vary too. You can stop there, or add whatever your heart desires, be it broccoli, anchovies, ham & pineapple, etc.

While the possibilities are endless, here are a few varieties you may know. The Trenton tomato pie is the standard three ingredients, but with the sauce on top. Margherita adds fresh basil, symbolizing the Italian flag (white, red, and green). A typical New Haven pizza has no puffy edge crust, it’s thin all the way through. That, and it has clams for a topping. Pizza bianca is a white pizza, no tomato sauce; instead, it uses olive oil (and sometimes butter!) as a base, and could have dollops of ricotta cheese as well.

The Library has many resources should you wish to bake your own pizza, or simply read about the many different varieties. A small selection follows:

The Pizza Bible by Tony Gemignani.

The Elements of Pizza : Unlocking the Secrets to World-class Pies at Home by Ken Forkish.

American Pie : My Search for the Perfect Pizza by Peter Reinhart.

Pizza : History, Recipes, Stories, People, Places, Love : a book by James and Thom Elliot; there is also a DVD of their explorations – James & Thom's Pizza Pilgrimage.

A couple of videos are available at Craft & Hobby site:

reachable via mcl.org > Resources > Lifelong Learning

For younger readers:

Who Wants Pizza? The Kids' Guide to the History, Science & Culture of Food by Jan Thornhill.

Pizza : The Cool Stories and Facts Behind Every Slice by Paige Towler.

We Love Pizza : Everything You Want to Know About Your Number One Food by Elenia Beretta.

All this has made me hungry, see you at a pizzeria!