Like a Big Pizza Pie - That's Amore!

So my friends Alex and Kate asked me to pen my extensive knowledge of the food known as pizza on my blog. a-HEM. Here it goes.

Pizza was first made by Persian soldiers of Darius the Great, who used their shields to cook flat bread topped with cheese and dates. This was in the 6th Century B.C. Also happening at that time - Some guy named Buddha was born. Maybe you've heard of him. Also, Book of Psalms written.

Then, during the 1st century AD, Roman chef Marcus Gavius Apicius of Pompeii wrote a cookbook where he described a dish made with chicken, pine nuts, olive oil, cheese, garlic and pepper on a base of flat bread - a pizza! It is said that Apicius loved food and cooking so much that, when his bank account began to dwindle, he poisoned himself so that he wouldn't die of hunger. However, he shouldn't have worried, seeing as how Mt. Vesuvius promptly erupted and buried everything in Pompeii, including it's pizza. Fossilized pizza was found when archaeologists excavated Pompeii.

In the 16th century AD, tomatoes were discovered in Peru and brought over to Europe. At first people thought they were poisonous so they didn't eat them. But the peasants of Naples, who were too poor to care, put them on their pizza anyways.

1889 - the birth of the modern pizza. Rafael Esposito, a famed pizzioli, was invited to the court of King Umberto of Italy to present his dish. In honor of the Italian flag, Esposito made a pizza with red tomatoes, white mozzarella cheese, and green basil. The queen liked it so much that it was named Pizza Margherita in her honor.

Pizza soon became very popular in Italy. It was brought to America in the late 19th century with Italian immigrants going through Ellis Island. It first appeared in Chicago, where an Italian peddlar would walk up and down the street with a metal washtub on his head full of pizzas at two cents a chew. The tub had a false bottom packed with charcoal to keep the pizza hot.

20th Century:American soldiers stationed in Italy during WWII bring back a taste for pizza. But it wasn't until the 50's that people really started loving pizza. Italian stars like Joe DiMaggio and Frank Sinatra were seen eating pizza, so it suddenly became wildly popular. The first frozen pizzas were introduced in 1957, allowing Americans to take a little slice of Sinatra home for dinner. Pizza is now the most popular frozen food.

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