Pizza

Also called “pizza pie” or “tomato pie,” pizza is a flatbread dough made with flour, yeast, salt, olive oil, and water, topped with various combinations of meats, cheeses, and vegetables, and baked in a very hot oven. In the United States, the combinations of pizza toppings are imaginative and seemingly unlimited.

Pizza came to America at the end of the nineteenth century with immigrants from southern Italy. Italian immigrants built commercial bakeries and backyard ovens to produce breads they had eaten in Italy. In addition, Italian bakers used their ovens for flatbreads: northern Italians baked focaccia, while southern Italians made pizza. Initially, pizza was made by Italians for Italians, but by the late 1930s, after the Great Depression, many Americans were eating pizza in Italian restaurants and pizzerias on the East and West Coasts.