[Leica] About Pizza

[lluisripollquerol at gmail.com (Lluis Ripoll Querol)]

Hi Larry,

I've found very iteresting your historical references to the origin of  
the Pizza. Here in Catalonia we have also some founded hypothesis  
about the origin with some historical prouves. The Sicilia and Napples  
regions was conquered by the king of Catalonia and Aragon and many  
catalan people has invaded the Napples Region, here you have a short  
historical reference:

"History:
The union of the two territories of Catalonia and Aragon was caused by  
the marriage of Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona and Petronila  
of Aragon, later Queen of Aragon. This merged the County of Barcelona  
with the Kingdom of Aragon under the name of "Crown of Aragon". Their  
son, Alfonso II, inherited both titles. This union was made while  
respecting the existing institutions of both places. This situation  
was maintained until the abolition of the state, beginning 18th century.

The king, James I (13th century), conquered new territories and  
incorporated Majorca and the region of Valencia to the state. Valencia  
was made a new kingdom with its own institutions, and so the third  
member of the confederation. Majorca, together with the counties of  
Cerdanya and Roussillon and the city of Montpellier, were given to his  
son James and were named Kingdom of Majorca, but these territories  
were reincorporated in year 1349.

The expansion through Mediterranean sea continued (Sicily, Minorca,  
Sardinia). In 1410 king Martin I dies without descendants. This caused  
Ferdinand of Antequera, from the Castilian dynasty of Trastamara, to  
be made king of the Crown of Aragon.

In year 1443, Naples was conquered. Later Ferdinand II of Aragon  
recovered the northern catalan counties and married queen Isabella I  
of Castile in 1479. However, Castile and the Crown of Aragon remained  
as different states keeping their own institutions and laws.

The Crown of Aragon was abolished after the War of the Spanish  
Succession (1702?1713)."

The the region of Lleida (Lerida in Spanish) was a very poor region,  
and the people of the region was eating a certain cooked bread with  
some vegetables that they had possibility to collect, on such times it  
doesn't exist "rich"  elements as anchovies etc...., this food is  
still existing in Catalonia, the name is "Coca de recapte", possibly  
the origin of the pizza. The catalan sailors in Napple was ungry and  
they have prepared to eat what they was doing in his original country,  
after this was developped succesfully by the italians and with an  
excellent marketing in USA, the pizza.

Hernando del Pulgar was one of the historiciens man who has writed  
about the ceremony of "Los Reyes Catolicos" : Isabel de Castilla and  
Fernando de Aragon (Aragon & Catalonia was on the same kingdom) was  
married :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_I_of_Castile
and he relates something that coud be a prouve that existing "coca de  
recapte", they said that this had the appearance like a cake, but not  
sweet, it was salad with vegetables.

Here you have several images of the Coca de Recapte:

http://images.google.com/images?hl=es&client=safari&rls=en&resnum=0&q=coca+de+recapte&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=cQeHS8GhDZDQjAeqy8irDw&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CBsQsAQwAw

or

http://tinyurl.com/y9mxqyz


I found this a very interesting and probably certain history, many  
regions and cultures has on their own origines similar food,

I hope you found it intersting, thanks for reading

Saludos cordiales
Lluis ....(the Catalan)

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/luisrq/
http://photo.net/photos/lluisripoll
Blog:
http://lluisripollphotography.wordpress.com/



El 25/02/2010, a las 21:30, Lawrence Zeitlin escribi?:

> About Pizza - it is as American as Fortune Cookies.
>
>
> The pizza that the world knows and loves is basically an Italian/ 
> American
> invention and owes relatively little but the name to the Neapolitan  
> variety.
> At least that's a personal observation. A year prior to the outbreak  
> of WW2
> my family spent a couple of months in Naples, allegedly for a  
> vacation but
> really to help my uncle Max wind up his affairs and immigrate to the  
> US.
> Uncle Max was the cantor in one of the larger Jewish synagogues in  
> Naples,
> an odd job for a Russian Jew. As a young man he had studied for the  
> opera
> stage in Russia prior to the revolution. When he left, one jump  
> ahead of the
> Bolsheviks, he moved to Italy to continue his studies. As one of the  
> few
> singers who could read Hebrew, he gravitated to the synagogue and  
> stayed
> there for 20 years. Even in shul the Italians appreciated good  
> singing.
>
> My family stayed in his apartment in a lower middle class section of  
> Naples.
> His wife wouldn't cook on the sabbath so my brother and I would buy
> something to eat from the vendor across the street, usually pizza.  
> As I
> recall it was a wedge of flat bread drizzled with olive oil with  
> some garlic
> and herbs on top. No cheese, no pepperoni, no anchovies. Just bread.
>
> It wasn't until I moved to New York half a century later that I got  
> the real
> story. Pizza, as we know it, was invented by the Italian immigrants  
> about
> 1900. They took the traditional Neapolitan pizza and added all the  
> goodies
> that were too expensive in Italy. First the tomato sauce, then the  
> cheese,
> finally the meat toppings. Fuel was cheap enough so that you could  
> keep a
> pizza oven hot all day and make pizza to order. Thank God. I hated the
> Neapolitan stuff. It might have been healthier but it left my mouth  
> all
> oily.
>
> Fortune cookies were invented in Brooklyn, NY.
>
>
> Larry Z
>
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