THE HISTORY OF THE PIZZA AND ITS BENEFIT

The History of Pizza, its art and benefits.

Pizza is currently one of the world’s favorite foods. It is enjoyed all over the world and in all kinds of places; homes, restaurants and on the street sides. Over three billion pizzas are sold annually in the United States alone. This means the average American eats about 46 slices of pizza every year. Pizza is a $30 billion per year industry. There are approximately 61,269 pizzerias in the United States. The story of how this humble dish came to dominate the world reveals so much about the history of migration, technology, economics and other aspects. Pizza has been eaten in one form or the other for centuries. Flatbreads were eaten with toppings in ancient Egypt and Rome. However, the modern pizza can trace its roots to the Campania region in the southwestern of Italy; home to the city of Naples.

There are various phases that have marked the history of pizza and those who invented it. It starts in the 1600s when the use of "schiacciata di pane" (flat bread) was established. It was nothing more than pasta used to cook bread in a wood oven and seasoned with garlic, lard and coarse salt. His baroque version even had caciocavallo (One of Italian Cheese version) and basil. The variant was created with anchovies, mozzarella, "cicinielli" - Neapolitan whitebait - and again the wallet variant, folded on itself, or the stuffed version, the current calzone. But the first real step towards modern pizza was the replacement of lard with Olive oil. Tomato sauce was the next step. Imported originally from Peru, only in the second half of the 1800s did someone have the idea to spread the tomato on the pizza.

History of pizza

Naples was founded around 600 B.C. as a Greek settlement. Naples in the 1700s and early 1800s was a thriving waterfront city. Technically an independent kingdom, it was infamous for its throngs of working the poor, or lazzaroni as they called them. “The closer you got to the bay, the denser their population, and much of their living was done outdoors, sometimes in homes that were little more than a room,” says Carol Helstosky, author of ‘Pizza: A Global History’ and associate professor of history at the University of Denver.

These lazzaronis required inexpensive food that could be consumed quickly. Pizza, flatbreads with various toppings, eaten for any meal were effective for this. They were sold in informal restaurants and street vendors and were affordable. “Judgmental Italian authors often called their eating habits ‘disgusting,’” Helstosky notes. These early pizzas that were eaten by the peasants of Naples consisted various garnishes such as tomatoes, cheese, oil and garlic.

Italy unified and become one kingdom in the year 1861. King Umberto I and Queen Margherita visited Naples in the year 1889. Legend has it that the king and queen got tired of eating the French cuisine that was served in the castle and ordered an assortment of pizzas from the city’s Pizzeria. They were served on this occasion three pizzas prepared by the first and the greatest Neapolitan pizza maker, Raffaele Esposito: the Mastunicola pizza (MasterNicola) (lard, cheese, and basil), pizza alla Marinara (tomato, garlic, oil, oregano) and tomato, mozzarella and basil pizza. The variety the queen enjoyed most was the pizza mozzarella, a pie topped with the soft white cheese, red tomatoes and green basil. This why that particular topping combination was dubbed pizza Margherita. Margherita’s approval was the beginning of the acceptance of the delicacy in Naples. Pizza however remained little known in Italy outside Naples borders until the 1940s.

