Pizza has to be one of the most popular foods in the world. It can be found from Japan to Russia and Mexico. Flatbread, its forbearer, originated in Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt, so it’s been around for a very long time in one form or another. It’s hard to find a county where people don’t just love modern pizza. Believe it or not, it came to us from a poor Jewish community in southern Italy. They came up with the idea of putting leftovers on flatbread and the idea caught on fast. When the Italians first started moving to NY City in the 1880s, Italian/American food got its start, and what a food revolution it was and pizza was a mainstay of that new frontier. Americans, trying to describe this new dish described it being pie-like, thus the term, pizza pie. There is quite a difference between classic Italian pizza and the American version. The American version has a thicker crust, more sauce and a much bigger variety of toppings. I am sure the Italians do not approve with what we have done with their invention.
In the 1960s, boxed, make it at home pizza kits were introduced and not long after that America’s love affaire with pizza really got going when pizza chain restaurants started opening. I can remember the excitement in my mother’s small town when the exotic restaurant opened, called Pizza Hut. It was a sensation.
If you want to make homemade pizza from scratch, it’s not that hard but is time consuming. The basic ingredients are flour, water, salt and yeast, all mixed together but it has to be kneaded and allowed to rise before forming it into a crust in a well oiled flat pan. If you want to take a short cut, you can buy a premade pizza crust that just has only to be rolled out. The sauce can be as simple or as complex as you prefer. It can be as simple as a can of high quality whole Italian tomatoes, with a few seasonings, or as complex as a long simmered, marinara sauce. The list of toppings is almost endless, but, at least for me, the basics are lots of mozzarella cheese and peperoni. But I am also a big fan of lots of anchovies, they are so salty and delicious (I have been known to open a can and eat them with a fork and nothing else!).
So, when you are in the mood for a good pizza, you really do have a lot of options!