this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2023
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Archaeologists in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii have uncovered a painting which depicts what might be the precursor to the Italian pizza.

The flatbread depicted in the 2,000-year-old fresco "may be a distant ancestor of the modern dish", Italy's culture ministry said.

But it lacks the classic ingredients to technically be considered a pizza.

The fresco was found in the hall of a house next to a bakery during recent digs at the site in southern Italy.

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[–] i_love_FFT@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago (6 children)

But it lacks the classic ingredients to technically be considered a pizza.

What are the required ingredients? Can they be sure the ingredients are not hidden underneath the ones on top?

[–] BrownPolarBear@lemmy.pt 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They did a taste test, and noticed it had fresco cheese instead of mozzarella

[–] slicktor@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago

I'll upvote this but I don't like it.

[–] AgreeableLandscape@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

90% sure it's tomatoes. They are not native to Europe and were only introduced in the colonial era.

[–] CmdrShepard@lemmy.one 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I get pizza without tomatoes all the time. Chicken bacon ranch pizza contains zero tomatoes. I need to talk to this uninformed pizza gatekeeper.

[–] burningmatches@feddit.uk 2 points 1 year ago

Not sure the Italians consider a chicken bacon ranch pizza to be a pizza.

[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Required? I'd go with water, flour, yeast, salt, olive oil.

After that it becomes difficult as a pizza bianca with nothing else but olive oil would be strange, you generally get at least garlic and some cheese, but that's the minimal set of ingredients shared by every pizza.

OTOH, cheese might actually be a requirement, can't think of a cheese-free pizza right now. Oh this is going to piss of the vegans.

Things may or may not get more complicated, depending on what you consider Pizza, if you include Flammkuchen which doesn't require yeast or olive oil, and also comes cheese-free by default, instead using some sort of sour cream (and onions and ham). If you ever manage to get your hand on Federweißer, that is a killer combination.

[–] knatsch@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago

i would say tomato and cheese and think i see both

[–] japps13@lemmy.physfluids.fr 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I don’t know which ingredients are required but I don’t think they had tomatoes at that time. Wasn’t they discovered in the new world?

[–] EvilColeslaw 1 points 1 year ago

Yes and even when they were introduced there was a lot of resistance to eating them, as well as potatoes. Both are in the nightshade family, which were commonly known to be poisonous. There was a lot of weird superstition about their use in witchcraft, etc

[–] electrorocket@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Correct. They were over 400 years from having tomato sauce on pizza. They did have pesto, as the article mentioned.

[–] rostriano@vlemmy.net 2 points 1 year ago

Make that over 1400 years.

[–] Akasazh@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

may have been eaten with fruits such as pomegranates or dates, or dressed with spices and a type of pesto sauce