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Pizza (pronounced /ˈpiːtsə/ (
listen) or /ˈpiːdzə/; Italian: [ˈpit.tsa]) is an oven-baked, flat, disc shaped bread usually topped with tomato sauce and mozzarella and then a selection of meats, salamis, seafood, cheeses, vegetables and herbs depending on taste and culture.
Originating in Neapolitan cuisine, the dish has become popular in many different parts of the world. A shop or restaurant that primarily makes and sells pizzas is called a "pizzeria". The phrases "pizza parlor", "pizza place" 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.
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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.[1]
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.[2]
The bottom base of the pizza, called the "crust", may vary widely according to style—thin as in hand-tossed pizza or Roman pizza, or thick as in pan pizza or Chicago-style pizza. It is traditionally plain, but may also be seasoned with butter, 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.
Neapolitan pizza (pizza napoletana): Authentic Neapolitan pizzas are made with local ingredients like San Marzano tomatoes, which grow on the volcanic plains to the south of Mount Vesuvius, and Mozzarella di Bufala Campana, made with the milk from water buffalo raised in the marshlands of Campania and Lazio in a semi-wild state (this mozzarella is protected with its own European protected designation of origin).[3] According to the rules proposed by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, the genuine Neapolitan pizza dough consists of Italian wheat flour (type 0 or 00, or a mixture of both), natural Neapolitan yeast or brewer's yeast, salt and water. For proper results, strong flour with high protein content (as used for bread-making rather than cakes) must be used. The dough must be kneaded by hand or with a low-speed mixer. After the rising process, the dough must be formed by hand without the help of a rolling pin or other machine, and may be no more than 3 mm (⅛ in) thick. The pizza must be baked for 60–90 seconds in a 485 °C (905 °F) stone oven with an oak-wood fire.[4] When cooked, it should be crispy, tender and fragrant. There are three official variants: pizza marinara, which is made with tomato, garlic, oregano and extra virgin olive oil (although most Neapolitan pizzerias also add basil to the marinara), pizza Margherita, made with tomato, sliced mozzarella, basil and extra-virgin olive oil, and pizza Margherita extra made with tomato, mozzarella from Campania in fillets, basil and extra virgin olive oil.
The pizza napoletana is a Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (Specialità Tradizionale Garantita, STG) product in Italy.[5][6]
Lazio style: Pizza in Lazio (Rome), as well as in many other parts of Italy, is available in two different styles: (1) Take-away shops sell pizza rustica or pizza al taglio. This pizza is cooked in long, rectangular baking pans and relatively thick (1–2 cm). The crust is similar to that of an English muffin, and the pizza is often cooked in an electric oven. It is usually cut with scissors or a knife and sold by weight. (2) In pizza restaurants (pizzerias), pizza is served in a dish in its traditional round shape. It has a thin, crisp base quite different from the thicker and softer Neapolitan style base. It is usually cooked in a wood-fired oven, giving the pizza its unique flavor and texture. In Rome, a pizza napoletana is topped with tomato, mozzarella, anchovies and oil (thus, what in Naples is called pizza romana, in Rome is called pizza napoletana).
Types of Lazio-style pizza include:
In the 20th century pizza has become an international food with widely varying toppings. These pizzas consist of the same basic design but include an exceptionally diverse choice of ingredients.
The usual Italian varieties are available, but there is also the Australian, or australiana, which has the usual tomato sauce base and mozzarella cheese with bacon and egg (seen as quintessentially Australian breakfast fare). Prawns are also sometimes used on this style of pizza.
In the 1980s Australian pizza shops and restaurants began selling gourmet pizzas, pizzas with upmarket ingredients such as salmon, dill, bocconcini, tiger prawns, and such unconventional toppings as kangaroo, emu and crocodile. Wood-fired pizzas, cooked in a ceramic oven heated by wood fuel, are also popular.
