Pizza Margherita - Porto

Margherita Pizza

A pizza with the colors of the Italian flag

worthy of a queen

Queen Margherita of Italy

The iconic Neapolitan dish was reportedly named after Queen Margherita of Italy after she tasted it in Naples, but culinary historians say this story, served up for years by chefs and authors, is worse cooked.

Pizza is one of the most popular dishes around the world.

This simple combination of flat bread baked in the oven, with tomato, cheese and fresh basil leaf flourished in Italy and spread all over the world, also with the help of Italian immigrants, in the early 20th century.

There are many ingredients for different pizzas, but only one pizza has a real pedigree.

Pizza Margherita

The original story began when the Queen of Italy visited Naples in 1889.

Walking through the streets of the city center, Queen Margherita and her husband smelled a delicious aroma coming from a pizzeria.

Intrigued, the couple invited the establishment's chef, Raffaele Esposito, to go to Palácio Capodimonte to prepare that dish with that delicious aroma.

Esposito prepared three different types of pizza.

One option emulated the colors of the Italian flag:

He presented the pizza with red tomatoes, white mozzarella and fresh green basil.

The following day, Esposito received a letter from Camillo Galli, head of services at the Mesa da Casa Real, which reads:

“Dear Signor Raffaele Esposito. I confirm that the three types of pizza prepared for Her Royal Highness the Queen were considered excellent.”

Although Margherita liked all three pizzas, she declared her favorite pizza, the one that was decorated in red, white and green.

So Esposito named that pizza after the queen and thus the classic Neapolitan specialty pizza was born.

source: pgs. 12 and 13, March/April 2022, National Geographic History

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