We are sitting home and dreaming of having something other than another homemade meal. I actually swore to myself that as soon as the quarantine is over, I am not going back to the kitchen for at least a year.
As another day begins, the ultimate question arises, what’s for dinner? Then the game begins. It starts with me asking my husband what he wants, and his everyday response “whatever you make”. Then my son, who doesn’t eat anything unless it comes in a takeout container. In short, neither one was a big help. I am tired of coming up with different dishes. At this point all the ads I get are about recipes for chicken, pork or beef. I am almost positive I discovered a 101 ways to cook a carnivore meal.
Then a eureka moment, why not pizza? As I start searching for a great recipe, I also start thinking of where did pizza come from. It must be the stir crazy bit. I am a transplanted New Yorker living in the Poconos, Pennsylvania. I grew up on Brooklyn pizza, how come I never thought about its origins before? The only question I ever had about pizza are the toppings: pepperoni with extra cheese or plain. I really miss New York pizza. Pennsylvanian’s have no idea that pizza is a religious experience. That it is all about the crust. A perfect, thin and crispy crust. But I digress, so where did pizza come from?
In my research I found that pizza can trace its roots to Greeks, Egyptians, Persians and even Indians. Anything from flatbreads, to naan, to plakountas can be considered a distant cousin of the iconic dish. However, what we consider the one and only true pizza comes from Italy. It most likely originated in Tuscany in the early to mid-sixteenth century when spanish Conquistadors from South America (Peru, specifically) brought it to the shores of Italy. Initially, it was considered a dish for poor people. However, it grew in popularity around 1738 when Antica Pizzeria Port’Alba began baking pizzas and sold it to tourists in Naples. In 1889, a modern version of pizza was born when pizza maker Raffaele Esposito created the “Pizza Margherita” for the Queen consort of Italy, Margherita of Savoy. It contained only tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil to represent the colors of the Italian flag.
Eventually pizza made its way to New York with the wave of immigrants looking to start a new life in the land of opportunity. In what is now known as Little Italy, Gennaro Lombardi opened the first pizza shop in 1905. Made using a coal oven and thin crust, Lombardi began the entire lineage of NYC pizza. In time, pizza makers trained at Lombardi’s began to spread across the city and open up second generation facilities, which still flourish to this day.
Eventually other cities created their version of pizza. After WWII Ike Sewell, a Texan living in Chicago, invented a deep-dish style pizza at Pizzeria Uno. Not to be left behind the trend, California invented its own style with toppings that included ingredients like goat cheese, truffles, artichokes, and other vegetables for a “healthier”, California style.
Because a perfect pizza begins with a crust, you will need a pizza stone and measuring cups for a perfect proportion of flour and yeast. After all, as much impact as the ingredients used have in terms of producing a quality pie, so is the equipment used to make a perfect crispy crust.
So, go get your pizza stone, see the recipe below and enjoy your pizza night with a good movie. May I suggest a Roman Holiday!
Perfect Homemade Pizza Recipe: https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/homemade_pizza/
