Today Is Margherita Pizza Day!
There are all sorts of bullshit "food days" floating around the nooks and crannies of the Internet. Candied snails day was just last week. But the smart people at New York City–based Scott's Pizza Tours tip us to a good one: Margherita Pizza Day. According to Scott, today marks the 124th anniversary of the naming of the Margherita Pizza. But first, what's the difference between, say, plain cheese and margherita? Adam Kuban, Serious Eats pizzaologist and all around determiner of pizza fact vs. fiction offers a succinct dissection:
"A Neapolitan Margherita has a minimally doctored sauce of crushed fresh or canned San Marzano-style tomatoes (often only seasoned with salt) and is topped simply with mozzarella di bufala or fior di latte, basil, maybe a splash of olive oil and some salt. And, of course, it's almost always cooked in a wood-fired oven at high temperatures and for a very short amount of time."
And why are we celebrating Margherita Pizza Day on this very day? On June 11, 1889 something called the Italian "Department of the Mouth" issued a letter on behalf of her majesty Queen Margherita to pizzaiolo Raphaele Esposito, asserting that she was pleased with the three pies she was served on a recent trip to Naples (arguably Italy's pizza capitol). According to legend, Queen Margherita was quite the locavore and appreciated that the pizza was constructed with the freshest of ingredients like tomatoes, basil, buffalo mozz. And like that, a pizza legend was born. And now we know what we are having for lunch today.
Read more about Italian pizza on Food Republic: