It’s National Pizza Month

October is National Pizza Month. The history of this popular food began thousands of years ago when various cultures produced basic flatbreads with several toppings.

The modern birthplace of pizza is in the southwestern part of Italy, home to the city of Naples and the Neapolitans. Here, these flatbreads usually topped with tomatoes, cheese, oil and garlic got their name. And there pizza would remain, little known in Italy beyond the borders of Naples, until 1940.

However, an ocean away, the immigrants to this country from Naples were replicating their crusty pizzas in New York and several other large cities. They had come to this country for factory jobs just as millions of Europeans did in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This was a food that could be eaten for any meal. The first documented pizzeria in the U.S. was G (for Gennaro) Lombardi’s in Manhattan. He received his licenses in 1905. As Italian-Americans migrated from east to west, esp...