Tomato sauce purist you say…
You realize tomatoes are not native to Europe at all? They are native to South America and weren’t introduced to Italy until the 1500s. Even if you consider pizza at all to be Italian, the pizzas we know are a far cry from true Italian pizza.
Yup. Pizza as a word to mean a flatbread with toppings pre-date the arrival of tomatoes in Europe by a good 1400 years ish.
Just like how ketchup originally was just kind of a type of plant matter derived sauce with a runny consistency that utilized a fair amount of salt. Tomato ketchup was at one point a fairly new fangled novelty as for the longest time the favoured version of it was made of mushrooms.
The tomato more than most tends to just take over certain parts of food culture and drives out all other varieties. It’s kind of the cuckoo of the food world.
for the longest time the favoured version of it was made of mushrooms.
What in the fuck?
I guess every culture that came to the conclusion to make some kind of bread at some point in time eventually put stuff on that bread. Like leftovers. The question is, do we call that a pizza… Or is it a flat sandwich or something…
This website should answer your question: https://cuberule.com/
Bread was invented in Egypt so by your standards “true Italian” pizza can’t have that either.
My favorite kinda pizza comes from Detroit. Runner up: Chicago. Italian style pizza isn’t even in contention :P
