---
title: 'Pizza from 19th Century Naples'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=7oHqZbOjl48'
video_id: '7oHqZbOjl48'
date: 2026-06-29
duration_sec: 1577
---

# Pizza from 19th Century Naples

> Source: [Pizza from 19th Century Naples](https://youtube.com/watch?v=7oHqZbOjl48)

## Summary



## Transcript

There is a story that says that the Margherita 
pizza was created by Raffaele Esposito
when Queen Margherita of Italy visited Naples in 1889. And he placed
tomato, mozzarella, and basil on top of the pizza to represent the colors of the flag of the newly unified Italy. 
A charming tale with very little evidence to back it up. In fact, 
one thing that is for certain is that the pizza,  
perhaps under a different name, already 
existed in Naples for decades before.
So using documents from the mid-19th century, I am endeavoring to uncover what the original Margherita pizza might have been like.
So thank you to Babbel for sponsoring this video as we dive into the story of Neapolitan pizza,
this time on Tasting History.
Recreating the original Margherita pizza as it 
would have been in 19th century Naples is  
kind of an impossible task.
See, today there is an association in Italy that has codified exactly what Neapolitan pizza must be.
But 150 years ago, there was no such association. And the many, many pizza makers of Naples,
had their own version of what they considered pizza.
Mind you, at this time, most people, especially outside of Naples, considered pizza to be more of a dessert.
It was kind of like a sweet cheesecake.
And the pizza, the savory pizza, what we think of as pizza, was the food of the poorest people in Naples, the Lazzaroni.  
So without an actual recipe to follow, I'm going to have to rely on contemporary descriptions from the 19th century
that at least describe what this savory pizza was like.
And just like today, there are lots of ways that these pizzas were topped.
Some of the more popular toppings were just olive oil, garlic, and anchovies.
But in 1853, we do get a description of what might be the very first Margherita pizza.
"Pizza... is a specialty of the Neapolitans - indeed of the city of Naples itself...
[Some] are covered with grated cheese and seasoned 
with lard, and then a few basil leaves are placed on top...
Upon this, thin slices of mozzarella. At times slices of prosciutto, tomatoes, small clams, etc. are used."
So he mentions grated cheese, slices of mozzarella, slices of tomato and basil.
And if the pizzaiolo or pizza maker doesn't put any clams or prosciutto on it,  
then we got ourselves a Margherita pizza. So, 
to make this version of the Margherita pizza,  
what you'll need is 2 1/2 cups or 300 grams of 
double zero flour or bread flour, 3/4 of a cup or 175 ml of water, 
a 1/2 teaspoon or 1 and 1/2 grams of dry yeast, and 1 and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
So start by mixing the yeast into the water and let 
it sit for a few minutes to dissolve.
And then add about 2 cups of the flour along with the salt and begin to work the ingredients together. And as you do,
you can add more of the flour until you have enough that you get a shaggy dough.
You may not need all of the flour to get to this point, 
though. Then turn the dough out onto the counter  
and begin to work it until it is kneadable. And 
you can continue to add flour if necessary.  
Then once it comes together, knead the dough for about 7 to 10 minutes until you have a nice smooth ball of dough.
Then oil a bowl, set the dough in. Put a little more olive oil on top and cover with a wet towel
and let it rise for at least 2 or 3 hours, but preferably more like 24 hours in the refrigerator.
It'll really let the flavors in the dough develop.
Now, this is just one version of pizza dough that might have been made,
because we don't really know exactly what the dough was like. It's actually probably not like the dough that is used in Naples today.
They would have probably mostly used sourdough but they did have compressed yeast as well. But the real question is 
exactly how leavened is this bread. Alexander Dumas said that
"The pizza is... made from the same dough as bread."
Which would imply that the dough is pretty well leavened. But in 1847 Gaetano Valeriani wrote
 "These pizzas are simple flattened breads and focacce, made from wheat dough without yeast and therefore indigestible."
But then he goes on to say that the edges of the pizza are raised,  
which would imply that it is leavened. So maybe 
he doesn't actually know what yeast does. I don't know.
But the idea is that it probably varied from pizza maker to pizza maker.
I mean, even in Italy today, pizza varies from city to 
city, from street to street even.
And that's kind of what makes it exciting. You can have a bunch of different pizzas and they're all a little bit different.
