Likewise, pizza (as we know it today) did not originate in Italy. I would assume pizza was invented in America by Italian immigrants. It's not without irony that "pizza" is now ubiquitous even in Italy, and many Italians think it's sort of a national dish. 😏
@helenS Pizza was a poor´s people food original from Naples. Just "bread", tomato sauce and olives in the good days, no cheese. Fishers added some anchovites, first improvement: the Marinara. Genovese sailors were the ones that added cheese to it. That seem to be the early history of pizza.
You are both right. And BTW that´s what I´ve said, it was poor peoples food. And most of what now are recipes "of cult", local and worldwide, typical and "ethnic" one was once poor peoples food. Born in conditions of hard work, survival and restrictions. Even so, different leftovers (for each popular food set of availability and culture) gave origin to also different dishes. Just as one example, the "possole" / posole / "puzzé" was the reelaboration of the overcooked leftover at the bottom of the boiling pots. But pizza was also mainly a kind of cheap "fast food" sold to the arrived fisherman and sailors. So had it´s specificities.
@ElRengo The Italian branch of my family are rather poor, hard-working people, in the Veneto. They used to eat "rice and beans" almost daily, in the past. All you need is rice, dried white beans (which are called "Navy beans" in the US, I think), and some lardo, and garlic. It's cheap, it's a poor man's food, and it is absolutely delicious. 😋
@helenS I also have an Italian branch of the family, as is common in my country. So I´ve not ony tasted but also cooked "rice and beans" (with some variations). Delicious! Most of people that migrated to new lands and skyes were also poor and hard working people and they brought their recipes to us along the miles and the years. I have some funny anecdotes based on that reality. In the "Old World" and since a certain point of History they began to use ground / milled dry corn (in polenta, mamaliga, other dishes), but were not familiar with fresh corn and even less with it´s spike. So it´s told that when an ancestor of mine had his first lunch here, he tasted and fisnihed his also first "choclo" of sweet corn.......
....he asked: Would you please put some more of those beans on the stick?
