Pizza from the ruins of Pompeii poses a dilemma for Neapolitans – 7/4/2023 – Cozinha Bruta

My friend Giuliano was born in Pompeii, Italy, home to the best-preserved archaeological site of ancient Rome. I still don’t understand why, but he came to be a tour guide in São Paulo.

Giuliano learned from me of the discovery, in a fresco, of the painting of something resembling a pizza, with something that looks like dates and something that looks like figs. He feigned irritation: “Wow, my mother works in the ruins and didn’t tell me!”

The Roman pizza, for us, is nothing more than a curiosity, one more interesting fact about the city swallowed by the ashes of Vesuvius.

For Neapolitans, however (Pompeii is in the province of Naples), the subject raises serious discussions. Pizza is something very important in the regional identity.

Naples seeks global recognition as the unique cradle of the only real pizza in existence. That’s quite an ambition, and the Neapolitans have been successful in realizing their vision. Neapolitan pizzerias spread around the world, and an association was created to say what can and cannot be in real pizza.

The pizza of ancient Rome, on the one hand, shows that the food (or something like that) has been around for a long time. Point to Naples.

On the other hand, what appears in the fresco is only remotely reminiscent of contemporary Neapolitan pizza. It’s a flatbread with other foods on top, something that exists and has always existed in civilizations around the Mediterranean.

In Greek “pita” means pie and is also the name of the bread we know as Syrian bread. “Pide”, in Turkish, halfway between pizza and sfiha. In other parts of southern Italy, there are different types of bread and pies called pizza, pita or something similar.

Neapolitans, therefore, are faced with a dilemma.

If they don’t admit that the Pompeii painting is a pizza, they fail to cash in on the oldest evidence of the dish’s Neapolitan citizenship.

If they accept and embrace the Pompeian pizza as their cultural heritage, they go against the orthodox booklet they preach to the rest of the world.

Pizza, after all, is bread with a few things on top.

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