Many people believe that the cake is named after Queen Margherita, created by a chef from Naples, Italy.
Before discussing the origin of this famous pizza, it is necessary to distinguish between cheese pizza and Margherita pizza because often, many people, especially Americans, are confused.
If you love pizza, you’ve probably tried the red, green and white cake, but you may not know that the name Margherita has a story.
According to the book Pizzapedia by author Dan Bransfield, there are three types of pizza that originated in Naples, one of which is the Margherita pizza. This is a dish made with ingredients including tomato sauce, thinly grated mozzarella cheese, basil leaves and extra virgin olive oil. It’s a more flavorful pie than the one Americans think of as a cheese-only version of pizza.
So why is that pizza named like that? A widely circulated story, including objections, concerns the Queen of Italy, Margherita , and her husband King Umberto I during a visit to Naples in June 1889. The visit comes after Italy unified the two north-south and south in need of consolidation.
King Umberto with Queen Margherita. (Photo: Alamy).
During the trip, Queen Margherita was fed up with the chef’s offerings, especially prepared French food. So, on request, Raffaele Esposito, the best pizza maker in 19th-century Italy, created a new dish to welcome the Empress.
The special pizza is made with ingredients that Margherita loves, including mozzarella cheese, tomatoes and basil leaves. The cake is green, red and white, just like the colors of the Italian flag – a coincidence.
Esposito named the dish after Queen Margherita and then everyone called this cake with that name. However, there are still some opinions that the word ” margherita” when translated into Italian means “daisy” .
Some argue that the cake got its name because of the arrangement of mozzarella cheese and basil leaves shaped like chrysanthemums on the cake. (Photo: mittkok.expressen.se).
It doesn’t matter how you cut it, pizza Margherita is basically the dish most diners in the world consider delicious. If you can’t buy those cakes at the stores where you live, it’s also very simple to make your own. The finished product of pizza Margherita has a crispy but chewy outer shell, a soft filling, the aroma of cheese and the slightly sour taste of tomatoes.