From frozen to pizza shop to gourmet to homemade, the varieties of pizza are virtually endless. While “traditional” Italian pizza might be topped with nothing more than olive oil and garlic, Americanised pizza – the kind most of us are familiar with – can have almost any kind of topping imaginable. Your local pizza shop probably has an Aussie pizza, usually including egg or BBQ sauce as one of the toppings.
History of Pizza
The history of pizza is as fascinating as the choices available. There are references to something resembling pizza as far back as early BC. Persian soldiers under Darius the Great baked a pizza-like flatbread with dates and cheese on top of their shields, while ancient Greeks made flatbread topped with things such as herbs, onion, cheese, and garlic.
The actual name pizza goes back to sixteenth century and referred to a simple flatbread sold on the streets of Naples. Oil, tomatoes, and fish were added as topping, and by 1843, there was sufficient variety of toppings for Alexandre Dumas to remark on it.
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Italian immigrants to the US brought pizza with them, and the first pizzerias were opened in the early 1900s. It was mostly popular only among descendants of those Italian immigrants until the 1940s, when soldiers returning from war in Italy brought with them a taste for Italian cuisine. A large number of pizza chains such as Dominos, Pizza Hut, and Papa John’s opened, spreading the love of pizza to a wider audience.
From there, pizza has spread around the globe at an insane rate. According to a 2014 dietary report by the USDA, 13% of the US population consumes pizza on any given day. In 2017 alone, Aussies ate more than 4 million pizzas, and it is widely recognised as the most popular takeaway option. And according to Pizza Fun Facts, over 5 billion pizzas are sold worldwide each year.
Pizza as a Family Favourite
Our family, like the rest of the world, loves pizza. For those days when we’re in a hurry and we just want something quick, there is no substitute for takeaway pizza from our local pizza shop.
But “real” pizza for us is homemade. For as long as I can remember, my mom always made her own pizza. Once I got old enough, we made it together. She would prepare the dough and roll it out, while I would put the topping on it. It’s a process that we have refined until we have the perfect pizza we look forward to eating every time.