Pizza Italia

PIZZA ITALY

PIZZA is ITALY or ITALY is PIZZA !!??!!

Pizza in the US sometimes called pizza pie, is an oven-baked, flat, disc-shaped bread typically topped with a tomato sauce, cheese (usually mozzarella) and various toppings depending on the culture.

Since the original pizza, several other types of pizzas have evolved.

Originating in Neapolitan cuisine, the dish has become popular in many different parts of the world.

An establishment that primarily makes and sells pizzas is called a "pizzeria", sometimes misspelled as "pizzaria".

The phrases "pizza parlor", "pizza place", "pizza house" and "pizza shop" are used in the United States.

The term pizza pie is dialectal, and pie is used for simplicity in some contexts, such as among pizzeria staff.

HISTORY

The Ancient Greeks covered their bread with oils, herbs and cheese.

The Romans developed placenta, a sheet of flour topped with cheese and honey and flavored with bay leaves.

Modern pizza originated in Italy as the Neapolitan pie with tomato.

In 1889 cheese was added.

King Ferdinand I (1751–1825) is said to have disguised himself as a commoner and, in clandestine fashion, visited a poor neighborhood in Naples.

One story has it that he wanted to sink his teeth into a food that the queen had banned from the royal court—pizza.

In 1889, during a visit in Naples, Queen Margherita of Savoy was served a pizza resembling the colors of the Italian flag, red (tomato), white (mozzarella) and green (basil).

This kind of pizza has been named after the Queen as Pizza Margherita.

Base and baking methods

The bottom of the pizza, called the "crust", may vary widely according to style—thin as in a typical hand-tossed pizza or Roman pizza, or thick as in a typical pan pizza or Chicago-style pizza.

It is traditionally plain, but may also be seasoned with garlic, or herbs, or stuffed with cheese.

In restaurants, pizza can be baked in an oven with stone bricks above the heat source, an electric deck oven, a conveyor belt oven or, in the case of more expensive restaurants, a wood- or coal-fired brick oven.

On deck ovens, the pizza can be slid into the oven on a long paddle, called a peel, and baked directly on the hot bricks or baked on a screen (a round metal grate, typically aluminum).

When making pizza at home, it can be baked on a pizza stone in a regular oven to reproduce 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 the United States

Due to the wide influence of Italian and Greek immigrants in American culture, the US has developed regional forms of pizza, some bearing only a casual resemblance to the Italian original.

Chicago has its own style of a deep-dish pizza, whereas New York City has developed its own distinct variety of thin crust pizza.