Pizza

Pizza

Noun · /ˈpiːtsə/ · a flat baked dough topped with tomato sauce, cheese, and various toppings

Definition

Pizza is a dish of Italian origin consisting of a flat, round base of leavened wheat dough topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and a variety of other toppings, then baked at high heat. From a Neapolitan street food to the world's most popular dish, pizza has travelled further than almost any other food in history.

Origin

From Italian pizza, first recorded in a Latin text from Gaeta, southern Italy, in 997 CE. The word's ultimate origin is debated: possibly from Lombardic bizzo (bite, mouthful), or from Latin pinsere (to pound, stamp). The modern pizza as we know it — with tomato — emerged in Naples in the 18th century after tomatoes arrived from the Americas.