It’s October. It’s pizza month!

History of Pizza

The very first recipe of the real pizza as we know it nowadays was written back in 1858 when Francesco De Bourcard written an essay called “Usi e costumi di Napoli e contorni descritti e dipinti” (Use and customes of Naples and its surroundings described and painted).

A that time Naples was the capital of the Regno delle due Sicilie, one of the kingdoms that just three years after the release of the essay will be then annexed to the Reign of Italy (1861). The recipe included the ingredients needed to bake the real pizza napoletana but it was only a few years later that the name of the most famous pizza was actually invented.

In 1889 the King of Italy Umberto visited the city of Naples and in that occasion met Raffaele Esposito, the most famous pizzaiolo of that time, who dedicated one of his pizze to the queen of Italy, Margherita.

The Pizza Margherita owns then its name to Queen Margherita, first Queen of the Reign of Italy and his recipe is probably the most famous worldwide. The toppings of the Pizza Margherita are: tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and a few leaves of basil.

Pizza in America

Thanks to the Italian emigration towards the four corners of the world and especially to the United States the pizza became an extremely popular food in the entire globe.

In America the Italians settled mostly on the east cost and in particular in the states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachussets and Pennsylvania. This is the reason why, especially in New York, the pizza became so popular and to these days it is considered as a dish that cannot be given up.

Then, of course, the pizza became a sort of multicultural experiment and it started to be cooked and presented in its many variations. There are thick and thin pizze ( yes, the plural of pizza is pizze NOT pizzas…), pizze with pineapple or french fries, sweet pizze with Nutella or folded like the calzone.

October is Pizza month

October in the United States is widely known to be pizza month but there are a few other days dedicated to this delicious food. September 5th is National Cheese Pizza Day, September 20th is National Pepperoni Pizza Day while on the 11th of October Americans celebrate National Sausage Pizza Day.

The idea of a month entirely dedicated to pizza came to Jerry Durnell, the publisher of a magazine called Pizza Today, in October 1984 to support the at-that-time not particularly strong pizza industry.

Did you know?

On of the most popular toppings of the pizza are thin slices of salami on the so-called “pepperoni” pizza. In Italian, however, the word “peperoni” (with only two Ps) means bell peppers.