where did pizza originate

Pizza is thought to have evolved from early Egyptian flat bread. In ancient Pompeii, Italy, coarse bread dough was brushed with olive oil and baked. Naples, Italy, is considered the birthplace of the modern pizza, although its date of origin is unknown. Pizza was brought to the United States by Italian immigrants and made popular by soldiers returning from Italy after World War II (1939-45). Sources: Garrison, Webb. How It Started, pp. 40-41; Herbst, Sharon T. The New Food Lover's Companion: Comprehensive Definitions of Over 4000 Food, Wine, and Culinary Terms, p. 354. ... more

is one of the oldest prepared foods and dates back at least to the neolithic. Records of people adding other ingredients to bread in order to make it more flavorful can be found throughout ancient history. The Ancient Greeks, for example, had a flat bread called plakous (πλακούς, gen. πλακούντος - plakountos)[1] which was flavored with various toppings like herbs, onion and garlic. It is also said that soldiers of the Persian King, Darius the Great (521-486 B.C.) baked a kind of bread flat upon their shields and then covered it with cheese and dates, and in the 1st century BC, Virgil refers to the ancient idea of bread as an edible plate or “trencher” for other foods in this extract from the 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.” These flatbreads, like pizza, are from the Mediterranean area and ... more

The grease on pizza comes from the melting cheese. If you leave some cheese out in the warm sun it will seem to sweat oil. this is a natural dairy product. Pizza with pepperoni will have the oil from the pepperoni slices adding to the flavor. I was raised in New York and I agree that most pizza is not "real pizza". To me pizza should be large and have a thin crust! Toppings like pineapple or onions may taste good but it's just not pizza! By the way, square Sicilian pizza is OK. ... more