And that's one thing I really love about travel is the inconsistency,  
the variety of the different foods that you 
can get whenever you travel to a new place.
But it does help if you can actually read the menu 
to know what you're going to be ordering.
And so, if you are traveling internationally, you might 
want to sign up for Babbel, today's sponsor.  
Babbel is one of the top language learning apps in the 
world. And the lessons are developed by
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I'm actually learning Spanish because I've gone to Spain and Mexico several times in the past couple of years
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So, while I would like to be fluent someday, even learning just a few key phrases like
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And now, let us get back to our pizza.
So, once the dough has risen, divide it into two pieces to make personal sized pizzas, or leave it whole if you want to make one large pizza.
I will say the smaller size is going to be much easier to work with if you don't make pizzas all the time like I don't.
I wish I did but I don't.
So you want to form this dough into a thin disc, which can be a little tricky.
And you're going to want to place it on a pizza peel that is ready with plenty of semolina flour on it
because you're going to slide the pizza off into the oven. And even after you put the dough onto the peel,
you should still be able to work it so you make it into a better circle.
And then it is time for your toppings. and exactly what should those toppings be?
Today, Margherita pizzas are usually made with tomato sauce. But in all of the old descriptions,  
I never saw tomato sauce for this type of 
pizza. It was only used for pizza marinara,  
which was made with tomato sauce and anchovies. 
That's not this.
All of the other pizzas that have tomatoes, it says they are sliced tomatoes.
As Samuel Morse of Morse code fame described pizza in Naples in the 1830s,
it's a "Species of the most nauseating cake... covered over with slices of pomodoro or tomatoes,
and sprinkled with little fish and black pepper. And I know not what other ingredients,
it altogether looks like a piece of bread that has been taken wreaking out of the sewer.
Not a fan. All right, good to know.
Hopefully mine does not look like it came out of the sewer. So, the tomatoes that I am using are called mini Marzano tomatoes,
and they should have the same flavor as the traditional San Marzano, which I couldn't find at this time of year.  
But you can also use Roma tomatoes. Those are closer to the proper size, but the flavor is a little bit different.
As for the cheese, I am using mozzarella, but two different kinds. And that's because of
a description that is probably the most detailed description of the type of pizza we want to make that comes from the 1860s.
But it was actually written by an Englishman who went to Naples,
then came back to England and was trying to explain pizza to his countrymen.
"What do you mean by the pizza? Well, the pizza is a favorite Neapolitan delicacy,
which is only made and eaten between sunset and two or three in the morning and it must be baked in five minutes in the oven;
at the very moment when it is ordered, it is pulled out 
of the oven and served up piping hot, otherwise it is not worth a grano.
The pizza baker takes a ball of dough, kneads it, and spreads it out with the palm of his hand,
giving it about half the thickness of a muffin, then pours over it mozzarella,
which is nothing more than rich cream, beaten almost like a cream cheese;
he then adds grated cheese, herbs, and tomato, puts the cake - which made after this fashion, is termed the pizza -
just for five minutes into the oven, and served it up 
as hot as possible.
The cheese and the cream are, of course, all melted, and united with the herbs and the tomato.
The outside crust must, in the case of a perfect pizza, possess a certain orthodox crispness."
So he talks about grated or  sliced mozzarella for which you will need a firm mozzarella like buffalo mozzarella.
But then for the portable mozzarella which he equates to like 
cream cheese, I'm thinking that he's talking about  
the stracciatella which is inside a ball of burrata.
This you can actually, if not pour, then spread across the top of your pizza.
Then you can cover that with the tomato slices and then a few pieces of the firmer mozzarella.
And then you can put the basil on top. But really, you should only put the basil on top if you have a wood-fired pizza oven that is going to hit about 900° F.  
Because then you only need to bake this pizza for like 90 seconds, maybe 2 minutes.
But if you don't have that, if you just have a regular oven like I do, then it's going to need to bake for more like 8 or 9 minutes.
And so I would wait to put the basil on until about halfway through. Otherwise, it can burn.
Also, if you are using a conventional oven, you're going to want to get yourself a pizza stone  
so that you can heat that up and make a really, 
really hot surface in the oven that you can then slide the pizza onto.