Pizza was brought by Italian immigrants to that country. São Paulo, calling itself "The Pizza Capital of the World", has 6000 pizza establishments and 1.4 million pizzas are consumed daily.[7] It is said that the first Brazilian pizzas were baked in the Brás district of São Paulo in the early part of the 20th century. Until the 1950s, they were only found in the Italian communities. Since then, pizza became increasingly popular among the rest of the population. The most traditional pizzerias are still found in the Italian neighborhoods, such as Bexiga and Bela Vista. Both Napolitan (thick crust) and Roman (thin crust) varieties are currently being appreciated in Brazil, salted versions with tomato juice and mozzarela as a base and the other ingredients defining the flavor, or the sweet ones, like banana, chocolate or pineapple toppings being offered at the end of meal like a dessert. There is a "Pizza Day" (July 10) in São Paulo, that marks the final day of an annual competition among "pizzaiolos". Such event helps lever up even more the pizza market in São Paulo and the rest of Brazil.
Pizza is a emerging fast food in Indian urban areas. With the arrival of branded pizza such as Domino's and Pizza Hut in early to mid 1990s, it has reached almost all major cities in India by 2010 [1].
Pizza outlets serve pizzas with several India based toppings like Tandoori Chicken and Paneer. Indian pizzas are generally made more spicy, compared to their western counterparts, to suit Indian taste.[citation needed] Along with Indian variations, more conventional pizzas are also eaten. Pizzas available in India range from localized basic variants available in neighborhood bakeries to gourmet pizzas with exotic and imported ingredients available at specialty Italian restaurants.
Pizza is a popular snack food in South Korea, especially among younger people and women.[8] Major American brands such as Domino's, Pizza Hut, and Papa John's Pizza compete against domestic brands such as Mr. Pizza and Pizza Etang, offering traditional as well as local varieties which may include toppings such as bulgogi and dak galbi. Korean-style pizza tends to be complicated and often has non-traditional toppings such as corn, potato wedges, sweet potato, shrimp, or crab. The super-deluxe "Grand Prix" at Mr. Pizza has cajun shrimp, bell peppers, olives, and mushrooms on one side and potato wedges, bacon, crushed tortilla chips, and sour cream on the other side. Its potato mousse-filled cookie dough crust is sprinkled with sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and raisins and can be dipped in a blueberry sauce that is provided.
Traditional Italian-style thin-crust pizza is served in the many Italian restaurants in Seoul and other major cities.
North Korea's first pizzeria opened in its capital Pyongyang in 2009.[9]
Pizza was introduced in Pakistan in 1993.[citation needed] Manzar Riaz from Lahore is credited with introducing it to Pakistan when he opened up the country's first pizza outlet.[citation needed] Pizza Hut opened its outlets in Pakistan in 1993. Unlike in India where the pizza has become widely popular, the pizza in Pakistan is only popular and well known only in the provinces of Punjab, Sindh and Kashmir. Pizza is still virtually unknown in the provinces of North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan.[10]
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. Both thick and thin crust are popular.
Pizza is available frozen. Food technologists have developed ways to overcome challenges such as preventing the sauce from combining with the dough and producing a crust that can be frozen and reheated without becoming rigid. Modified corn starch is commonly used as a moisture barrier between the sauce and crust. Traditionally the dough is pre-baked and other ingredients are also sometimes precooked. There are frozen pizzas with raw ingredients and self-rising crusts. A form of uncooked pizza is available from take and bake pizzerias. This pizza is created fresh using raw ingredients, then sold to customers to bake in their own ovens and microwaves.
In Italy there is a bill before Parliament to safeguard the traditional Italian pizza,[12] specifying permissible ingredients and methods of processing[13] (e.g., excluding frozen pizzas). Only pizzas which followed these guidelines could be called "traditional Italian pizzas", at least in Italy.
On 9 December 2009 the European Union, upon Italian request, granted Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG) safeguard to traditional Neapolitan pizza, in particular to "Margherita" and "marinara".[14] The European Union enacted a protected designation of origin system in the 1990s.
