Contrary to popular opinion, pizza was not Italian in origin, but it was the Italians who gave it the name “pizza”, improved upon it, and introduced it in the United States. Pizza was invented by the Greeks around several hundred years B.C. who were the early pioneers and skilled bakers, settling in Southern Italy around the Naples Region.

Pizza was introduced in the United States towards the end of the nineteenth century, along with a wave of largely southern Italian immigrants who operated Italian bakeries and grocery stores. At this time, pizza was primarily found in the cities with large concentration of Italian immigrants like New York, Boston, and Philadelphia.

It wasn’t until the end of WW II that pizza in the United States became popular as soldiers returned from assignments in the Naples region of Italy with an acquired taste for pizza.

The Crust is the Foundation of good Pizza

The crust is the foundation of a pizza and is largely where the care goes into. Good pizza has a crust that is soft, chewy and doughy on the inside and crusty on the outside with a bread-like tastiness to it. The type of crust is one of the main things that separate the different styles of pizza. The cheese should be fresh made and with either fresh crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce. No oil is to be added to a pizza as the yellow oil like drippings should come from the fresh cheese. The toppings complement the pizza and should contain fresh, quality ingredients as well.

Unfortunately the popularity of a pizza restaurant is usually not based on the quality or the authenticity of Italian pizza, but more on the taste and preferences of the patrons.

Types of Pizza Popular in New Jersey

Authentic Neapolitan

Normally cooked in a wood-fired or brick oven, good Neapolitan pizza has a light, crisp, bubbly, chewy crust with a puffy lip or end crust that is slightly charred. Authentic Naples pizza is baked in an oven at 1,000 degrees for one minute to produce the perfect crust. Crushed tomatoes and fresh buffalo mozzarella cheese, and fresh basil are used.

Authentic Tuscan

Tuscan pizza, while still considered a thin crusted pizza, has a thicker crust, more bread like, than Neapolitan pizza. The pizza is saucier, and usually has a combination of cheeses with a meat garnish, and fresh herbs like oregano, basil and parsley. New York Neapolitan

New York Neapolitan is basically an Americanized style of Neapolitan pizza and differs by being slightly larger and thinner, more crisp and charred, and served with more cheese and sauce. Baked with a lower oven temperature than the true Neapolitan Pizza to 600 degrees and cooked for 2-3 minutes to produce a more crispy, charred crust that suits American taste.

New York Style

New York style pizza is thicker both in body and crust with a similar soft, crisp, chewy crust on the outside with a bread-like tastiness to it, generally with no more than two toppings to maintain the crusts crispiness. It can be found with an abundance of yellow oily trails from the fresh Grande mozzarella cheese. The regular or standard New York style pizza comes with no toppings, just cheese.

Sicilian Style

A rectangular pizza with a thick crust and its toppings baked directly into the crust, and usually has a strong presence of garlic.

The Best Pizza Restaurants in New Jersey

Northern New Jersey

Amano, Ridgewood, NJ -Serves thin crusted pizza with close to authentic Neapolitan style, with soft, chewy, crispy, and tasty crust.

La Casa Bianca, Whitehouse Station, NJ – While they serve up a menu of creative dishes of Italian and continental cuisine, all at a reasonable price, it is their brick oven Tuscan pizza that stands out.

Central New Jersey

DeLorenzo’s Tomato Pies, Trenton, NJ – When in Trenton, pizzas are called "Tomato Pies“ and whatever you call them, Delorenzo’s in Trenton is an institution and is one of the best places in Central New Jersey for pizza and is as close to it comes to authentic Neapolitan pizza.

Conte’s Bar, Princeton, NJ – This tavern style restaurant is ideal if you are looking for a place to join a group of friends or family for some good pizza and a beer.

Southern New Jersey

Tacconelli’s Pizzeria, Maple Shade, NJ – They are a spin off of the original Tacconelli’s in Philadelphia, and serve thin crust pizza that is chewy, crunchy, and bread like tasty, with fresh cheese, sauces, and toppings.

Tony’s Baltimore Grille, Atlantic City, NJ – This Atlantic City long time favorite with the locals, is like going into a time warp. They are noted for their great pizza, traditional Italian dishes, at a very low price.

