We couldn’t have Campania as La Gazzetta’s featured region without mentioning one of the best things to came from there…pizza. Food is serious business in Italy and Italians are not only proud of their cuisine, but also very protective of it. They routinely lay down rules and guidelines to protect against bogus copies and are critical of anyone who is lax with the essential ingredients and cooking equipment.

Where does pizza fall in this scheme of things? By way of ancient history, the origins date back to Babylonian, Egyptian, and Middle Eastern cultures, which ate unleavened bread cooked in mud ovens. Then along came the Greeks and the Romans who topped the bread with olive oil and spices. During the 19th century, pizza was sold on the streets of Naples with sauce and just a few toppings.

Pizza became popular worldwide with the advent of World War II. American GIs serving in Italy were reintroduced to this special dish with tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella cheese. In the U.S., pizzerias became the rage of fast food business, spawning frozen pizza in the 1950s. In the U.S. today, pizza is an $11 billion plus industry. Americans consume twelve billion slices of pizza each year, or roughly about twenty-three pounds per American. There are toppings galore, but, in the U.S., tomatoes and cheese seem to trail pepperoni, while anchovies is the least popular.

As fame and fortune spread worldwide, Arturo Barone wrote in his book, Italians First, that the Italian government decided to stop the abuse of this popular dish by the rest of the world and codified into law the essential ingredients and cooking technique. It was never made clear what steps would be taken for enforcement.

According to the Associazione Vera Pizza Napoletana, the authentic recipe for pizza consists of the six fundamental ingredients: flour, natural yeast or brewer’s yeast, water, tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, and olive oil. The tomatoes must be plum tomatoes and diced to a certain 8 mm size. The mozzarella cheese must be made from buffalo milk (mozzarella di bufala) and the olive oil must be extra virgin. If salt is used, it must be sea salt. The dough must be tossed by hand, the base being no more than 0.1 inch thick, and the pizza must be cooked in a wood oven between 420°C and 480°C for no longer than two minutes.

There are three kinds of authentic Neapolitan pizza: Marinara, which is topped with just tomato, olive oil, oregano, and garlic; Margherita, which is topped with tomato, olive oil, fresh basil leaves, grated parmesan cheese, and mozzarella di bufala; and Formaggio e Pomodoro (Cheese and Tomato), which is topped with tomato, olive oil, grated parmesan cheese, and optional basil leaves.

All of the rules and specifications that come with being able to call a pizza a “Pizza Napoletana” are a combined effort of the most respected pizzaiolos (pizza makers) in Naples. Only Vera Pizza Napoletana certified restaurants are allowed to display the VPN logo. There are a small number of restaurants in the United States that are VPN certified, including three in California, two in New York City, and several others scattered in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Washington, and D.C. There are also two VPN certified restaurants in Pennsylvana, “Il Pizzaiolo” in Pittsburgh, and “Regina Margherita” in Bellevue.

Pizza continues to be called focaccia in northern Italy and schiacciata in Tuscany. In the United States, pizza is of different sizes, crusts, and toppings. Pizza is everywhere and seems to have overtaken hamburgers and hot dogs as America’s favorite snack. The very first pizzeria opened in 1830 at Via Port’Alba 18 in Naples and is still in business today. The first U.S. pizzeria is reported to have opened for business in 1905 in New York City by an Italian immigrant named Genaro Lombardi who named his pizzeria “Lombardi’s.” There are now more than 61,000 pizzerias in the United States, with more than 9,000 in New York alone.

A side note: one of the largest pies ever created was made in Havana, Florida. Lorenzo Amato and Louis Piancone created a 44,457-pound pizza that was 140 feet across and covered 10,000 square feet. It was cut into 94,248 slices and fed more than 30,000 people.

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