Pizza is ultimately a bread-based dish, of course. It's known that humans have been grinding up grass seeds, mixing the resulting powder with water and baking dough for many millennia. The obvious step onwards from eating plain dry bread is to add other foodstuffs to it, either before, during or after the baking process. Recipes from Naples from around 1000 AD detail how to make a flat bread topped with herbs and lard cheese.
However the characteristic additional foodstuffs on a modern pizza are, of course, tomatoes and cheese. Tomatoes were introduced to Europe by the Spanish returning from their conquests in South America in the 15th Century. At first they were grown as ornamental plants, but by the end of the 17th Century tomatoes were a recognised food in Europe. By 1839 the first written recipes for tomato sauce had appeared in Italy and this was probably being spread on top of bread by 1850.
In 1889 King Umberto I and his wife, Queen Margherita went to their traditional summer palace in Capo di Monte. Hearing of a local dish called pizza they asked to try it, and the most famous pizza chef in Naples, don Raffaele, was called in to prepare this for them. He decided to create a new pizza in their honour, on which he put tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and basil, so that the red, white and green would reflect the colours of the Italian flag. The pizza was a resounding success and don Raffaele named it "pizza Margherita" in honour of the queen. This is also usually considered the turning point from where pizza ceased to be a food fit only for peasants and the lower classes.
(yes, some of this matches iain's writeup, I'm not stealing from him, just using sources that say some similar things... I'm including what he's written for completeness)
The first documented foods that look similar to what we call pizza was a dish eaten by early Greeks and Etruscans, called plakuntos. It was a flat, round bread, baked with herbs and the occasional onion and garlic. The Romans later borrowed the dish, and it is mentioned in various historical records. By 1000 CE, a dough disk with herbs called picea was common in Naples and other parts of Italy. It was used mostly for the women to satisfy their hunger while waiting for all of their bread to bake in the communal ovens in the towns.
For the longest time pizza was sold by open-air vendors, or at small stands. Port'Alba, however, changed all that, as the first of what could be called true pizzerias. Lava rock from Mount Vesuvius was used to light the wood-fired ovens, in an innovation of how pizza was cooked. By this time, the tomato had been discovered in the new world, and found to be rather tasty.
Cheese was first added to pizza in 1889. Baker Raffaele Esposito was issued a royal summons, required to prepare a pizza for her majesty, Queen Margherita. He took two common ingredients, red tomato and green basil, and added white to represent the colors of the flag - to do this, he used mozzarella cheese. It went over well, very well.
In 1905, Gennaro Lombardi opened the first pizzeria in America, in New York City. However, pizza was not a huge hit in America at first, remaining mainly in Italian neighborhoods. American soldiers got a taste for this dish when over in Europe for World War II, and upon their return, introduced it to their families and friends, and demand skyrocketed.
Tomato sauce was not used on the pizza until after the first pizzerias in New York City were set up. The stronger-flavored Roma Tomato (plum tomato) was hard to come by, so spiced tomato sauce was tried. The resulting pizza became the standard pizza of America, with regional variations.
Since then, pizza has become the number one dish in America. Pizzerias now outnumber hamburger places in most of the country. The largest chain, Pizza Hut, has over 4,500 restaurants.
Oh yes. Pizza means "pie" in Italian. So saying "pizza pie" is redundant.
How to cook your pizza depends on a lot on the crust. It also has just as much impact on how well the pizza turns out. Pizzerias have specialty ovens dedicated to cooking pizzas and similar foods. You can't get the same ovens, but you can turn yours into something very, very close.
First, you need a pizza stone/baking stone, or something similarly effective, such as unglazed tiles, ceramic I believe. These provide proper heat to the bottom of the pizza. A cookie sheet, or a plain pizza pan directly on the rack will not properly cook the bottom.