Pizza can be high in salt, fat and calories. There are concerns about negative health effects.[15] Pizza Hut has come under criticism for the high salt content of some of their meals which were found to contain more than twice the daily recommended amount of salt for an adult.[16]
European nutrition research on the eating habits of people with cancer of the mouth, oesophagus, throat or colon showed those who ate pizza at least once a week had less chance of developing cancer, they found. Dr Silvano Gallus, of the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmaceutical Research in Milan,[17] who led the research said: "We knew that tomato sauce could offer protection against certain tumors, but we did not expect pizza as a complete meal also to offer such protective powers." Nicola O'Connor, of Cancer Research UK, told BBC News Online: "This study is interesting and the results should probably be looked at in the context of what we already know about the Mediterranean diet and its association with a lower risk of certain types of cancer.
"The secret is probably lycopene, an antioxidant chemical in tomatoes, which is thought to offer some protection against cancer, and which gives the fruit its red color.
"But before people start dialing the local pizza takeaway, they should consider that some pizzas can be high in saturated fat, salt and calories". In contrast to the classic Italian pizza used in the research, most UK pizza takeaway varieties are often loaded with high fat cheeses and fatty meats, a high intake of which can contribute to obesity, itself a risk factor for cancer. "Our advice is to enjoy selected Italian pizza (i.e., healthy pizza) in moderation as part of a balanced diet that includes plenty of vegetables and fruit."
Italian Carlo La Vecchia, a Milan-based epidemiologist said Italian pizza lovers should not see the research as a license to indulge their fondness for pizza food. "There is nothing to indicate that pizza is the only thing responsible for these results." He continued: "Pizza could simply be indicative of a lifestyle and food habits, in other words the Italian version of a Mediterranean diet." A Mediterranean diet is rich in olive oil, fiber, vegetables, fruit, flour and freshly cooked food - including traditional Italian healthy pizza.
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Pizza is a type of food that was created in Italy. It is usually made by putting "toppings" such as:
over a piece of bread covered with sauce; most often tomato, but sometimes butter-based sauces are used. (The piece of bread is usually called a "pizza crust".) Almost any kind of topping can be put over a pizza. The toppings people use are different in different parts of the world. There are different styles of pizza, including New York, which has a flat pizza crust and Chicago, which has a fat crust.
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The word Pizza is Italian for pita, that one time went to Naples around 1823. This is the name for a special type of flat bread, made with special dough. Pizzas seem to come from Naples, originally. Pizzas with toppings like olive oil, tomato slices, and basil have been known since about the 18th century. At that time, growing tomatoes in the south of Italy became popular. However the name of the pizza may be older. Flatbreads like the focaccia from Liguria have been known for a very long time. Pizzas need to be baked at temperatures of 400 - 500 °C. Hardly any household oven could reach such temperatures at the time. Because of this, the pizza was made at home, and then given to the town bakery to bake. At first, pizza was just an Italian dish, especially in Naples, as Italians immigrated pizza became an international dish after World War I.
In the 20th century, pizza has become an international food and the toppings may be quite different in accordance with local tastes. These pizzas consist of the same basic design but include many choice of ingredients, such as anchovies, egg, pineapple, banana, coconut, sauerkraut, eggplant, kimchi, lamb, couscous, chicken, fish, and shellfish, meats prepared in styles such as Moroccan lamb, shawarma or chicken tikka masala, and non-traditional spices such as curry and Thai sweet chili. Pizzas can also be made without meat for vegetarians, and without cheese for vegans.