Also, you note that when I did slide the pizza into the oven, the fan blew all the basil I had on there off,
so I had to put it on later anyway.
So, like I said, if you have a wood-fired oven and it's 900°, 90 seconds, maybe 2 minutes, you're going to be good.
If you have a regular oven that's like 450° , 500° Fahrenheit, then you're going to need 8 or 9 minutes in the oven,
which should give us plenty of time for me to take you back to 19th century Naples.
Lately, I've had a lot of requests for signed 
cookbooks, the Tasting History cookbook.  
This is actually the Italian version for the uh 
English version, I guess for Father's Day. So,  
I'm putting a link in the description to where you 
can order those if you want one.
Now, the history of pizza in Naples goes way, way, way back, probably to the Atruscans.
They had flatbread, they had other things. They probably put it on there. You got yourself a pizza.
But pizza, as we think of it as pizza, doesn't really get 
its start that we know of until about the 18th century.
Before that, most pizza referred to kind of a sweet bread.
I've actually made one version of that here on the channel. It was kind of like a brioche with a bunch of sugar on it.
And that is actually what most people thought of pizza as being until like the early 20th century.
In 1891, Pellegrino Artusi published a cookbook which was for many years the Bible of Italian cuisine.
And in it, he included two pizza recipes. One was a crust stuffed with custard, raisins, and pine nuts.  
And the other, which he called Neapolitan style pizza, 
was a short crust pastry filled with ricotta,  
almonds, and sugar. Delicious, I have no doubt. 
But pizza, not really by any modern definition.  
Though, I would kind of love to see a restaurant 
say that they're like really committed to  
historically authentic Italian cuisine. And when 
people order a pizza, that is what they bring out,  
a cheese and pine nut stuffed crust, basically a cheesecake.
And then they refuse to take it off the bill when people complain that that is not a pizza because technically,  
technically it is a pizza. And that's why I don't work in 
the restaurant industry anymore because  
that's how I would run my restaurant. Anyway,
just because Pellegrino Artusi considered dessert pizza,  
that doesn't mean that most people in Naples 
at this time actually agreed with him.
For the common people, pizza was pizza as we think of it or at least a version of it.
And Alexandre Dumas when he visited, that's the author of 'The Three Musketeers', When he visited Naples,
he talked about the fact that for most Neapolitans, they ate two foods, pizza and watermelon.
"The lazzarone eats, as we've said, pizzas and watermelon; watermelon in the summer, pizzas in the winter.
The pizza is a kind of flatbread... It comes in different widths depending on the price.
A two centesimi pizza is enough for one man; a two soldi pizza should feed a whole family.
At first glance, pizza seems a simple dish; upon closer examination, it's a complex one.
There's pizza with oil, pizza with bacon, pizza with lard, pizza with cheese, pizza with tomatoes, pizza with small fish."
And he says that the price isn't just determined by the size, but also by what toppings you're putting on it.  
Just like today, it can change the price. Unlike today, at least I hope.
"Another thing that affects the price of pizza is its freshness; you can no longer sell yesterday's pizza at the same price as today's;
there are week-old pizzas for those on a budget;
these can, if not pleasantly, at least advantageously, replace the sea biscuit."
So, Dumas is suggesting using weak old pizza as a replacement for hardtack.
[clack clack]
Now, I'm thinking that these week old pizzas were not usually sold in pizzerias, but rather out on the streets
because a traditional pizza maker or pizzaiolo would have an establishment where they would actually make the pizza.
Then "These pizzas, cut into many one-soldo slices,
are entrusted to a young assistant who goes to sell them on the street corner at top a portable stand;
and there he remains nearly the whole day with these slices of pizza,
which freeze in the cold, turn yellow in the sun, and are eaten by flies...
When the supply runs out, the pizzaiolo replenishes it even late into the night."
This is the pizza sold to the poorest people of Naples, the lazzeroni.
And to many people who are living outside of Italy or even outside of Naples,  
pizza is considered slightly above trash. As we 
saw, Samuel Morris compared it to something taken from the sewer.
And many other descriptions say that it is usually almost entirely burnt  
to the point of being inedible.
But perhaps the most acerbic description of pizza that I could find actually comes
from Carlo Collodi who wrote 'Pinocchio' because he not only talks about the pizza,
but also the poor boy hawking it out on the street.
