The word “pizza” can be traced back about a thousand years to the southern Italian town of Gaeta, where it was first documented in 997 CE, but a flattish sort of bread with toppings has been enjoyed by lots of other cultures going back to very ancient times.
Pizza as we know it today comes from Naples, but the Egyptians, Persians, Romans, and Greeks all had their version in previous epochs. Seeing as Naples was founded by the Greeks, it’s only natural that “plakous” should carry on in Neapolitan society, evolving in its own Neapolitan way, of course.
Pizza’s Origins as Working-Class Street Food in Naples
Pizza has not always been the wood-fired thing of beauty that we associate with pizza today. For several centuries, pizza was street food for the working-class citizens of Naples. In its original form, pizza was a thin cake of dough fried in oil, usually over an open flame. Over time, a “deluxe” version evolved with some fresh ricotta cheese nestled into the fried, folded dough — a far cry from the gourmet pizzas loaded with ingredients we eat nowadays. The set dressing for this peasant-food reality show was typically not much more than a simple table or rudimentary stand, often set up in the street right outside the pizza maker’s home.
In the 1954 Italian film L’oro di Napoli, you can see brilliantly evocative scenes of this, with a very young and very fetching Sophia Loren playing the role of the pizzaiola. (In real life, pizza-making was a real passion for Loren, who talked about pizza a lot and shared her love of it in a number of cookbooks.)
In her beautiful book series known as the “Neapolitan Novels”, Italian author Elena Ferrante* vividly recreates the Naples of a time gone by, including a brief but memorable moment when the protagonist’s father buys her a pizza oozing with ricotta on the streets of Naples.
*Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels are gorgeously translated into English by Ann Goldstein
The Spread of Pizza’s Popularity in the 20th Century
In Italy
Believe it or not, pizza was not a common component of Italian culinary culture until the mid-20th Century. Before that, it was pretty much limited to the Naples area. It didn’t become widely consumed throughout its home country until the 1940s.
A pizza in Italy is somewhat different than pizzas you find in other countries. Italians use a rather sparing hand when it comes to toppings. A Neapolitan pizza will have a slightly elastic crust that is a bit thick by Italian standards (but thinner than your typical pizza in North America). In places like Tuscany, pizza dough is about as thin as a cracker.
When Italians go out for pizza, everyone orders their own. This is because pizza comes in one size in Italy. You won’t see various diameters or gigantic family-size pizzas at a genuine Italian pizzeria. If you're on the run, look for “pizza a taglio”; these fast-food places serve pizza by the slice.
In America
Even though pizza’s origins are in Naples, its journey to becoming a worldwide culinary phenomenon began in the United States, where pizzerias had been springing up since just after the turn of the century. In places like New York City, Boston, Chicago, and St. Louis, the influx of Neapolitan immigrants who had come to America to work in factories gave birth to pizza culture on the other side of the ocean.
The first licensed pizzeria in the US opened in 1905 — Lombardi’s on Spring Street in Manhattan — but homemade pizzas were surely being served up to immigrant workers on the streets of New York for many moons before that. Lombardi’s pizzeria is still in operation, albeit in a different location, and supposedly with the original pizza oven.
It is widely said that US troops returning from tours of duty in Italy during WWII started the spread of pizza popularity in America, but this is refuted by some experts. Regardless of where the truth lies, one thing is certain: by the 1960s, pizza popularity was galloping along in America, even being featured in a hilarious episode of Popeye the Sailor entitled Popeye’s Pizza Palace.
In Canada: The Ultimate Twist
Moving north to Canada, we come across perhaps the ultimate modern twist in pizza making.
Restauranteur Sam Panopoulos, inspired by the mix of sweet and savory in Chinese cuisine, created the Hawaiian pizza, adding pineapple, ham, and bacon to the base of tomato sauce and cheese. Although it did not get off to a roaring start, Hawaiian pizza eventually took the world by storm, and nowadays all sorts of innovative agrodolce pizzas can be found everywhere from chic restaurants to neighbourhood bars.
It is curious that the inventor of this modern pizza craze was of Greek origins. One might say that it's just a continuation of the long story of Neopolitan pizza that began when the Greeks settled Neapolis in 600 BCE.
Present-Day Pizza Stats
At present, about 13% of the American population consumes pizza on any given day. That comes out to around 350 slices per second! Not bad for a food once considered “disgusting” by Italian food snobs.
If these critics could only see the ubiquitous success of pizza in the world today, they would surely be eating their words.
To fully geek-out on the history of pizza, check out this excellent article, Who Invented Pizza?
