The Italians invented pizza in Naples, in the 1700s, when it  was made with just a few ingredients: bread topped with garlic, butter and salt, and most pizza was sold on the streets as a cheap meal for the poor. Tomatoes, cheese and basil were added later. Pizza officially arrived in the US in 1905, by Gennaro Lombardi.  It is now impossible to try to think of what toppings have NOT been put on. 

To me what is curious is that I can't think of Pizza without Tomatoes, yet Tomatoes were unknown in Europe until discovered in the Western Hemisphere by Columbus and transported back to Europe in 1493. The earliest discussion of the tomato in European literature appeared in a herbal written in 1544 by Pietro Andrea Mattioli, an Italian physician and botanist, who named it pomo di oro, golden apple.

It grew easily in Mediterranean climates, and cultivation began in the 1540s. It was probably eaten shortly after it was introduced, and was certainly being used as food by the early 1600s. The earliest discovered cookbook with tomato recipes was published in Naples in 1692,  However, in certain areas of Italy, such as Florence, the fruit was used solely as tabletop decoration before it was incorporated into the local cuisine in the late 17th or early 18th century.

The progenitors of tomatoes were herbaceous plants with small green fruit from the highlands of Peru. The first domesticated tomato may have been a little yellow fruit, similar in size to Cherry tomatoes.  While the fruit is safe, (tomato leaves and stems actually contain poisonous glycoalkaloids,) so for many years were considered unfit for eating (though not necessarily poisonous) in Britain and its North American colonies. 

Tomatoes are now considered a red fruit; but  there are yellow, orange, pink, purple, green, black, or white fruit. Multicolored and striped fruit can also be quite striking.

EVER WONDERED: Who Invented Pizza? 
The Washington Post ; 
Moira E. McLaughlin; 
Monday, April 5, 2010; 

Buon giorno! (That's "good day" or "hello" in Italian.) The Italians invented pizza as we know it today, in southern Italy, in a city called Naples. Pizza in the 1700s, though, probably tasted a little different. It was made with just a few ingredients: bread topped with garlic, butter and salt. (That's not exactly the Meatzza we know and love today!) 

Most pizza was sold on the streets as a cheap meal for the poor. No one knows for sure when tomatoes were added. One legend says fishermen would eat pizza for breakfast. That's why tomato sauce is called marinara sauce -- marinara means "seafaring" in Italian. The more expensive pizzas included cheese and basil. (Now, that  sounds more like it!) Come buono! (How good!) 

The pie officially arrived in the United States when a man named Gennaro Lombardi opened a pizza shop in New York City in 1905. But pizza didn't catch on until the late 1940s, when Italian immigrant workers, unable to afford a whole pie, would buy a slice from Lombardi for lunch. Workers paid what they could afford, and Lombardi would cut a big or small slice based on how much they gave him. (Lombardi's Pizza still exists in New York City today, but in a different location.) 

April 5 is National Deep Dish Pizza Day. Deep-dish pizza has a thicker crust and is different from Lombardi's "New York Style" pizza. Pizzeria Uno is credited for inventing the first deep-dish pizza in Chicago in 1943. The idea was to make pizza more of a meal than a snack. 

According to Packaged Facts, a company that does research on what Americans eat and drink, every man, woman and child in America eats 46 slices of pizza a year on average. That may not seem like a whole lot, but with the U.S. population at more than 300 million people, that means Americans eat more than 13.8 billion pieces of pizza each year. 

Deep-dish pizza is considered "American pizza," but you might have your own idea of what American pizza is. Maybe yours includes goat cheese, peppers and broccoli. Whatever your favorite pizza, one thing is for sure: Pizza has come a long way!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
article/2010/04/04/AR2010040402828.html
 
 

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