Neapolitan pizza (pizza Napoletana). Authentic Neapolitan pizzas are made with local ingredients like San Marzano tomatoes, which grow on the volcanic plains to the south of Mount Vesuvius and Mozzarella di Bufala Campana, made with the milk from water buffalo raised in the marshlands of Campania and Lazio in a semi-wild state (this mozzarella is protected with its own European the genuine Neapolitan pizza dough consists of Italian flour, natural Neapolitan yeast or brewer's yeast, salt and water.The dough must be kneaded by hand or with a low-speed mixer. After the rising process, the dough must be formed by hand without the help of a rolling pin or other mechanical device, and may be no more than 3 mm (1/8 in) thick.Pizza is cooked in a oven.When cooked, it should be crispy, tender and fragrant. Neapolitan pizza has gained the status of "guaranteed traditional specialty" in Italy. This admits only three official variants: Pizza marinara, which is made with tomato, garlic, oregano and extra virgin olive oil (although most Neapolitan pizzerias also add basil to the marinara), Pizza Margherita, made with tomato,mozzarella, basil and extra virgin olive oil, and Pizza Margherita Extra made with tomato, buffalo mozzarella from Campania in fillets, basil and extra virgin olive oil.
Lazio style: Pizza in Lazio (Rome), as well as in many other parts of Italy is available in 2 different "flavors": 1) In take-away shops so-called "Pizza Rustica" or "Pizza a Taglio". Pizza is cooked in long, rectangular baking pans and relatively thick (1-2 cm). The crust similar to that of an English muffin and mostly cooked in an electric oven. When purchased, it is usually cut with scissors or knife and priced by weight. 2) In Pizza Restaurants (Pizzerias) it is served in a dish in its traditional round shape.
Other types of Lazio-style pizza include:
Sicilian-style pizza has its toppings baked directly into the crust. Pizza Hut's Sicilian Pizza, introduced in 1994, is not an authentic example of the style as only garlic, basil, and oregano are mixed into the crust,it's sold in the restaurant chain Pizza Hut.
White pizza (pizza bianca) uses no tomato sauce, often substituting pesto or dairy products such as sour cream. Most commonly, especially on the East Coast of the United States, the toppings consist only of mozzarella and ricotta cheese drizzled with olive oil and basil and garlic. In Rome, the term pizza bianca refers to a type of bread topped only with olive oil.
Some popular U.S. pizza places are:
Frozen pizza is pizza that has been prepared beforehand, and is then deep-frozen, to be distributed in supermarkets. It is among the most successful and popular types of convenience food.
   | in translation - Vera Pizza Napoletana Specification | Verace Pizza Napoletana |
 | What's Cooking America - Pizza, History and Legends of Pizza |
| | Permissible ingredients and methods of processing - senato.it - Disegno di legge S. 5016 - 13ª Legislatura |
| | Più vicina la tutela europea per la pizza - Più vicina la tutela europea per la pizza / Casi di eccellenza / Made in Italy / Prodotti di qualità / Contenuti / Home - Agricoltura Italiana Online |
| | Selezione geografica - The address you requested is obsolete |
| | Butler's Pizza - Butler's Pizza - Droolicious Pizza |
| | Chef cooks £2,000 Valentine pizza - BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | Glasgow and West | Chef cooks £2,000 Valentine pizza |
| | Italy mulls pizza protection law - BBC NEWS | Europe | Italy mulls pizza protection law |
| | For the Pizza Makers of Naples, a Tempest in a Pie Dish - For the Pizza Makers of Naples, a Tempest in a Pie Dish - The New York Times |
| | Slice - Slice - America's Favorite Pizza Weblog! |
| | Dessert Pizzas-Recipes - Desserts - All Recipes |
| | Recipes-Dessert pizzas - File Not Found |
| | Pizza recipe - MediterrAsian.com - Recipe makeovers - Pizza |
| | Pizza Capital of the World - www.pizzacapitaloftheworld.com |
| | pizza.it - Etimologia del nome - WWW.PIZZA.IT - Le curiosità --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- pizza storia ricette ricetta pizza margherita napoli napoletana pizzeria pizzerie |
| | link title - Example Web Page |
| | Basic Pizza Dough - basic pizza dough recipe |
| | Who ate the last slice of elastic loaf? - Worldandnation: Who ate the last slice of elastic loaf? |
| | Brandi - Where pizza was born - www.brandi.it |
| | Pizza of the World - Pizza of the World - pizza and pizzeries of the world digest / American Pizza / Europe Pizza / Asia Pizza |
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