Now, preheat your oven to 500 degrees for a full hour. An hour? Yes, this amount of time is necessary to make sure the stone is completely and evenly heated. Warning - 500 degrees is HOT, and you will be greeted by a serious blast of heat when opening the oven, so be careful. The higher temperature will cook the crust more thoroughly, making it firmer and crisper, instead of the softer texture that it will have at lower temperatures.
You can either cook the pizza directly on the stone/tiles, or on a pizza pan/pizza screen. Cooking it directly on the stone offers the best and most even cooking, but can be difficult to do depending on both the size of the stone you're using, and your agility with a pizza peel. Cooking the pizza on a screen offers good results, and makes it much easier to put the pizza in the oven, and remove it later.
As far as cooking time, it should be about 10-12 minutes. Watch the toppings and the color of the crust. This should help you judge the exact amount of time.
1 8 oz. jar sun-dried tomatoes in oil 4-6 cloves garlic (roasted garlic also works for a sweeter taste) 8-16 oz. shredded Mozzarella cheese (depending on taste) 1 C. shredded/grated Pecorino Romano cheese
After getting the pizza crust flattened and ready, brush the crust with a good coating of oil from the sun-dried tomatoes. Then, add the sun-dried tomatoes, as few or as many as you want - you want them below the cheese to make sure they don't char. Sprinkle about half of the minced garlic on now also.
Put half of the mozzarella on the pizza. Add the rest of the garlic. Then sprinkle the rest of the mozzarella, and the pecorino, on top of the pizza, sprinking them on at the same time to mix them well.
Sources: "Pizza", by James McNair "The History of Pizza", http://www.ghg.net/coyej/history.htm
Living in an urban area, such as New York City - or Brookyln in my case - it's not hard to find a place that will serve you a slice of pizza. Pizza here varies in quality, from good to near-orgasmic. However, a special section must be set aside for the noble Dollar Slice.
When hanging out on the streets at night with friends, or wandering aimlessly during the day, you tend to get hungry. Given the abundance of pizza places, you can walk anywhere and grab some food. But, what if you don't have a lot of money, or don't want to have to buy a whole pie. What if you just want something quick? Enter the Dollar Slice. Not all pizza places carry the dollar slice, but those that do serve it should be noted in that section of your mind that holds the most practical urban information.
Face it, though, the Dollar Slice isn't going to be Pizza Ambrosia. It's simple, slightly greasy, and always served plain. Toppings are extra, but you don't need them. Just walk in, ask for a slice, and walk out a few minutes later. Consume, and walk away.
A Dollar Slice comes in only a few varieties - but the floppy, greasy, thin crust pizza is the most common. It's easy to eat on the go - which is why I suspect it has such wide proliferation. You can fold it, keeping the grease inside, trapped by walls of cheese, sauce, and crust. Grease is essential to the experience.
The dollar slice is indeed a useful thing to have access to. It's the perfect late night coding snack, or food to grab while drunk. It's especially useful to a college student. Find a pizza place with Dollar Slices, memorize it's location, and respect it. You'll rely on it, one day.
Note: This is presented here for historical purposes, not because it's a particularly good example of quality schoolyard games. Don't blame me, I didn't make it up...
Pizza is a particularly inane, violent childhood game I used to play growing up in Canada. How it ever caught on is beyond me, but when I changed schools and introduced it to the new playground, it took off like wildfire. There's no accounting for tastes. So here is the 'recipe' for little broken feet.
The game is played on a 'foursquare' commonly found painted on schoolyard asphalt. It looks like this:
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Any number of little people can play, but it usually works best with at least three and no more than six, depending on the size of the square. To begin, all players stand with one foot touching the middle circle and the other held back. One person starts play by calling "ONE, TWO, THREE, PIZZA!" at which point all players leap backwards in an attempt to get as far away from each other as possible. This must be done in one shot, and without moving the feet twice or stumbling, lest ye be 'out'. At all times during game play, a player must remain within the boundaries of the outer square.
