Does The Moon Hit Your Eye?

It is a crazy world out there and you begin to wonder if anyone is still sane. Do you find yourself getting mad just listening to talk radio or the local news? Do you find yourself carrying on a conversation and you are the only one in the cab? Well, do not feel like the lone stranger. All of us are trying to escape the madness of the world. I’ve been racking my brain about what to write for this month’s article – anything other than what is happening in this “Alice in Wonderland” world we are currently living in. Will, my grandson, was riding in the car with me and I asked him what the article should be about this month? Without hesitation, out of the mouths of babes, came the word pizza! Of course, it has nothing to do with the fact we were having pizza that night, but why not research it – what the heck! So, let us start with a good trivia question. Did pizza dough originate in China, Greece, or Italy? If you said China, you were not quite correct. It was Marco Polo who brought back spaghetti noodles not pizza dough from China. If you guessed Italy, wrong again, because the flat bread that is used to make pizza dough was brought over by Greece. Truly, it is shrouded through the mist of ancient history, but the history lesson on pizza claims that pita, the flat bread, originated in the Middle East. Naples became a settlement of Greece in 600 B.C. Some of the pita ingredients were transported to Naples, which was a thriving seaport, with the vast majority of the people being impoverished. They lived packed together and had no time for a leisurely meal. Usually, the town’s bakers would have leftover dough, so they would bake it, garnish it with olive oil, garlic, cheese, anchovies, and whatever else appealed to their taste at the time. The poorer populace would buy and consume the garnished bread with gusto. It had all the winning ingredients – it was cheap, nutritious, easy to eat, and it was delicious! In the 1500s, tomatoes were brought from Peru. After that, the love affair with Italians and tomatoes was born. They made a tomato paste and put it on their pizza pie. The rest is history – as Italians immigrated to other parts of the globe, they began the tradition of making pizza. It became a solid gold hit that is still enjoyed today! Thanks go to Will for his great idea. Just thinking about the delicious treat makes one’s mouth water. Ah, a big pizza pie, that’s amore.