Tomato sauce for pizza was invented in the United States, not Italy, according to an Italian food historian, and Rome’s veteran pizzaiolos were furious at the claim.
Professor Alberto Grandi of the University of Parma, Italy, argues that “pizza rossa” – or red pizza topped with tomato sauce – was founded when Italian immigrants took advantage of newly discovered ingredients on American soil to improve it.
The food historian details the supposed origin of pizza in his and Daniele Soffiati’s book, La Cucina Italiana Non Esiste – Italian Cuisine Does Not Exist, which promises to debunk “lies and myths” about Italian cuisine.
According to the authors, not only tomatoes, but also tomato sauce, originated in the New World, and Italians did not discover tomato sauce in abundant quantities until they began immigrating to the United States in the 19th century.
As part of the famous “Italian diaspora,” 13 million Italians immigrated to the United States between 1880 and 1920; However, many returned to their home country in the following years.
Tomato sauce for pizza was invented in the United States, not Italy, according to an Italian food historian, and veteran pizzaiolos in Rome have been left fuming by the claim.
Until mass emigration, pizza in Italy was served without tomato sauce and consisted of a circular piece of simple focaccia topped with various toppings, the authors say.
“The plant is native to America and so is the use of tomato sauce as a base in our cuisine,” explained Professor Grandi. the Republic newspaper in 2023.
‘The Italians discovered it abroad, thanks to the industrialization of food production. Pizza turned red in the United States. Before it was simple focaccia, sometimes garnished with pieces of tomato.’
However, not everyone is willing to accept the spiciness theory, as Rome’s outraged veteran pizza makers unite to defend their culinary heritage and dismiss the claims as “rubbish.”
Gianni Altrui, 48, knows a thing or two about pizza: since he was 20, he has been making about 300 a day at the restaurant near Piazza del Popolo in the Italian capital.
Talking with him TelegraphGianni said of the authors’ claims: “That’s nonsense, I don’t think it’s true. It’s the Americans who learned from the Italians when it comes to food, not the other way around.”
Another pizzaiolo – or pizza maker – agrees with Gianni: at the Antica Trattoria Agonale in Piazza Navona, Clariston Alves was also unimpressed by the authors’ claims.
The Brazilian citizen who has lived in Rome for 30 years pointed to a pizza being taken out of the wood-fired oven and said: “Look at this, it’s pizza rossa.” The Americans may have adapted it, but I don’t think they invented it.
Professor Alberto Grandi maintains that “pizza rossa” – or red pizza – was founded when Italian immigrants took advantage of newly discovered ingredients on American soil to improve it.
“The plant is native to America and so is the use of tomato sauce as a base in our cuisine,” Professor Grandi said of the Italians who found tomatoes in the United States in the 19th century.
In the photo: The Pizza Seller, 1825, by Gaetano Dura (1805-1878), lithograph. According to Professor Grandi, pizza in Italy was made without tomato sauce until the emigration of the 19th century.
But the book’s authors have insisted that they have amassed solid research to prove their thesis that it was Americans who began producing tomato sauce on a large scale in the 19th century.
Italian immigrants to the United States who opened restaurants and pizzerias began to take advantage of the abundance of tomato sauce, and by World War II, there were many more pizzerias in the United States than in Italy, according to historians.
It’s not the first time Professor Grandi, who teaches food history, has questioned the mythology surrounding Italy’s culinary favorites.
He claims that another of Italy’s most prized dishes, spaghetti carbonara, was invented during World War II using powdered bacon, cheese and eggs brought by American soldiers.
Meanwhile, Americans have been busy adding their own quirky twists to pizzas, as they reveal the strangest “local pizza styles” across America, including Pennsylvania’s cheese-sliced ”Altoona Pie” and the squares Rhode Island tomato.