Frank Dalotto is a freelance writer and travel consultant. His specialty is writing articles about New Jersey leisure travel and soft adventure travel. Frank is the publisher of New Jersey Leisure Guide and Soft Adventure Tourism

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1. Offer a better deal. Some of the top pizza delivery services offer great deals and freebies. A 2 for 1 deal, free chips and dessert or a free soda with a personal pizza are just a couple of ideas of how you can offer a better deal than the competition. Find out what they are giving away and make yours better. The last thing you want to do is just copy, so consider other options like a punch card where they get a free pizza after a certain number of purchases or anything similar that will encourage customers to become repeat clients.

2. Make them drool. Describe your ingredients in a way that makes people long to try them. Photos of gooey cheese topped with crisp peppers, bright, fresh tomatoes and gleaming olives are even better and a combination of great copywriting and some delicious, drool worthy photos will have people hankering for a slice in no time. Preparing takeaway menus with these qualities pretty much guarantees you will get the order over a simple grey sheet with the specials printed in red ink like so many pizza delivery and fast food options do.

3. Guarantees. With guaranteed delivery times and flavors, you can really rake in the customers. Most of these guarantees are no longer being used, so if you actually say you`ll give a refund and then do it . . . you can bet more people will want to order, knowing that their pizza will arrive within 30 minutes or less . . . or whatever you choose to guarantee.

4. Get personal. Friendly staff can make all the difference to the customer and can cement customer loyalty just as much as lower prices can. But what most pizza delivery services don`t do is follow up with their friendly service. Why not offer an extra service . . . email coupons. Get client email addresses and then send them free coupons via email, as well as any updates. Let them know that by signing up for this service, they will automatically receive 10% off their current order. You can easily make this back by staying fresh in their minds and giving previous clients a reason to come back.

5. Offer the best pizza out there. The truth is that it all comes down to one thing . . . making people want YOUR pizza and your pizza alone. Give them a taste that they just can`t find anywhere else and you`ll have them coming back time and time again. Whether you do this by offering a special type of pizza, a secret ingredient sauce or cheese baked into the crust, clients will savor that special flavor and eagerly call you up the next time they crave your particular specialty.

Just because you have a lot of competition doesn`t mean you have to give up. Your fast food service can be the best simply via the best marketing. Keep in mind how you can create a bigger and better campaign, but don`t forget that the details matter. Your clients might respond to a flashy ad, but it all boils down to the best pizza.

Pizza Ajax by Pizza Pizza – est. 1967

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Tips to a delicious homemade pizza:
-Make your crust first and keep (thing to remember is that the crust should not be baked fully, remember you need to bake it again with the toppings). It would be best to bake the crust separately than doing the toppings and everything together.

-Mixing the pizza dough and kneading has an important role to play in deciding your crust quality. Kneading should be done only to the level needed that is till you have a pliable dough that does not anymore stick to the sides.

-Be patient, allow enough time for the pizza dough to rise before actually starting to work on it. The taste and texture of the pizza would all depend on the dough. Depending on the thickness of the crust desired decide on the amount of dough to use for the crust. Pizza dough that is drier would result in a crispy crust. So you could make the choice between crispy and a soft fluffy crust. If you want to have a stuffed crust you can add the stuffing at this stage.

-For the pizza sauce, there is always the easy store bought pizza sauce. However, if you decide to make it at home then onions, tomato puree or sauce, garlic and your choice of herbs all sauteed and simmered to form a thick consistency. Make it a little thick to avoid getting your crust soggy.

-Coming to the toppings, here is where you can unleash your creativity. There is really no laid down rule as to what you should use as topping for your topping and so you could just go by what your heart says or rightly by your tastebuds. From meat, sausages to fresh veggies, ham, bacon, mushrooms and the list goes on and on. Top with fresh mozaraella and the pizza is a nice colorful treat now. Don’t you agree?

Put it into the oven, get your favorite movie or book and time to just put up your feet and enjoy homemade pizza all done by you right from scratch. Feels great doesn’t it?

Mary-Anne is a featured member and regular contributor at ifood.tv, a global food network, featuring recipes from all over the world. Other popular healthy recipes videos on ifood.tv include Tuna Recipes, Turkey recipes and Vegan recipes

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Quit searching for the answer online, and look for inspiration in your kitchen! You can create your own great tasting recipes using your favorite foods as inspiration. Besides being a great tasting food, pizza is very versatile. Almost anything tastes better on a pizza pie. Instead of sticking with the traditional pepperoni or searching the internet for inspiration, our family began creating our own recipes using our favorite foods.

