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The word Pizza is related to the word Pitta (some people argue is same word even).

Lots of people been eating round flat bread with toppings around the Mediterranean for a very long time now.

One of the theories of the modern Pizza origin is that it was just a Pizza like any other (or Pitta...) until a certain restaurant in Naples invented the version with tomato sauce (the Marinara Pizza). And modern Pizza are just variations of the dish of that restaurant.

By the way, that restaurant still exists, or so people claim. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antica_Pizzeria_Port'Alba

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In Italy there's a bunch of things called "pizza" which are not round flat bread.

Consider the pizza di Pasqua (dough with liquor, chocolate, cheese, +20cm tall), pizza alla pala (1.5m long), pizza sbattuta (sponge cake), pizza in teglia (rectangular and cut in square slices), and many more.

Could be related to pita, and I would not argue every culture on earth made flat round dough and put stuff on it, but it's a very large family.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizza_di_Pasqua

https://www.tasteatlas.com/pizza-alla-pala

https://blog.giallozafferano.it/inventaricette/pizza-sbattut...

Etymology wise it’s a thing and loads of cultures around the Mediterranean have some similar words: https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/πίτα#Ancient_Greek

> In Italy there's a bunch of things called "pizza" which are not round flat bread.

True, although the canonical/widespread pizza is the round/flat one.

I've never heard of "Pizza di Pasqua" and "Pizza sbattuta" in Italy (I don't doubt they exist, but they must be very uncommon).

Pizza in teglia is common, at least in certain parts of Italy; I believe it's generally sold in bakeries rather than in pizzerias (restaurants).

Pizza alla pala is not so common in Italy, at least in restaurants (not that I remember). In other countries is very common in takeaways.

There's also a type of pizza that is round but thick, and with lower-quality toppings. I can't find any reference to it; it's somewhat widespread over Italy, but considered a "lesser pizza" :)

I just want to add this because i think it’s interesting, but the word pasqua (Easter) actually comes from Passover. Also Passover in Italian is Pasqua ebraica.

>Passover in Italian is Pasqua ebraica

Funny, in Romanian, Pasqua(spelled Pasca) is a sweet bread Easter dish.

Pizza inferiore that you allude to without reference - this is the one often often found entombed in a cardboard box?

And delivered in 30 minutes or your next one is free?

In Berkshire County Massachusetts

> There's also a type of pizza that is round but thick,

do you mean 'pizzetta'?

This is an example: https://imgur.com/a/PQlxEXc (not sure why Imgur tags it as mature).

I've found this type of pizza both in the north and in the south. The overall quality is consideraly lower, starting from the cheese, which is not mozzarella (I believe they use provola, which is cheaper).

oh god... that dough looks more like frozen pizza, apart from in some tourist traps I have never seen it served seriously in my area

If you look at historical sources, what is called pizza, in i.e. Scampi's "Opera Nova" is more of a pie, that may be open or closed, sweet or savoury, and may not even have flour dough, but say almond flour

I have in front of me a reprint of Pellegrino Artusi's famous "la Scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene" (1891). It has a recipe for "Pizza alla napoletana" (recipe #609) which is a shortcrust filled with a cream of "ricotta, sweet almonds, sugar, lemon peel or vanilla, milk", about which he comments "... a me sembra che questo riesca un dolce di gusto squisito" - a dessert of exquisite taste.

He mentions two other pizze: "Pizza a libretti" and "Pizza gravida", both of them sweet. "Our" pizza is completely absent.

It is intriguing that the above 19th century "pizza" recipe is called alla napoletana given that Wikipedia states that "... modern pizza evolved from similar flatbread dishes in Naples, Italy, in the 18th or early 19th century."

Dessert pizza. The past truly is a foreign country.

Although I guess fry dough is basically dessert pizza if you think about it.

I know there are several versions of Pizza di Pasqua, but the one I'm more familiar with (and the one you link to) is made with cheese and is to be eaten on Easter breakfast with salami.

the one from my home town (Cerveteri, RM) is generally _mildly_ sweet with no cheese but eaten the same way on the same occasion :)

But in some families/bakeries it is done with Strega liquor or Alchermes liquor[0], and it's also good. It's only the one with chocolate bits[1], which I find heretical since you can't eat it with salty stuff :D

[0] like this https://blog.giallozafferano.it/dolcissimamentez/pizza-di-pa...

[1] https://www.ricettedellanonna.net/pizza-di-pasqua/

> In Italy there's a bunch of things called "pizza" which are not round flat bread.

In certain regions of Southern Italy, the word 'pizza' also refers to a part of the male anatomy which is not flat.

Edit: feels good to be downvoted by people with socially acceptable sense of humor

Is "I will put my pizza in your oven" also a joke there ?

or from 'pinsa' (from the Latin verb 'pinsere' or from the verb 'pansere', 'to pound'), or from the Greek dish plakous or from the piada (or piadina), mentioned in Virgil's Aeneid

frankly speaking, I don't think we can find the true origin of this dish, it's like looking for the inventor of the wheel or the three-year rotation

either way, the history of modern pizza in northern Italy is truly fascinating (and controversial)[1]

[1] https://www.vanillamagazine.it/le-pizzerie-furono-sconosciut...

If pitta refers to pita bread, as in the round flatbread originating in the middle east, I can tell you the word is not used in Arabic.

That is pretty interesting. Khobz appears to be the word in the Arab speaking world. (can't think of a good name for this group).

A thing as basic as a bread staple to have different names in the same region seems very significant.

Does anyone have any insight into this? I'm definitely going to try to dig deeper.

I used to go to a "pizza" restaurant in Jaffa. It claimed to be the oldest pizza restaurant. It has high lip edges and eggs... I think it was like shakuka on a type of pita. I wish I could remember what they called it.

> A thing as basic as a bread staple to have different names in the same region seems very significant.

Nah. It's just the result of a long history. In Italy, different towns can call the same specialties with completely different names (crescentina / gnocco fritto, etc...), often simply out of spite or because of some long-forgotten feud.

40 years ago, in Rome a pizza was often called a "torta", which is the word the rest of Italy uses for sweet cakes.

I would think that also but I'm hung up on some details.

Pita is a pretty basic word for a human staple. Large regional areas use a very similar word for millenniums. One culture doesn't and is just as interspersed as through time and space as the others.

In fact they share many texts.

I think this is different than the examples you provided.

I would describe some pizza's in Berkshire Country as a Torte.

Right, the closest word is the turkic "pide" which isn't Arabic but is from the Aramaic for bread (https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/pide)

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