What is the Difference Between American Pizza and Italian Pizza?
Many people know that American pizza derived from Italian pizza. What many people don’t know is the history behind Italian pizza and how Italian and American pizza developed. Italy, as it turns out, is not the first source of the pizza concept. Sources attribute that honor variously, including to Egyptian flatbread creations. It may have been Greek invaders in the first century A.D. who brought pizza to southern Italy.
Many people know that American pizza derived from Italian pizza. What many people don’t know is the history behind Italian pizza and how Italian and American pizza developed. Italy, as it turns out, is not the first source of the pizza concept. Sources attribute that honor variously, including to Egyptian flatbread creations. It may have been Greek invaders in the first century A.D. who brought pizza to southern Italy. Pizza in those early instantiations was a roundish bit of dough with various seasonings, toppings, drippings, gravy, or whatever was around. The evolution into a standard, predictable “dish” seems to have come about as a result of the export of tomatoes from the New World to Naples, and—unknown to most people—this makes the first recognizable pizza style something of a joint Italian-American venture.
