Has a 2,000-year-old fresco finally put to rest the debate about whether fruit is an appropriate pizza topping? The painting, which was recently uncovered by archaeologists in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, features a circular flatbread topped with what looks like pesto, pomegranate and possibly a date. Lying next to the proto-pizza in the painting are fruits that resemble pineapples. This is an especially intriguing detail as the first time a European encountered this fruit — otherwise known as the most controversial pizza topping of all time — was in 1493, when Christopher Columbus landed in the Caribbean archipelago of Guadeloupe.
What are modern pizza lovers to make of this? Did the ancients really put fruit on their pizza? Could the flatbread depicted in the Pompeii fresco even be properly described as a pizza, given that it lacks the two key ingredients that go into the traditional Neapolitan Margherita, created in the early 1800s? Without tomato and mozzarella, flatbread with sauce and/or toppings is just that — flatbread. This is also what archaeologists involved in the dig say, pointing to the popularity, at about the time that Mt Vesuvius buried Pompeii in volcanic ash, of a kind of bread known as “mensa”, which was used as an edible plate.
Nevertheless, the uncovering of the Pompeii fresco could very well be adopted as evidence of the pizza’s long lineage. At the very least, it offers a fresh argument against those who decry the use of fruit on pizza. Pizza, as it conquered the world, made room for all sorts of non-traditional toppings, including spinach, broccoli, reindeer meat and clams. So why not fruit, too? And let purists who continue to nitpick remember: Tomato, too, is a fruit.
"fruit" - Google News
June 30, 2023 at 08:37AM
https://ift.tt/RdrC6aq
Express View on pizza toppings: Yes to pineapple - The Indian Express
"fruit" - Google News
https://ift.tt/B9M4pcC
https://ift.tt/QNmTP5q
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Express View on pizza toppings: Yes to pineapple - The Indian Express"
Post a Comment