91. Pizza (Cont.)

The secret of great pizza -- and what Italians take pride in -- is its simplicity and the use of fresh ingredients. Pizza originated as a "street food," and to this day it remains one of the few Italian foods people often eat "on the go" rather than as a sit-down meal. There are pizza shops throughout Italy-especially in Naples and Rome-that display a wide variety of rectangular pizzas sold by the slice to businessmen and women as well as tourists on the move. One of its most celebrated varieties, pizza Margherita, is named for Italy's Queen Margherita who visited Naples in 1889 and was charmed by a particular tricolore pizza made especially for her with basil, tomatoes, and mozzarella, ingredients whose green, red, and white colors represented the colors of the newly adopted Italian flag. (Italy did not become a single nation until 1870).

Whatever ingredients adorn it, pizza is not pizza unless the crust is memorable. The thickness of the crust differs from region to region in Italy (as well as in America). What Americans call Chicago-style pizza, made in a deep dish and with a thick, bready crust, is essentially Sicilian pizza. Authentic Pizza Napoletana has a paper thin crust that is crisp and well done on the bottom and soft and slightly undercooked on top, where the dough has been covered by the ingredients. Getting the crust the right consistency is an art form and is very difficult to achieve in a home oven where maximum temperatures are not high enough to bake the dough quickly and evenly. Wood-fired ovens, which have always been used in Italy and have now become popular in the States, reach temperatures of 750 degrees Fahrenheit and are essential if you want the real thing. However, here's a recipe for pizza crust that you can do in a home oven that will get you pretty close:

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