One of the ‘craziest’ ideas we tried was to turn a favorite holiday dip into a recipe. For the holidays my wife always prepares a delicious dip that is served with crackers, and accompanies it with other appetizers. The dip is a hit with our friends and family…so while trying to come up with a dinner idea shortly after the holidays were over, we noticed we had the holiday dip ingredients left over in the refrigerator. Now our families’ cranberry and mandarin orange relish with brie cheese is also a favorite pizza recipe.

It worked great…and is a change of pace from more traditional ingredients.

Everyone has probably tried a BBQ Chicken pie made famous by California Pizza Kitchens (CPK). It is quite obvious where the inspiration for this recipe came from, so what once was eaten for dinner is now a gourmet staple.

The CPK company made famous many flavor combinations that had never been tried before. They turned to the foods of many different countries for their inspiration. Thai Chicken, Pear and Gorgonzola, Mango Tandoori Chicken, Carne Asada, Jamaican Jerk Chicken, and the California Club are just a few of the pizza recipes they developed with inspiration from the favorite foods of different countries.

You do not need to put on a bunch of toppings on the pie to be creative, the spice cabinet alone is full of wonderful , exotic flavors that can quickly and easily create a delicious meal. In fact, just a little sauce and cheese is how I prefer to eat most of my pies, throwing a bunch of fatty meats was fine in my 20′s but as the years add up they start showing up on the waste line. Garlic powder, chili powder, dried oregano or basil, really just about anything will taste delicious.

Dinner isn’t the only meal represented these days. Traditional breakfast ingredients are finding their way onto pizza’s…bacon; eggs, hash browns, and sausage are more and more common.

And not to be out done, dessert pizzas are becoming very popular. How about a Brownie or Strawberry Pizza for dessert? These are just a few of the many inspirations we get from our favorite foods.

The next time you are planning pizza for dinner turn to one of your favorite foods for inspiration instead of searching the internet for tonight’s dinner.

How about a meatloaf pizza? Don’t laugh until you try it.

For more great ideas about pizza recipes , and to learn how to make homemade pizza better than your local pizza shop, visit www.homemade-pizza-made-easy.com

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Pizza isn’t difficult even if you start from scratch. Pizza dough is hard to ruin. The most important factor, besides clean hands, is to proof the yeast. That’s easy enough to do. Take a package of yeast and add it to a 1/4 cup of very warm, but not hot water, to which you’ve added a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. In five to ten minutes the yeast should have dissolved and the water become foamy.

Here’s an easy recipe for pizza crust. It’s the crispy kind and makes enough for two 12 inch pizzas.

3 cups flour
3/4 cup of water
1/4 cup of the warm water the yeast has been dissolved in
2 tablespoon olive oil.

Add the oil to the water. Add the oil and water mixture to the flour. Stir with a spoon until too thick to stir. And here’s the part where you need clean hands. Using your hands incorporate the rest of the flour into the dough. The dough will probably be a little sticky, that’s okay. Dust a clean kitchen counter with a little flour. Place the dough on the flour and flatten it with the palms of your hands, pushing the dough away from you. Fold over the dough, give it a quarter turn and flatten it again. This is called kneading the dough. Kids love to help with this part of the process. Knead the dough for 10 minutes. That may seem like a long time so keep your eye on the clock. After the dough has been kneaded for 10 minutes it’s shouldn’t be sticky any more and be a bit elastic.

Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with a towel and put in a warm place to rise. Get a good look at how big the ball of dough is because you want it to double in size. Depending on the temperature that will take from an hour to 2 hours. Don’t rush the rising by putting it in the oven.

When the dough has doubled in size divide it in half. Flour the counter so the dough doesn’t stick. Roll out two 12 inch circles. If you’re busy or don’t trust your dough making skills buy ready to use pizza dough. Place the circles on an oiled cookie sheet or pizza pan. Put back in a warm place while you ready the pizza toppings.

One trick for great pizza is to always cook the meat ahead of time thoroughly and leave the vegetables raw.

Top your pizza with a cup of tomato or pizza sauce, favorite meats such as pepperoni and sausage and veggies like mushrooms, onions, and green peppers, finish off with a generous sprinkling of cheese.

Bake in a pre-heated 425 degree oven for about 20 minutes until the crust is golden brown and the cheese melted.

