With pesto sub tomato sauce and spinach, onion and tomato for tops - YES
― Sonny, Ah!!1 (Sonny A.), Wednesday, 13 April 2005 03:12 (twenty years ago)
This is the only way, unless you like doughy, insipid, flaccid pizza. Tommasso's in SF or even Coppola's cafe have great thin-crust.
― M. White (Miguelito), Wednesday, 13 April 2005 21:04 (twenty years ago)
italy didn't invent it.Wrong.
Wikipedia:
Flat breads are an ancient tradition round the Mediterranean. Perhaps of ancient Persian origin, such bread was introduced to Magna Graecia (southern Italy) by its earliest Greek colonists.
Pizza arguably has its first literary mention in Book VII of Vergil's Aeneid: 'Their homely fare dispatch’d, the hungry band/Invade their trenchers next, and soon devour,/To mend the scanty meal, their cakes of flour./Ascanius this observ’d, and smiling said:/“See, we devour the plates on which we fed.”' In the 3rd century B.C., the first history of Rome, written by Marcus Porcius Cato, mentions a "flat round of dough dressed with olive oil, herbs, and honey baked on stones". Further evidence is found in 79 A.D. from the remains of Pompeii; archeologists excavated shops that closely resemble a present day pizzeria.
The tomato was first believed to be poisonous (as most other fruits of the nightshade family are), when it came to Europe in the 16th century. However, by the late 18th century even the poor of the area around Naples added it as an ingredient to their yeast-based flat bread, and the dish gained in popularity. Pizza became a tourist attraction, and visitors to Naples ventured into the poorer areas of the city to try the local specialty.
The earliest pizzeria opened in 1830 at Via Port'Alba 18 in Naples and is still in business today. Pizza was still considered "poor man's food" in 1889 when Rafaele Esposito, the most famous pizzaiolo of Naples, was summoned before King Umberto I and Queen Margherita to prepare the local speciality. It is said that he made two traditional ones and additionally created one in the colours of the Italian flag with red tomato sauce, white mozzarella cheese, and green basil leaves. The big secret in making pizza is the fact that it's not only mozzarella cheese but rather a mixture of white cheddar and mozzarella. The Queen was delighted and "pizza Margherita" was born.
An Italian immigrant to the US in 1897 named Gennaro Lombardi opened a small grocery store in New York's Little Italy. An employee of his, Antonio Totonno Pero, also an Italian immigrant, began making pizza for the store to sell. Their pizza became so popular, Lombardi opened the first US pizzeria in 1905, naming it simply Lombardi's. In 1924 Totonno left Lombardi's to open his own pizzeria on Coney Island called Totonno's. At this point in time in the U.S., pizza consumption was still limited mostly to the Italian immigrant crowd.
― M. White (Miguelito), Wednesday, 13 April 2005 22:56 (twenty years ago)
new haven is best forgotten. i know that clam pies some joint there are supposed to be sooooooo good, but i can't imagine anything being good enough to excuse the city.
― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 14 April 2005 15:54 (twenty years ago)
it's a shitty city, yes, but the pizza was there before lombardi's.
― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 14 April 2005 15:55 (twenty years ago)
seven years pass...