The object of the game is to get all the other players 'out' by stepping brutally on their feet and holding them down for an appropriate length of time. Each player, in turn, has a chance to move one or both of their feet, usually either attempting to stomp down on someone else's poor toes or get further away from anyone else. If a player sees that another player is going to stomp them, they can opt to move out of the way, but they had better be correct, because if the player doesn't do that, they have moved out of turn and are thus 'out' of the game. Malice and trickery abound. This leads to a lot of last-moment moves, and often a player is faced with having to yank their tiny extremity out from under some larger child's burly foot.
So, there are three ways to get a person 'out':
Bruised feet! Skinned knees! Black eyes, if the kid retaliates!
Perhaps this game is played because it's easy to learn and appeals to both the athletic and cerebral alike. I don't remember what induced me to introduce it to a new school, but much suffering ensued. It even merited a trip to the school office, where they promptly labeled me a troublemaker. I don't know why it's called 'Pizza' either, perhaps because of the layout of the court into "slices" where you're allowed to step (or get flattened into the ground like so much green pepper). Who really knows.
Addendum: I have no idea where this came from or who made it up. Nobody I've spoken to about it has ever heard of it. It's entirely possible that it was local to that one single playground. Or maybe, just maybe, your child will come home limping and cry out, "DAMN YOU, STARSANDGARTERS!" (Then you ground the young sprout for cussing.)Thanks to jessicapierce for asking about locality.
I used to experiment a bit with the recipes, and I came up with a good recipe that people would come back for each year that I worked at the pizza place. They'd ask for the Sauced Pizza, because the recipe used some Chianti in the sauce.
The Dough 3.25 cups of white bleached flour 1.25 cups of wholemeal flour (adds a bit of texture) 1.33 cup warm water, preferably 90 degrees One teaspoon of raw cane sugar One-half teaspoon of honey Pinch of salt One packet of active yeast 0.25 cup of virgin olive oil Set aside: one tablespoon of virgin olive oil Note: Do not substitute any other oils for virgin olive oil. You won't be happy with the results. Blend the flour together, then blend in the salt. In a glass bowl, mix the water, honey, sugar and quarter-cup of olive oil. Add in the yeast. Mix out the clumps, then add to the dry mixture. Mix, then knead until the dough is sticky. Clean off your hands, then put a dab of olive oil on them. Roll the dough into a ball, then coat with half a tablespoon of olive oil you had set aside. I always used a marble slab to raise the dough, as it is easy to clean and does not add any weird flavors to the dough. Let it rise, usually an hour and a half. Punch down the dough, knead it for a bit, then roll it back into a ball. Put the other half-tablespoon on it and let it rise again. It should triple in size, about three hours.
The Sauce One 15oz jar of tomato sauce (glass jars are best, get quality!) One 12oz can of tomato paste 0.25 cup virgin olive oil Two teaspoons raw, chopped or minced garlic Two teaspoons of oregano Two teaspoons of basil 0.25 cup raw Videlia or white onions 0.5 cup Chianti plus 0.5 cup of Chianti to drink while cooking Two tablespoons of (real) salted butter OPTIONAL: One cup of sliced mushrooms After you have punched down the dough and are waiting for it to rise again, knock back a cup of the Chianti to get in the Italian mood. In a saucepan, melt the butter and flash-cook the garlic, about one minute. Pull out the garlic, then flash-cook the onions, another minute. Repeat for the mushrooms, if you like fungus pizza. Add the garlic and onions to a stock pot and toss in the tomato paste and sauce. Stir in the oregano and basil. SLOWLY raise the heat until it starts to bubble. Add in the olive oil and the Chianti. Let it begin to boil, stirring constantly. Do not let the sauce burn, it will ruin the whole pizza.
