Nepolitant pizza become regular Italian menu because of tourists...

That was what I picked up from one foodies forum; Nepolitant style pizza, made with tomato-based sauce and cheese topping was primarily a Southern Italian dish, but now avalible throughout Italy because of tourism boom postwar.

The reason was American tourists, who were brought up with southern Italian dishes introduced to them by Southern Italian immigrants for so long they assume this is regular Italian dish. Large number of them came to Italy in the 50's and expecting pizza to be served in any restaurant, including Northern ones. So eateries throughout Italy start serving this style of pizza to cater to tourists' demand. The rest is history.

Is this story true?

If not, what had to happened back in time to confine Nepolitant pizza in the South, and pizzerias as we know it only become widespread throughout Italy because of tourist industry.
 
That was what I picked up from one foodies forum; Nepolitant style pizza, made with tomato-based sauce and cheese topping was primarily a Southern Italian dish, but now avalible throughout Italy because of tourism boom postwar.

The reason was American tourists, who were brought up with southern Italian dishes introduced to them by Southern Italian immigrants for so long they assume this is regular Italian dish. Large number of them came to Italy in the 50's and expecting pizza to be served in any restaurant, including Northern ones. So eateries throughout Italy start serving this style of pizza to cater to tourists' demand. The rest is history.

Is this story true?

If not, what had to happened back in time to confine Nepolitant pizza in the South, and pizzerias as we know it only become widespread throughout Italy because of tourist industry.

In part, tourist expectation played a part, but the biggest reason was the massive postwar emigration from the south to the north due to economic reason; with the people had come their dish
 
Also the pizza is a very good idea. If you go to France now you can find excellent pizza. Why? Because even people in other countries discovered pizza is a great idea.
 

Ramontxo

Donor
Never have agreed more with any other post here (of course anything with a pineapple or, aghhhh, more in top may be a cardinal sin but never, never, never a pizza
 
Never have agreed more with any other post here (of course anything with a pineapple or, aghhhh, more in top may be a cardinal sin but never, never, never a pizza
Building a happy world- one pizza at a time . Now we should introduce best pizza to best Korea to complete the circle of peace :)
 
If not, what had to happened back in time to confine Nepolitant pizza in the South, and pizzerias as we know it only become widespread throughout Italy because of tourist industry.
It's rather simple: have Southern Italians emigrate in places that will happen to have less cultural traction, like Brazil or Australia. The question on how to accomplish this, however, may be more complicated than expected, since the reasons for why different regions of Italy tended to pick different regions to emigrate to are, at a first glance, not satisfactory enough to justify any kind of migratory movement anywhere but to the US or Europe (since, IIRC, a ship ticket for decent accomodations going Genoa-New York was way cheaper than even the shittiest one going to Rio de Janeiro, and let's not even talk about the one going to Sydney) even accounting for illegal immigration.

I guess one way to do it is by having Southern Italians go in France or its colony Tunisia, and have the rest of Italy go mostly in the US and less elsewhere.
 

Driftless

Donor
Pizza is such an adaptable food, with too many variations to count. I've (briefly) seen an Oktoberfest knockoff in Wisconsin, where the essential toppings were slices of Bratwurst over a thin bed of sauerkraut. No clue what the underlying sauce was..... I think it was just too gimmicky, as I've only seen it the one time many moons ago.

Well prepared and basic Neapolitan pizza is still a wonderful thing.
 
if pizza spread throughout northern Italy because of american tourist expecting pizza to be available throughout Italy, shouldn't it have been the american style style pizza? was american pizza still like the traditional Neapolitan pizza in the 1950's or had it already changed into it own thing by then?
 
if pizza spread throughout northern Italy because of american tourist expecting pizza to be available throughout Italy, shouldn't it have been the american style style pizza? was american pizza still like the traditional Neapolitan pizza in the 1950's or had it already changed into it own thing by then?

If you’re buying a pizza oven in northern Italy at that time it’s probably coming from the south, and the people making it are more likely to be southerners. At least I assume so?
 
It's rather simple: have Southern Italians emigrate in places that will happen to have less cultural traction, like Brazil or Australia. The question on how to accomplish this, however, may be more complicated than expected, since the reasons for why different regions of Italy tended to pick different regions to emigrate to are, at a first glance, not satisfactory enough to justify any kind of migratory movement anywhere but to the US or Europe (since, IIRC, a ship ticket for decent accomodations going Genoa-New York was way cheaper than even the shittiest one going to Rio de Janeiro, and let's not even talk about the one going to Sydney) even accounting for illegal immigration.

I guess one way to do it is by having Southern Italians go in France or its colony Tunisia, and have the rest of Italy go mostly in the US and less elsewhere.
Not like that. My scenario applied to Italy proper but not overseas. Basically just make Italians between Southern Alps and Naples oblivous to the knowledge that Nepolitant style had become The Pizza to foreigners, and Northern cooks did not found out until hordes of tourists came and try to order the dish some time postwar.

Until someone mentions pineapples...

I was told the Hawaiian Pizza was created by a pizzeria somewhere in Toronto. Its name lost to time.
 
Not like that. My scenario applied to Italy proper but not overseas. Basically just make Italians between Southern Alps and Naples oblivous to the knowledge that Nepolitant style had become The Pizza to foreigners, and Northern cooks did not found out until hordes of tourists came and try to order the dish some time postwar.
The only way you're gonna get that is by either having Italy as an unattractive tourist destination (I guess that joining theWarsaw Pact might do the trick), or have the Italian South being industrialized and/wealthy enough durining unification, that even the ravages of WW2 don't encourage the movements of Southern Italians further north.
 
There's also Roman-style pizza, which is a thicker, soft, spongy, chewy crust, kind of but not exactly like focaccia. It's made in a pan and cut into square slices, served by the slice.

Northern Italian food involves generally more cream and butter, less olive oil.
 
What are popular street foods native to northern Italy?
It's not exactly what most would consider "Northen Italy" to be, but there's panino al lampredotto in Florence, which a cow's stomachs cooked and served with a oil and parsely sauce.

Otherwise there's fried polenta.
 
Top