Pizza, in some form, has been eaten by Mediterranean people since the earliest days of their civilizations. Roman soldiers disliked the flat matzo bread of the Jews in Israel and attempted to make the bread more like the focaccia bread of their home. They sprinkled herbs, oil, and crushed cheese on it, creating the first pizza pie. The Italian word, pizza, is roughly translated "flat pie."

The style of pizza popular today began in pre-Renaissance Naples, Italy. Because the ingredients needed for pizza were few and inexpensive, pizza was a peasant food that became popular in the Neapolitan slums. Women of Naples combined flour, olive oil, lard, herbs, and cheese in creative ways and perfected the pies until all of Italy praised the pizza pies of Naples. Neapolitans continued to experiment with the pies and began adding some of the mysterious yellow berries Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) brought back...