Having pizza for dinner tonight? Here's who you can thank...

Naples is widely recognized as the birthplace of pizza, with its roots tracing back to the 18th century when flatbreads topped with tomatoes became popular among the working class. 

What began as a humble street food evolved into a culinary icon, especially with the creation of Pizza Margherita in 1889, named after Queen Margherita of Savoy and designed to reflect the colors of the Italian flag. The dish’s simplicity and reliance on fresh, local ingredients became central to its identity, and Naples fiercely protected that legacy as pizza spread across the globe.

In 2004, Italy formalized this cultural pride by passing a law that defined the exact ingredients required for a pizza to be considered authentically Neapolitan. This wasn’t just about taste, it was about preserving tradition in the face of global commercialization. 

The law mandates the use of specific elements like mineral water and natural yeast, and even regulates preparation methods, such as hand-stretching the dough and baking in a wood-fired oven. The move helped secure Neapolitan pizza’s status as a protected cultural product, eventually leading to its recognition by UNESCO as part of the world’s intangible cultural heritage.

I was surprised to learn that the dough must be hand-kneaded or mixed using low-speed mechanical mixers, high-speed mixing is strictly forbidden under the official guidelines.

This rule isn’t just about tradition; it’s based on how gluten develops. Slow mixing preserves the dough’s elasticity and texture, which is essential for the signature soft, chewy crust with a slightly crisp edge.

 

The law even specifies that the dough must rest for at least six hours before baking, and the pizza must be cooked in a wood-fired oven at around 485°C (905°F) for no more than 90 seconds. These hyper-specific rules turn pizza-making into a kind of culinary ritual, where even the speed of your mixer can disqualify your pie from being “truly Neapolitan.”

(Courtesy of The Historian's Den)

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