Truer words have, perhaps, never been spoken. Pizza is a wonderful thing, and there’s really no such thing as bad pizza, even the worst pizza is still pretty good. Pizza has been around for an incredibly long time, the word itself going back as far as 997 AD in southern Italy.
Pizza Month gives you an entire month to celebrate this amazing food, and more than ample time to try it in all its variations and permutations.
History of Pizza Month
The History of Pizza Month is, in part, the history of Pizza. Pizza Month was originally created by Gerry Durnell in October 1984, publisher of Pizza Today, a magazine dedicated to this delicious pie! The Pizza was likely derived from Focaccia bread, a roman flatbread commonly served with toppings. From that time moving forward there have been developments that slowly led to the wonderful comfort food we all know and love as pizza.
Now, this doesn’t mean that it was a straight line, mind you, not at all. Some say that Roman soldiers created the first pizza when they added cheese and olive oil to Matzah bread. But one thing is known for certain, pizza as we know it today came into being as a result of the discovery of the tomato in the Americas, and its return to Europe in the 16th century.
So where did the pizza begin? The pizza as a flatbread with a tomato sauce started in Naples, and quickly became popular. Until the 1830’s it was almost exclusively sold from open-air stands and out of pizza bakeries, a tradition which is largely followed even today.
One other fun piece of trivia is the source of the ‘marinara’ sauce that is the traditional tomato sauce. Have you ever wondered why it’s called marinara? Because it was created by “La Marinara” the mariner’s wife, to serve to her seafaring husband upon return from fishing the Bay of Naples.
How to celebrate Pizza Month
If we have to encourage you to go out and eat all the pizza you can get your hands on this month, we’re not entirely certain that Pizza Month is for you. Who needs encouragement to celebrate this month? Well, if you’re wanting to truly honor the pizza, then it’s time to try some new toppings on your pizza and experience the full range of what the pizza can be! Go out, try something new, and enjoy pizza!
