Almost everyone loves pizza. A generous combination of grease, salt, carbs and seasonings is hard to resist. Plus, no utensils need be involved to eat it.
My husband and I are firmly in the camp of pizza-lovers. So much so, that we reserve pizza eating as a treat, a dinner out at a carefully chosen pizzeria. Lacking a wood-fired oven, we don’t ever attempt to make them at home.
Like all pizza aficionados, we do have preferences. We both agree that the crust should be paper-thin and crisp; we don’t want a mouthful of dough to overwhelm the toppings. We also have a favorite pizza, the Margherita.
A story accompanies the Margherita pizza, and, though not completely verifiable, it’s a great origin tale nonetheless. According to legend, Italian Queen Margherita and King Umberto I were visiting Naples, the pizza Mecca of Italy, in 1889. She had become bored with the elaborate French dishes that were popular with royalty at that time and asked Naples most famous pizza maker, Raffaele Esposito, to create three different pizzas for her. She ruled against the marinara with garlic and the anchovy ones. Her royal seal of approval was bestowed on the one with red tomato sauce, white mozzarella cheese and fresh, green basil leaves. The colors neatly coincided with those of the Italian flag.
Pizza, including the Margherita, came to America in the late 19th century when waves of Italian immigrants arrived. It was sold for 2 cents a slice from peddlers’ carts in Italian- American enclaves. However, it took World War II to make pizza a staple of American life. Soldiers returning from the fighting in Italy missed the pizza they had eaten there. Pizza consumption subsequently exploded all over the U.S.A., and its popularity has not waned in 80 years.
The Margherita may be named for a queen, but it is traditionally a peasant food…cheap, filling and loaded with taste. Buon Appetito!
Pizza by Jim Tooley, Margo Mukherjee & Sutapa Mukherjee 
Fun with dough! 
John & Christopher Tooley with 1,000 degree pizza oven.
Okay, fine – have your skinny pizza. But I’m from Chicago, where we like our pizza like our waistlines – Deep Dish!
I mean, if all yer interested in is snacking….make mine a Meal, thanks.
That’s my pizza of choice, too, and sometimes in winter I add a few sun dried tomatoes in oil, when the fresh tomatoes are sparse. We love our pizza pan with holes, too. Need a large one for the Portland pizza dough!
yum!