	The first pizzeria was opened in Naples in the year 1830 and was called ‘The Port Alba Pizzeria’. This pizzeria is still open to date and is located next to the arch that leads from Piazza Dante to Costantinopoli. This pizzeria was a famous meeting point for artists and writers. It is said that the famous Italian poet and writer Gabriele D’Annunzi wrote the verses of the famous song ‘Vucchella’ (The small mouth). Also among the illustrious visitors was Salvatore Di Giacomo who dedicated many verses to pizza, and Alexandre Dumas who wrote that "pizza is a kind of plain cake as it is made in St. Denis France: it is round in shape, and it is worked with the same dough as bread. At first sight it is a simple food: but when it is subjected to examination it will appear to be a complicated food.
	In the late 19th century and the early 20th century, Italians just like citizens of other European nations were migrating into the United States in search of factory jobs. The immigrants from Naples started replicating their pizzas in American cities. These immigrants were not looking to make any culinary statements but the pizza gained popularity relatively quickly even to non-Neapolitans and non-Italians. The first documented pizzeria that was opened in America was G. Lombardi’s on Spring Street in Manhattan in 1905. This pizzeria is still open today although at a different location and still uses its original oven. 
	Italian-Americans continued to migrate to various cities and towns across America and thus pizza’s popularity increased. Before the 1940’s pizza was mostly consumed by Italian-Americans. However, after World War II, veterans returning from the Italian Campaign who had been introduced to the dish became a ready market for the dish. The treat was no longer seen as an ethnic treat and it was viewed as a fast and fun dish. By the 1960s, the dish was so popular that it was featured in an episode of ‘Popeye the sailor’. This led to the emergence of regional non-Neapolitan pizza variations. This includes the California-gourmet pizzas that were topped off with anything from barbecue chicken to smoked salmon. 
	Pizza consumption thereafter exploded in the United States and other parts of the world. The rapid technological and economical advancements transformed the pizza drastically. One was the increase in the use of freezers and fridges. This led to the development of the frozen pizza designed to be taken home and cooked at will. This required changes in the recipe such as the use of tomato sauce instead of tomatoes and new types of cheese. With the growing of availability of cars and motorcycles, it became possible to deliver the pizza to customers’ doors.
	There are now numerous pizza chains and pizzerias across the globe. These include Pizza Hut, Domino’s and little Caesars among many others. American chains Dominos and Pizza Hut thrive in over 60 different countries. The different pizza toppings vary from place to place reflecting the local tastes. Pizza is however still recognizable and centuries of social, economic and technological advancements are baked into every slice.
	Benefits of Pizza
	Pizza combines a crispy crust that’s drenched in savory sauce and a mountain of melty, gooey mozzarella cheese.  This heaven sent snack can be layered with an endless array of toppings. Many people consider this meal an indulgent treat as there are pizzas in the market that are full of calories, sodium, gluten and carbs. However, pizza has very many nutrition benefits especially when it is prepared right. Many people would put pizza in the same category as burgers and fries. This is however the misconception and is not the case as pizza is not a fried food like fries. Fried foods contain high amounts of saturated fats and Trans fat which are linked to a number of health problems. Pizza made from fresh dough and toppings has numerous health and nutrition benefits. A well made pizza will contain a healthy balance o carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins and fat.
	But first we most talk about the main ingredient which is the integral part of the Pizza “ The Wheat Flour “ what makes the wheat flour bad and why the Pizza according to many has the image of fattening food, or junk food….let’s talk about it…….. 

What's wrong with modern wheat?

How an ancient food staple became toxic junk food, and what we can do about it (without going gluten-free)

Grain has been at the heart of humankind's diet for thousands of years. It is, in fact, the foundation of civilization: it cultivates easily, stores for years in kernel form, releasing its nutritional bounty when the seed is ground and prepared into fresh breads or porridges. This is how grains have been consumed over the millennia: stored in whole kernel form and milled fresh, full of life and nutrients.

It’s a 10,000 year food tradition. But in the last few generations, something’s gone wrong.

At farmers' markets and natural food stores, we've talked to hundreds of people about wheat. And it’s very clear to us: modern wheat is making people sick. More and more people are going "gluten-free" to fix long-standing digestion issues and they feel better. Yet, it is also very clear that there is more to this than gluten. For instance, we get many people telling us how they can't eat gluten so they eat spelt or Kamut. Yet both these ancient grains have gluten.

So what’s changed? In fact, almost everything.

The way we grow it, the way we process it and the way we eat. The very wheat itself. Since industrialization, everything has changed, and it has happened in two distinct “technology revolutions”. The first was in milling, the second in cultivation and farming. Both have had a profound effect, yet most people have no idea.

Revolution # 1:

Industrial milling, white flour and the birth of the processed food industry

Our rallying cry is “Bake Like its 1869”. That's because, in the 1870’s, the invention of the modern steel roller mill revolutionized grain milling. Compared to old stone methods, it was fast and efficient and gave fine control over the various parts of the kernel. Instead of just mashing it all together, one could separate the component parts, allowing the purest and finest of white flour to be easily produced at low cost, so every class of person in rapidly growing cities could now afford “fancy flour”. People rejoiced for modern progress, but there is a price to pay, and the Pizza like the Pasta or any other products where wheat flour is used took a toll, and since then the flour that we eat is no longer the healthy and natural product we made hundreds of years ago.

This being said in order today to still make healthy Pizza or healthy Pasta we need to look at other flour alternative which are naturally healthy, not fattening, in fact some of this new alternative are very healthy to eat and takes the same if not less time to prepare it we just need to know how ??????? So let’s see how we can redeem the Pizza image from being junk food or fattening food to being the natural snack really is…….

