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Pizza Dough Recipe
Pizza Dough is a baked pie of Italian origin consisting of a shallow bread-like crust covered with seasoned tomato sauce, cheese, and often other toppings such as sausage or olive. The word Pizza Dough is believed to be from an Old Italian word meaning "a point," which in turn became the Italian word "pizzicare," which means, "to pinch" or "pluck."
The Phoenicians, the Greeks, or The Romans or anyone, in fact, who learned the secret of mixing flour with water and heating it on a hot stone, could have invented the Pizza Dough. In one of its many forms, Pizza Dough has been a basic part of the Italian diet since the Stone Age. This earliest form of Pizza Dough was crude bread that was baked beneath the stones of the fire. After cooking, it was seasoned with a variety of different toppings and used instead of plates and utensils to sop up broth or gravies. It is said that the idea of using bread as a plate came from the Greeks who ate flat round bread (plankuntos) baked with an assortment of toppings. The workingman and his family ate it because it was a thrifty and convenient food.
Roman soldiers tasted matzo and thought it lacked FOCUS (the Latin word for hearth). On a hearth, along with oil, herbs and cheese ... pizza was born.
The root word in Latin is PICEA, which describes the blackening of the crust caused by the fire underneath.
The modern precursor to what we call Pizza Dough occurred in pre-Renaissance Naples. Poor housewives had only flour, olive oil, lard, cheese and herbs with which to feed their families, so combining them in a tasty and delicious manner became the goal. All of Italy proclaimed the Neapolitan pies to be the best.
Tomatoes were brought back to Europe from the New World (Peru). Originally they were thought to be poisonous, but later the poorer people of Naples added the new tomatoes to their yeast dough and created the first simple Pizza Dough, as we know it. They usually had only flour, olive oil, lard, cheese, and herbs with which to feed their families. All of Italy proclaimed the Neapolitan pies to be the best. At that time, the Tavern of the Cerrigloi was a hangout for the Spanish soldiers of the Viceroy. It is said that they flocked there to feast on the specialty of the house - Pizza Dough.
In the Italian Bible, Elijahs manna is called focaccia. Americans eat 90 acres of Pizza Dough per day. During TV news broadcasts, most Pizza Dough is ordered during the weather, and the delivery folk’s report that women are better tippers! According to the Wall Street Journal, when Hillary is out-of-town, White House staffers order more Pizza Dough! |
