I. Introduction

What is Pizza?

Pizza is a dish that is generally flat in shape and is made out of bread and baked in oven. The bottom of pizza is known as crust and it may vary according to pizza’s style. The crust is thin in Roman Pizza or traditional hand-tossed pizza and thick in Chicago-style Pizza or typical pan pizza. It is topped with cheese, tomato sauce and various other toppings, but can be made with white sauce or olive oil rather than tomato sauce. It originated inItalyfrom Neapolitan cuisine and became popular in several parts of the world. Pizza is amongst the national food products ofItaly.

II. Background

History of Pizza

The ancient Greek people used to cover their bread with herbs, cheese and oils. In Byzantine Greek, this term was spelled as pita (means pie). Now, the word has spread to Albanian as pite, Turkish as pide and Modern Hebrew as pittah. The Roman people developed placenta that was a sheet of dough crested with honey and cheese and seasoned with bay leaves. Modern pizza was originated inItalyas Neapolitan pie only with tomato. In the year 1889, the cheese was also added to it. In the same year, Queen Margharita ofItaly, during her visit toNaples, was served a pizza that resembled the shades of Italian flag – white (i.e. mozzarella), red (i.e. tomato) & green (basil). This pizza is named after the queen as Pizza Margherita.

III. Recipe

Simple Recipe to make Pizza

In this section, you will find a simple recipe to prepare pizza.

Ingredients:

For pizza dough – 1 ½ cups hot water (temperature should be 105 to 115 degree F), 2 ¼ tsp dry active yeast, 3 ½ cups bread flour, 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp sugar and 2 tsp salt

For pizza – olive oil, tomato sauce, cornmeal, sliced bell peppers, feta cheese, shredded parmesan cheese, sliced mushrooms, Italian sausage, sliced ham, chopped onions, pesto, chopped basil and pepperoni

Method:

Making Pizza dough

Sprinkle warm water on the yeast and keep it for 5 min, so that the yeast gets dissolved. Stir it well by putting it in mixer to dissolve it completely. Add flour, salt, olive oil and sugar and stir. Knead the mixture using dough hook and mixer on low / medium speed, until the dough becomes elastic and smooth. Kneading can also be done by hand. If dough seems little wet, more flour can be sprinkled over it. Place dough ball in bowl (coated with olive oil) and turn the ball to cover it with oil. Cover it with plastic wrap. Keep it in a warm place to let it rise for about 1 to 1 ½ hrs.

Preparing pizza    

Place pizza stone in 3^rd lower of oven, if you want to have crusty pizza dough. Preheat the oven (at temperature 450 degree F) for 30 min. Remove plastic wrap from the dough and divide it in half. Form 2 balls of dough, place them in 2 separate balls and cover them with plastic; let them sit and rise for about 10 min. Meanwhile, prepare desired toppings. After that, take balls of dough (one at a time) and flatten them. Working outward side, keep pressing the dough until it reaches the diameter of 10 to 11 inch. Then, brush the dough’s top with olive oil; keep it for another 5 min. Sprinkle your flat baking sheet with corn meal. Transfer flattened dough to it. Put some tomato sauce, sprinkle some cheese and place other toppings (whatever required) on the pizza. Sprinkle cornmeal on baking stone in oven. Bake pizza taking one at a time, until the cheese turns brown and crust gets crispy and brown. You can sprinkle more cheese in the end, if you desire.

IV. Benefits

Advantages of eating Pizza

You must be thinking how pizza can be advantageous to eat. Believe me, pizza is not inherently bad. It can be made highly nutritious by adding some nutritious ingredients into it. One of the main ingredients used in pizza is tomato that contains lycopene, a dominant antioxidant. Lycopene helps to fight against several types of cancer in the body. Some studies also reveal that eating pizza once in a week reduces the risk of mouth and colon cancer and lung and stomach cancer. It proves to be very powerful in fighting against prostate cancer. Chances of esophageal cancer are also reduced by eating pizza. You will be surprised to know that lycopene present in pizza or tomato sauce or spaghetti sauce is much more in quantity than fresh tomatoes, the reason being that water content in the tomatoes evaporates during processing and leaves higher concentration of anti-oxidant.

Another pizza topping is onions that are high in vitamin C, chromium and fiber. They assist in lowering blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar. Black olives used in pizza help in warding off heart diseases and lowering cholesterol levels. Red peppers are one of the great pizza toppings that are tasty and sweet and are full of vitamins B6, A and C. Pizza dough is also high in antioxidants.

A simple vegetable pizza with little amount of cheese is a healthy dish. You can get health benefits and taste without all cholesterol and extra fat coupled with meats and other toppings.

Warning:

If you use meats, lot of cheese or other such toppings, pizza will become high in fat, calories and sodium. For those with high BP, eating sodium in high amount is very hazardous to eat.

V. Calories

How many calories in a slice of Pizza

As we have discussed that calories in pizza can be increased or decreased, depending upon the ingredients used in it. Here, calorie content of 14 inch pizza with cheese topping (original crust) is given:

1 slice of 3.6 oz = 272 calories

Break up of 272 Pizza calories according to individual composition:

• Total fats (including saturated fats) = 15 percent
• Cholesterol = 7 percent
• Sodium = 23 percent
• Total carbohydrates (including sugar & fiber) = 11 percent
• Potassium, calcium and protein in little amounts

Calories in pizza hut pizza (6 inch, cheese only) = 590 calories in 1 slice of 7.3 oz.

Domino s pizza calories (12 inch, cheese only) = 140 calories in 1 slice of 1.9 oz.

The calories consumed by pizza can be burnt by: 30 min jogging, 40 min cycling, 70 min walking or 20 min swimming.