	First, the pizza crust may be made from, oat flour, chickpea flour, cauliflower, spinach, zucchini, Quinoa seeds flour,( we will talk about in another article how to save money using alternative flours)  and on and on….obviously knowledge plays a big role here….for example Chickpea  flour needs to be denatured, that is, roasted in the oven in a very low temperature for about 3 hours . This process allows chickpea flour to be processed like wheat flour, making the flour to the  elastic quality needed to make pizza . To denature chickpea flour, put it in the oven in a 90-degree aluminum tub for at least 3 hours. With experience you will be able to get better and better results among other ingredients. Some of these ingredients have more nutritional value than the rest. For example, a crust made from whole-grain flour will provide more fiber intake than the regular white flour. Each slice of a whole grain crust will provide one with at least 4 grams of fiber whereas a regular crust will contain about 1.4 grams of fiber. Fiber is very good for digestion and also checks the cholesterol levels in the body. Chickpea flour on the other hand is gluten free. It also contains high levels of protein, iron and fiber and very low amounts of calories and carbohydrates. It also contains nutrients such as folate, iron, magnesium and zinc. Polyphenols such as flavonoids are also present and have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Its subtle flavor makes it great for preparing the pizza crust.
	Pizzas are also a very good source of calcium. The cheese and the tomato sauce are sources of calcium. One slice of a 14-inch pizza will contain about 200 milligrams of calcium. This represents about 22% of the required calcium daily intake. Topping the pizza with spinach, artichoke, broccoli or seafood will even increase the healthier levels even higher. 

Pizza is also a good source of protein. Protein is essential in humans as it is needed for the building of muscle and tissue in the body. A human being requires between 46 and 56 grams of protein every day.

The  Mozzarella cheese Let’s talk about it…..

To make Mozzarella is an Art that only few have mastered….

Those mozzarella so called home made that you see in deli’s throughout the USA is nothing else than curds heat up in hot water and molded into any shape you like, totally flavorless and a total commercial invention, the curd is made in many places without one drop of milk rather only with concentrate and/or milk enzyme …… has no health benefit, has no flavor, and it cost over $6.00 at lb……

Mozzarella is traditionally made from the milk of Italian buffalo raised in specific regions of Italy, Mostly in Campania region around Naples. However, authenticity comes at a price: the costs of producing this type of milk are high.

The cheese has such a good reputation to maintain, it’s even included in the European Union's Protected Designation of Origin scheme. Unfortunately, this cannot be said for mozzarella that is produced with cow’s milk instead of buffalo milk.

Why mozzarella is a super-cheese

The word mozzarella comes from ‘mozzare’, which means ‘to cut off’.

A soft slice of mozzarella may not be highest on the list of super foods every health junkie should try – but the cheese definitely has more nutritional value than its given credit for:

1. Its packed full of calcium, a mineral that’s essential for the body. Apparently, an ounce of mozzarella contains 18% of your daily intake of calcium - which aids the health of your bone structure and even manages to strengthen your pearly whites!

2. This velvety smooth cheese also contains phosphorus, a mineral that allows the body to use the aforementioned calcium. As if that’s not enough, potassium, chloride, iron and sodium are also found in mozzarella.

3. If lifting heavy weights is more your thing than weighing the amount of chia seeds you adds to your quinoa bars, then mozzarella should be your pick. There is plenty of protein to be found in this cheese, bulking up the muscle food you need.

Don’t full yourself ……..The mozzarella cheese used on pizza in America is only an imitation Preservatives and stabilizers have made it possible to buy processed mozzarella in USA but the flavor is totally compromised from the real Mozzarella.

Some cheeses are, indeed, made without rennet, which curdles milk protein. A few varieties are made with no curdling agent at all, and others use plant-based forms of the enzyme found in rennet. There is also a rennet that is made from genetically modified fungi. Vegetarians who are interested in finding a "true" vegetarian cheese should consider the options listed below.

Not surprisingly, the way mozzarella was made shifted from a fresh, short shelf life product to a long-lived, rather rubbery textured "cheese" that was made for quick shredding and consistent melting. It's really not even remotely like the "real thing". But it's most definitely what we knew when we grew up here in America.

On a personal level we can still remember the shock twenty years ago at learning that the stuff we always been told was mozzarella, basically, wasn't. One American chef was telling me he was cooking for a living when he went to Italy for the first time--somewhere in the mid-'70s, and saw these soft white balls of what they were calling mozzarella floating in milky liquid which after I found out was pure fresh buffalo milk.

