Pizza

Pizza is an Italian dish typically consisting of thinly rolled, leavened, wheat-based dough topped before baking with tomato sauce, cheese, and other ingredients. In 2025, Domino's and Pizza Hut were the two pizza restaurant chains with the most locations on a global basis.

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Quotes

Naples is the birthplace of pizza where by most accounts it took its modern form in the 1700s, without tomatoes—which, though they were first imported to southern Italy in the 1500s, probably didn't make it onto pizzas until the 1800s. Establishing firm timelines for specific revolutionary steps in pizza history (or for any other food that began as a street food) is difficult.
- Ken Fordish, The Elements of Pizza: Unlocking the Secrets to World-Class Pies at Home [A Cookbook]. Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed. 2016. p. 12. ISBN 9781607748397. (256 pages)

Here's my basic tomato philosophy for pizza. The more substantial the pizza and its crust, the heartier the tomato sauce. So, for a big Chicago deep-dish or a thick-crust Sicilian, I'll go with a chunkier, more gutsy sauce. For a classic New York, I'll use a thinner sauce.
You might think the gold standard for pizza sauce is fresh tomatoes simmering away for hours. I've got nothing against this idea, assuming you can start with outstanding tomatoes. But the fact is that no matter where you live, truly great fresh tomatoes are pretty hard to come by most of the year.
It might surprise you to learn that most pizza sauces, including most of the sauces I use in my restaurant, are made from canned tomatoes and tomato products (like crushed tomatoes and tomato sauce) that are simply combined, maybe lightly seasoned and blended with a little olive oil, and then used just like that—no cooking involved. In other words, they're not like a typical red sauce for pasta.
- Tony Gemignani, The Pizza Bible: The World's Favorite Pizza Styles, from Neapolitan, Deep-Dish, Wood-Fired, Sicilian, Calzones and Focaccia to New York, New Haven, Detroit, and More. Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed. 2014. p. 17. ISBN 9781607746058. (320 pages)

In 1835, French author, travel writer, and culinary expert Alexandre Dumas travelled to Naples, Italy where he observed the customs and life of the Neapolitan poor. His published work, ‘’Le Corricolo’’ (1843), described the infamous lazzaroni of the city, so named because their ragged appearance evoked images of Lazarus. Dumas declared that the lazzaroni submitted on two foods: watermelon in the summer and pizza in the winter. In describing pizza for his readers Dumas wrote that, at first, it appeared to be a very simple thing: the poor and the working classes ate flatbread with various toppings for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Pizza was a kind of bread, but it was not purchased whole; rather, customers bought the size they could afford. There were also many varieties of pizza for sale: pizza with oil, pizza with lard, pizza with tomatoes, pizza with tiny fish, pizza with cheese. The variety and popularity of toppings told Dumas more than just what the lazzaroni liked. The ingredients of a pizza told him about the cost and availability of certain foods in Naples.
- Carol Helstosky, "Introduction". Pizza: A Global History. The Edible Series. Reaktion Books. 2008. ISBN 9781861896308. (128 pages)

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Pizza