Assembly Coat your stone or ceramic pizza slab with a half-teaspoon of olive oil. Spin out or push out the dough with your fingertips. Start at the edges and work in a circle, then work the lump in the middle maintaining your circular pattern. You'll basically be spiraling in to the center. The dough should be about one-quarter inch thick. Using a ladle, scoop out some sauce in the middle and begin to spiral outward, pushing the sauce with the curved bottom of the ladle. Add more in the middle and keep working outwards until you are within one-half inch from the edge of the crust. If you have mushrooms prepared, put them on the sauce before the cheese. Sprinkle some Parmegan/Romano cheese on the outer edge of the dough. Add your desired mozzerella until satisfied. Pop on some toppings (remembering the topping height rule) and you're ready to go. If you are using sausage or pepperoni, sprinkle on some Parmegan before adding the meat - it will help to keep the grease from getting out of control.
This is a great recipe to use on a cooking date. You'll end up drinking the Chianti, getting flour all over, having a delicious pizza and having some romantic times afterwards.
Because of its symmetry the circle is considered as the perfect shape. It is the symbol for the total symmetry of the godly. The Greek scholar Proclus (500 AC) wrote: "the circle is the first, the simplest and most perfect form". As a Christian symbol it represents eternity, and the sleeping eye of God (Genesis1:2).
An anonymous poet wrote:
oh, the Circle, she is so divine her curve is round, unlike the line.
The Dutch singer Toon Hermans said:
I have wandered a lot and I found: most good things are round: the breast of a mother, a tuba, plums and cherry flan.
As many people know the usual ingredients of Pizza are bread(grains), marinara a.k.a tomato paste (vegetable) and cheese (dairy). Now the fourth ingredient can either be a meat or a fruit to round out the four food groups. Let's say one places on pepperoni or pineapples, this will round out the food group and make one perfectly delicious, healthy pizza. Considering everything in moderation, not adding too much of one ingredient or eating too many slices, you have one perfect meal.
Hungry? Fancy a quick bite? You can't go wrong with micro-pizzas ('Micro' because of their size, not because you cook them in your microwave oven... They're cheap, cheerful, healthy, and take less than 5 minutes to prepare.
Pizza base
For the base, you can use any type of bread that doesn't go soggy. Pita bread is an obvious one, but I personally prefer to use Crumpets - good luck finding those outside of the UK or Australia however. The great thing about crumpets is that they have holes in the top, so your tomato sauce can seep down into the pizza base, saturating it with tomato goodness.
Tomato sauce
Making tomato sauce for micro pizzas is dead easy. Use a little bit of tomato puree, and thin it out with some milk. If you are planning to add spicy pizza toppings later, consider using pineapple juice to thin out the puree - it adds a sweet tinge to the spicyness, which works quite well.
To your mixture, add plenty of ground black pepper, and a bit of crushed garlic (or garlic paste, if you're lazy). Finally, a smattering of oregano helps making the whole thing smell of pizza.
You'll want quite a bit of your sauce on the micro pizzas - around two millimeters gives the whole thing a fantastic taste of genuine pizza!
Toppings
Go crazy. Just about any topping you find on normal pizzas can be used, but obviously (because there's less space), you have to cut everything into smaller pieces.
I prefer to use wafer-thin Chorizo sausage slices, some finely cut pepper, and some finely chopped shallots, but as long as you chop it into small enough pieces, you can use anything: chicken, ham, pineapple, pepperoni, artichoke, egg, chopped pine nuts... One of the great things about the mini pizzas is that it's an excuse to use up stuff you have kicking about in your kitchen anyway.
Of course, no pizza is complete without a layer of cheese on top - use a fine cheese grater and layer it loosely on top of your other toppings. If you want to be fancy, chuck some oregano on as well - mostly for the smell.
Cooking
Because the pizza bases are already ready to eat, the pizzas only have to go in long enough to warm the bases and melt the toppings. Around five minutes under a hot grill should do the trick.
Serving suggestions
Serve with ice-cold beer, naturally.
Reviews
ascorbic says: This is damn fine pizza.
Wntrmute says re pizza: congratulations! You've created something even I can eat!
printable version chaos
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