Pizza
From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change
Pizza is a type of food that was created in Italy. It is usually made by putting "toppings" such as:
- cheese
- sausage
- pepperoni
- olives
- vegetables, like tomatoes, or onions
- spices and herbs, like Oregano or Basil
over a piece of bread covered with sauce; most often tomato, but sometimes butter-based sauces are used. (The piece of bread is usually called a "pizza crust".) Almost any kind of topping can be put over a pizza. The toppings people use are different in different parts of the world. There are different styles of pizza, including New York, which has a flat pizza crust and Chicago, which has a fat crust.
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[change] History
The word Pizza is named in honor of Margherita di Savoia an Italian queen, that one time went to Naples around 1900. This is the name for a special type of flatbed bread, made with special dough. Pizzas seem to come from Naples, originally. Pizzas with toppings like olive oil, tomato slices, and basil have been known since about the 18th century. At that time, growing tomatoes in the south of Italy became popular. However the name of the pizza may be older. Flatbreads like the focaccia from Liguria have been known for a very long time. Pizzas need to be baked at temperatures of 400 - 500 °C. Hardly any household oven could reach such temperatures at the time. Therefore, the pizza was prepared at home, and then given to the local bakery to bake.In the first times pizza was just an Italian disher, especially in Naples,after the time,with the immigrations of Italian in the world,the pizza became an international dish after the "2° world war".
[change] Types of pizza
In the 20th century, pizza has become an international food and the toppings may vary considerably in accordance with local tastes. These pizzas consist of the same basic design but include an exceptionally diverse choice of ingredients, such as anchovies, egg, pineapple, banana, coconut, sauerkraut, eggplant, kimchi, lamb, couscous, chicken, fish, and shellfish, meats prepared in styles such as Moroccan lamb, shawarma or chicken tikka masala, and non-traditional spices such as curry and Thai sweet chili. Pizzas can also be made without meat for vegetarians, and without cheese for vegans.
[change] Pizza styles
Neapolitan pizza (pizza Napoletana). Authentic Neapolitan pizzas are made with local ingredients like San Marzano tomatoes, which grow on the volcanic plains to the south of Mount Vesuvius and Mozzarella di Bufala Campana, made with the milk from water buffalo raised in the marshlands of Campania and Lazio in a semi-wild state (this mozzarella is protected with its own European the genuine Neapolitan pizza dough consists of Italian flour, natural Neapolitan yeast or brewer's yeast, salt and water.The dough must be kneaded by hand or with a low-speed mixer. After the rising process, the dough must be formed by hand without the help of a rolling pin or other mechanical device, and may be no more than 3 mm (1/8 in) thick.Pizza is cooked in a oven.When cooked, it should be crispy, tender and fragrant. Neapolitan pizza has gained the status of "guaranteed traditional specialty" in Italy. This admits only three official variants: Pizza marinara, which is made with tomato, garlic, oregano and extra virgin olive oil (although most Neapolitan pizzerias also add basil to the marinara), Pizza Margherita, made with tomato,mozzarella, basil and extra virgin olive oil, and Pizza Margherita Extra made with tomato, buffalo mozzarella from Campania in fillets, basil and extra virgin olive oil.
Lazio style: Pizza in Lazio (Rome), as well as in many other parts of Italy is available in 2 different "flavors": 1) In take-away shops so-called "Pizza Rustica" or "Pizza a Taglio". Pizza is cooked in long, rectangular baking pans and relatively thick (1-2 cm). The crust similar to that of an English muffin and mostly cooked in an electric oven. When purchased, it is usually cut with scissors or knife and priced by weight. 2) In Pizza Restaurants (Pizzerias) it is served in a dish in its traditional round shape.
Other types of Lazio-style pizza include:
- Pizza Romana (in Naples): tomato, mozzarella, anchovies, oregano, oil;
- Pizza Viennese: tomato, mozzarella, German sausage, oregano, oil;
- Pizza Capricciosa ("Capricious Pizza"): mozzarella, tomato, mushrooms, artichokes, cooked ham, olives, oil
- Pizza Quattro Stagioni ("Four Seasons Pizza"): same ingredients for the Capricciosa, but ingredients aren't mixed;
- Pizza Quattro Formaggi ("Four Cheese Pizza"): tomatoes, mozzarella, stracchino, fontina, gorgonzola
Sicilian-style pizza has its toppings baked directly into the crust. Pizza Hut's Sicilian Pizza, introduced in 1994, is not an authentic example of the style as only garlic, basil, and oregano are mixed into the crust,it's sold in the restaurant chain Pizza Hut.
White pizza (pizza bianca) uses no tomato sauce, often substituting pesto or dairy products such as sour cream. Most commonly, especially on the East Coast of the United States, the toppings consist only of mozzarella and ricotta cheese drizzled with olive oil and basil and garlic. In Rome, the term pizza bianca refers to a type of bread topped only with olive oil.
[change] Restaurants
Some popular U.S. pizza places are:
- Pizza Hut
- Dominos Pizza
- Pizza on the Run
- Cici's Pizza
- Papa John's
- Little Ceasars
[change] Frozen pizza
Frozen pizza is pizza that has been prepared beforehand, and is then deep-frozen, to be distributed in supermarkets. It is among the most successful and popular types of convenience food.