He really didn't know what to make of it. But it only took one trip to realize that the cheese he'd grown up with, the one he'd shred up to toss onto pizzas (or one of his childhood favorites, English Muffin pizzas), had little to do with what the Italians called "mozzarella."

Mozzarella in Italy is a cheese that you eat only fresh, within a day or so of manufacture. When you cut it the cheese should ooze milky white pure buffalo milk. Eat it drizzled with nothing else absolutely the way it is, incredibly flavorful ………and nutrient………

 The so called Mozzarella in America it’s not fresh rather its pasteurized made on purpose to be kept for longer period of time, taking a huge toll on the flavor.

Say Cheese….The Process ……

While cheese is often considered an acceptable food choice for lacto-vegetarians, this is not necessarily true. Some brands of cheese contain true rennet, which is made from calves' stomach linings. Enzymes in the rennet coagulate milk proteins to form curds, which are the basis for all kinds of cheese. But that enzyme can be produced from non-animal sources. In 1972, when the availability of calf rennet started to decrease, partly because of consumer objections to animal treatment in the veal industry, the FDA allowed microbial coagulants in cheese manufacturing, according to the Dairy Research Institute.

Vegetarian Rennet

The vegetarian substitutes for rennet include microbial rennet, made from fermented soybeans or fungi, and fermentation-produced chymosin (FPC), which is often genetically modified, and vegetable rennet.

• Microbial rennet. This enzyme is produced from fungi or mold. It is much cheaper than calves' rennet, but it can have a bitter flavor. Cheese makers are more likely to use this product in young cheese, since the aging process strengthens flavors in the cheese.
• Fermentation-produced chymosin (FPC). This compound is used in more than 90% of all cheeses made in the United States, according to the Dairy Research Institute. It doesn't affect the flavor of the cheese as much as microbial rennet does. This type of rennet can be made by inserting the DNA that produces the rennet enzyme into fungi. In other words, this product is almost always genetically modified.
• Vegetable rennet. Some plants contain compounds that will curdle milk just like rennet does. The plant most commonly used for this compound is the thistle. But this rennet should only be used for cheese made from sheep or goat's milk, since it will make cow's milk cheese bitter.

Misleading Labels

Labels won't always tell the whole story about the food, since the terms used are not always clear. The FDA states that "enzymes of animal, plant, or microbial origin may be declared as "enzymes" on a cheese label, with no delineation between animal forms and vegetable forms. Look for the term "vegetarian" or "vegan" on the label to narrow down your choices.

If you want to avoid GM or GMO foods, look for the "Non-GMO product" label on the cheeses you buy. A cheese label that states the product is "100% Organic" or "USDA Organic" is helpful too, but that doesn't always mean the type of rennet used isn't GMO. The best way to determine if a cheese contains rennet, whether animal or plant-based or GMO, is to call the company and ask.

Also be aware that companies often change the ingredients they use when they make a product, so a cheese made with vegetarian-friendly rennet one week may be made with animal rennet the next. Some cheeses are also made with animal products, such as Vitamin A Palmitate, which is sometimes made with fish liver oil.

Stay True to Vegetarian Principles

To ensure if you are truly following a vegetarian diet, look for cheeses that have been made without the addition of animal rennet. Read labels carefully and check before you buy!

This being said,  Pizza with meat topping obviously will have higher number of calories content and extra saturated fat, so if you like your Pizza to be healthy and natural stay away from sausages, pepperoni or any other type of processed meat possible. Since processes meats increase the fat content in the pizza, therefore don’t blame it on the pizza but rather on the topping you adding…... It is advisable that one therefore goes for healthier such as seafood.

         As we have explained above, pizza is not the greasy unhealthy dish as many view it. It can be a healthy balanced dish with numerous health benefits if we look at healthier alternative avoiding wheat flour, as explained above, plus being selective on the toppings we use on our crust. With these numerous health and nutritional benefits together with its undeniably amazing taste, pizza is quite a force to reckon with.

Follow us on our next article of the Pizza World and Food Education

We will eventually talk about the tomatoes impact on a good healthy pizza look out for this article you will learn much more……

Feel free to comment on this article and ask as many question you like we love to answer……..

Thank you for reading

Your host

Danny Odato

AmericaPizzaAssociation.com