Great American Pizza Bake

Dating as far back as 8000 B.C.E. people in ancient times began mixing flour into doughand baking it into flatbreads. Back then, the Egyptians, Romans, and Greeks founded the idea of using bread as a “plate” for an assortment of toppings, such as stews, thick broth, meats, vegetables, and fruits.

One of the critical elements that turned the baked flatbreads with toppings into pizza was the tomato, which was brought to Europe from the Americas in the 16th century. The yellow cherry tomato was initially believed to be poisonous, which caused many to use the plants as a type of decoration.

However, once the plague hit, people took chances and gambled with the fruit, which to their surprise didn’t kill them. Finally, the last ingredient that made pizza is mozzarella made from buffalos, introduced to the southern region of Campania in the sixth century C.E.

While flatbreads were sold initially on merchant streets, Antica Pizzeria Port’Alba in Naples, Italy is regarded as the world’s first pizzeria in 1738.

Later on down the road, pizza arrived in the U.S. with the first wave of Italian immigrants in the late 19th century. As pizza became popular in the United States, in the early 1980s, Wolfgang Puck, the German-born chef in Los Angeles, gained national attention for his gourmet pizzas, with ingredients such as duck sausage, goat cheese, and pesto.