From Booklist
In America at least, where there's sausage, there must be pizza. As Rosario Buonassisi points out in Pizza: From Its Italian Origins to the Modern Table, sausage hasn't always been married with pizza. The earliest known pizza dates from about 200 B.C., where records indicate the existence of bread enriched with olive oil and spices and topped with lard. The advent of the tomato in the seventeenth century contributed the red color so prevalent in today's product. Italian emigration in the nineteenth century spread these traditions abroad. As an Italian concerned for authenticity, Buonassisi doesn't find every variation on pizza to be either legitimate or worthwhile, and he spurns what most Americans call pizza. He also addresses the ideal drink to accompany pizza. Virtually any wine or beer goes well with pizza, depending on the toppings, but he adamantly opposes the American habit of carbonated cola drinks, finding them too strong, masking pizza's essential goodness.
Mark KnoblauchCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Adrian Marks, januarymagazine.com, December 2000
"Pizza" is a delightfully entertaining and informative book. The photos, art and layout are stunning.
