Pizza

Pizza

Pizza topped with pepperoni
Type	Flatbread
Course	Lunch or dinner
Place of origin	Naples, Campania, Italy
Serving temperature	Hot or warm
Main ingredients	Dough, often tomato sauce, cheese
Variations	Calzone, panzerotti, stromboli

Pizza is a yeasted flatbread generally topped with tomato sauce and cheese and baked in an oven. It is commonly topped with a selection of meats, vegetables and condiments. The term was first recorded in the 10th century, in a Latin manuscript from Gaeta in Central Italy. The modern pizza was invented in Naples, Italy, and the dish and its variants have since become popular and common in many areas of the world.

In 2009, upon Italy's request, Neapolitan pizza was safeguarded in the European Union as a Traditional Speciality Guaranteed dish. The Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (the True Neapolitan Pizza Association) is a non-profit organization founded in 1984 with headquarters in Naples. It promotes and protects the "true Neapolitan pizza".

Pizza is sold fresh or frozen, either whole or in portions, and is a common fast food item in Europe and North America. Various types of ovens are used to cook them and many varieties exist. Several similar dishes are prepared from ingredients commonly used in pizza preparation, such as calzone and stromboli.

The word "pizza" (Italian: [ˈpittsa]) first appeared in a Latin text from the southern Italy town of Gaeta, then still part of the Byzantine Empire, in 997 AD; the text states that a tenant of certain property is to give the bishop of Gaeta duodecim pizze ("twelve pizzas") every Christmas Day, and another twelve every Easter Sunday".

Suggested etymologies include:

Foods similar to pizza have been made since the neolithic age. Records of people adding other ingredients to bread to make it more flavorful can be found throughout ancient history. The ancient Greeks covered their bread with oils, herbs and cheese, and in the 6th century BC, the soldiers in Persian King Darius I's armies baked flatbreads with cheese and dates on top of their battle shields.