"That blackness of the browned bread, that whiteness of the garlic and anchovy,
that yellowish-green of the oil and the little fried herbs, and those bits of tomato here and there give the pizza an air of elaborate filth  
that harmonizes perfectly with the appearance of the 
vendor."
But it is my belief that even the worst pizza, a weak old burnt pizza,
is still better than no pizza at all. And it seems
that the majority of the population of Naples, whether 
they were poor or wealthy, were in agreement.
For "...there is no person, high or low, from the 
first Neapolitan duke to the lowest lazzaroni,  
with whom it is not a primary article of faith 
to eat pizza.
The pizza cake is your only social leveller, for in the pizza shops, rich and poor harmoniously congregate;
they are the only places where the members of the Neapolitan aristocracy - far haughtier than those of any other part of Italy -
may be soon masticating their favorite delicacy 
side by side with their own coachmen, and valets, and barbers.
The pizza shops are about the filthiest in Naples, and whoever knows Naples will admit that this is saying a good deal."
A description of one of these pizza shops from 1853 says that between the hours of 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.,
the shop is absolutely packed with young men who have no jobs to go to.
And a boy from the next door tavern will come over and take a drink order
because usually they couldn't sell wine in the pizza parlor or pizzeria.  
And then they would just all sit there and eat and 
drink until their stomachs couldn't take anymore.  
Then he describes a scene which is just as 
familiar to us today as it was in 1853.  
A scene which is played out in restaurants all over the world whenever a group of friends gets together for a meal.
He says that after the last slice of pizza is gone and the last drink of wine has been drunk,
"Then follow painful notes of payment; often, at this point, some member of the merry company 
disappears under the pretext of urgent necessity;
often they struggle to scrape together among themselves the price of what has been eaten and drunk.
Often one who still retains a shred of modesty so as not to make a sad figure pays for all without hope of ever being repaid."
That was literally every single meal that I ever 
had with my friends in college. Just
nobody wanted to pay and then one of us would always end up paying. And since it was a time before Venmo,  
you were never getting that money back.
Anyway, there were other pizzerias that were nicer. They catered to a more affluent clientele.
And it is from one of these pizza makers that the story of the Margherita pizza origin comes from.
Now, this is what is known as "accepted history",  
which typically just means it was made up.
The story goes that in June of 1889, Queen Margherita and her husband Umberto I,
King of Italy and chairman for the Society of Luxurious Mustaches,  
arrived in Naples to celebrate Risanamento. 
This was a complete rebuilding of much of Naples  
following a devastating cholera outbreak in 1884. 
While they were there in Naples
at the Palace of Capodimonte, they decided that they wanted to try some of the local cuisine. So
they summon the most well-renowned pizzaiolo of the region
and that was Raffaele Esposito along with his wife Maria Giovanni Brandi.
When they arrive they present the royal couple with three pizzas. One with olive oil, cheese and garlic,
another with sardines and anchovies, and another with tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil.
Those three ingredients strategically added to represent the colors of their royal highness's national flag.
And while they enjoyed all three, Queen Margherita declared that it was that third pizza that was by far the best.
And so Raffaele decided to name it in honor of her, the Margherita pizza.
To top it off, then the King and Queen had a letter sent to the pizzeria a few days later.
It said, "June 11th, 1889. Inspection Office of the Mouth. Most esteemed Signore Raffaele Esposito Brandi,
I confirm to you that the three types of pizza that you prepared for Their Majesties the King and Queen were found to be excellent.
Yours devotedly, Gali Camillo, Head of Services of the Royal Household."
A charming tale which has been related countless times.
But what if any truth is there to it?
Well, right off the bat, we know it can't be exactly true because records show that the royal couple
was never together at the palace Capodimonte during that visit.
They were at a different palace, but that's pedantic. You know, some of the details got a little mixed up in the retellings.
The rest could definitely be true. I mean, there's even a letter
that talks about this. She doesn't call out the Margherita pizza specifically, but she says  
that all of the pizzas were wonderful. And this 
letter still exists to this day.
But here's the thing. That letter was not found until decades after the event.
It wasn't found, conveniently, until the 1930s, shortly after Raffaele's wife's nephews, Giovanni and Pascuale Brandi
took over the pizzeria and changed the name of the establishment to Pizzeria Brandi, which is what it is still called today.
