The Perfect Pizza Pie BY JIM MATHIS
I
t has been said that pizza is like sex. When it is good, it is really good. And when it’s bad, it’s still pretty good. I can’t argue with that logic. I love a good pizza. And I won’t turn down a mediocre pizza. In all my years of eating pizza, I’ve only found a few that I wouldn’t eat. But I don’t think taco pizza should count. Why does pizza have such a hold on us? For me I think it goes back to an evening when I was about six. My brother was staying with a friend; my sister was not yet born. So that Friday night was MY night. Mom and Dad said I could choose whatever I wanted for dinner. My choice of course, was pizza, served hot and delicious right out of the cardboard delivery box. On that night, I felt like the King of the World. I had my parents all to myself, and I ate until I made myself sick. Literally, I got sick. But it was my night and my pizza. King of the World, indeed. Pizza is a nearly perfect food. With bread, meat, vegetables and dairy, it ticks off every box on the old food pyramid. It is great for dinner or lunch, and I challenge you to find a better breakfast when you’ve had a few too many the night before. As a hangover food, it has carbs to soak up what’s left in your belly, some fat to soothe the queasy feelings and little spice to knock some of the crud off your tongue. As I said, a nearly perfect food.
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MAN IN THE KITCHEN
History Lesson Legend tells us that what we know as Pizza Margherita was first created in Naples, Italy, way back in 1889, when Raffaele Esposito was asked to create pizzas in honor of the visiting Queen Margherita. It is said that of all the pies he created, Queen Margherita preferred the one decorated in the colors of the Italian flag: red tomatoes, white mozzarella and bright green basil. Hence forth this noble variety of pizza has been named in her majesty’s honor. But pizza was around long before that, and many food historians believe that the pizza was not created in Italy, but rather imported from Greece where they made a similar dish on flatbread. The word pizza comes from the Latin verb pìnsere, meaning “to press” and from the Greek pēktos, meaning “solid.” Through the ages, the words and the flatbread both changed as they meandered around Europe and the Middle East finally becoming the Greek pita and Italian pizza we know today. While the pizza has its roots in the Mediterranean, over the century it has become a truly American food. When the Italian American immigrants in the New York’s Little Italy started their pizzerias in the early years of the 20th century, the pizzas they