And it's not just the fact that they happened to find this letter at a time when they were kind of rebranding.
It's the fact that on the letter it refers to Raffaele Esposito Brandi.  
Rather suspicious since it's unlikely he would 
have taken her last name in 1889.
Another issue is that as pointed out by historian Zachary Nowak, the signature of Gali Camillo is wildly different  
from that on any other government document. Add to that the fact that the seal on the document
is one that was used decades after the supposed creation of the letter.
One can with some confidence say that this is a forgery.
Mamma mia!
What is interesting I find is that while Raffaele Esposito did change the name  
of his pizzeria to Pizzeria della Regina de Italia 
or pizza of the queen of Italy, he did so in 1883,  
6 years before Margherita's trip to Naples.
Turns out that at this time it was really common to request permission
to have something named as the official establishment of either the king or the queen.
It was kind of like today when a pizzeria might put up a sign that says world's best pizza.  
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Who's- who's deciding that really?
But what is clear is that long before the letter occurred and the rebranding to Pizzeria Brandi,
this family was trying to associate their pizzeria with the queen.  
And it turns out that this had actually been 
happening even before Raffaele Esposito.
In 1880, the Roman newspaper Il Bersagliere ran a story that tells of a pizziaolo summoned to the palace in Naples
because the king and queen wished to try a pizza.
When he arrives, Queen Margherita asks him what kind of pizzas that he has on offer. And he gives her a list of 35 different ways  
that he makes pizza. And she ordered one with fish 
and one with shrimp.
And then the next day he comes back with all of the ingredients.
"Finally, after frying and baking, fragrant and appetizing, the Queen tasted a little and was greatly pleased.
Great joy and emotion came over the pizza maker who asked permission to place the royal coat of arms upon his pizzeria."  
The pizza maker in this story was actually Giovanni 
Brandi, the father-in-law of Raffaele Esposito.  
So, is it true?
I don't know. But at least it is documented in a newspaper at the time that it was supposed to have happened.
What's interesting is that the pizzas that she orders are not what would  
become known as the Margherita pizza. She orders 
no pizza with tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil  
like the one that I am about to try right now.
So, after 5 minutes in the oven, toss the basil  onto the pizza and let it bake for another 3 or 4 minutes and then serve straight away.
And here we are, my version of the original Margherita pizza of 19th century Naples.
So, the old descriptions do say that it needs to be served like right 
away, but it's been a few minutes and already  
it's kind of lost some of its pizzazz.
But, that's all right. I'm still going to eat it.
[chomp]
Hm!
Hm!
That's so good. Oh, but it's so different because
without the tomato sauce, it's just a different- it you get actually more flavor of the tomatoes,  
which is very interesting. But I like that 
stracciatella soft cheese on the bottom.
[chomp x2]
Hm!
Yeah so good. I do have to say the crust is-
it is hard, but
[chomp x3]
it's not as crisp as I'd like.
And I think that's really because I don't have a pizza oven. There is-
you can get a certain level of crispness with the pizza stone,
but it's just not going to be the same as if you have a wood-fired pizza 
oven. Someday maybe I'll get one, but I shouldn't  
because then I would just be making pizzas all 
the time and I don't need to be eating pizza all the time.
Or more likely, I'd use it once and never use it again.
Somebody in my family who has a pizza oven, which I'm pretty sure has only been used once.
But that's okay!
'Cus there are so many places that you can go and actually 
get really good pizza out of a pizza oven. And  
there is no bad pizza. This is what I'm saying.
Even week old black pizza that was being sold on the streets of 19th century Naples. It's probably pretty good pizza.
Yeah. I mean, it's pizza. What can I say? It's delicious. It is-
not like what you're going to find in Naples today,  
but according to all of the old descriptions, they are 
not what you're going to find in Naples today.
And that's okay.
I really like these tomatoes, though. They're small, but they're very, very sweet, the San Marzano. These are the mini Marzano.
And the the flavor of the tomato is just so strong and it's sweet.
Really, really good.
So, I am literally going to eat this entire pizza in one sitting um because it's that good.
And so, you should go make some pizza of your own or go buy a pizza. Also
link to the description or in the description of the signed copies of Tasting History if you want one.
And I will see you next time on Tasting History.
Back to the pizza.
[chomp 4x]