Here’s to a Happy Father’s Day pizza dinner.

Dee Power is the co-author of the novel, Over Time. Money Love and Football: All the Important Things in Life. Over Time makes a great Father’s Day Gift. Find the best pizza in America other Dad’s day ideas at Party Ideas Kids

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Homemade pizza does not need to be difficult, and in fact, if you are one of the many people reluctant to make pizza at home, let me tell you that you can make easy homemade pizza that will taste great and be a hit to your friends and family.

Easy homemade pizza is possible for anyone if you follow a few key pizza basics. Actually, the difficulty that most people experience is from getting a little ambitious to begin with, complicating the process, and then dumping a bunch of toppings on top, and then wondering why they have a goopy mess. Goopy is a technical term that describes a pizza that went horribly wrong.

But not to fear, if you spend the time to learn the basics and become comfortable with them, then you can begin adding additional elements and enjoying easy homemade pizza. So, what are the basics to homemade pizza? There are 4 basic areas; technique, equipment, recipes, and ingredients. We can add a fifth element and that is practice.

Like all pizza chefs you will need to learn to mix dough, activate yeast, knead dough, and form your dough. While not overly complicated, each of these areas does require a bit of learning and practice to become proficient and master the basics of homemade pizza making.

It is also recommended that you make a small investment in some pizza equipment. You do not need a lot to begin with and can add additional equipment as your interest in making pizza grows, but some good basic equipment will improve the results of your pizza’s and give you confidence to make more. Basic equipment would include a pizza stone, a pizza peel, and a few pizza pans. Learning to use the equipment is not difficult and is fun to learn.

Probably the best advice is to start with basic pizza recipes. Taking on complex recipes in the beginning usually results in a goopy mess, and will take the fun out of your homemade pizza experience. For example, do not start with an elaborate pizza sauce that requires countless ingredients and hours and hours to prepare. Start simple. A basic pizza sauce need only include a handful of ingredients and take less than 20 minutes to prepare. Use the same approach, simplicity, to the dough recipe and toppings you choose.

In fact, our advice is to only make cheese pizzas when you start out. Adding a pile of toppings makes the pizza more difficult to make, and adds variables to homemade pizza making that only complicates things. Start with a simple cheese pizza, learn the basics, and then expand the scope of your homemade pizza making.

Lastly, it is important that you practice your pizza making. Go into the process expecting some failures. Embrace the fact that not every pizza will turn out exactly as you like…this is true even if you have made pizza for 20 years, and learn from each experience.

Many people tell us that they are initially reluctant to begin making pizza at home, but then after giving it a try they are surprised at how easy homemade pizza making can be. Start with the basics, invest a little money in equipment, and practice, practice, practice. Before you know it you will be making homemade pizza that wows your friends and family.

You can find everything you need to make easy homemade pizza , and to learn how to make homemade pizza better than your local pizza shop, visit http://www.homemade-pizza-made-easy.com

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Ok. So if you are like me, you always thought the only alcohol that tasted good with pizza was beer, right? Well, of course, it does, but that’s not all. Though beer and pizza may seem to be on the same wave lengths as far as simple flavors and price, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t some wines out there that won’t bring out the flavors in pizza just as nicely, just differently. So stop thinking that pizza is for informal occasions and wine for formal events and start opening your mind to a whole new world of taste experience: one that crosses boundaries and for good cause!

Red Sauce Pizza: When considering pairing your favorite wine with pizza, and wondering if it is a huge faux pas to the wine appreciation world, consider this: pizza is pretty darn close in ingredients to pasta, and pasta dishes are one of the best things noted to pair with wine. This said, what goes best with your standard red sauce pizza with mozzarella and toppings? Treat the acid of the tomato sauce with an acidic red wine for the optimum flavor extravaganza. Try some medium bodied to bold, acidic reds such as: Chardonnay, Chiante, Cabernet, Shiraz, Sangiovese, or even a powerful Zinfandel.

White Sauce Pizza: If you are more of a white pizza fan-that is someone who leaves out the tomato sauce when serving up the slices-then you certainly have your own set of options for wine as well. Since the pizza has light and mild flavors, try a light and mild wine-preferably white to bring out the full flavors in each of the pieces to the tasting experience. Good examples of light white wines that would work great with white pizza are: Sauvignon Blanc, Champagne, and Pinot Grigio.

Whatever you opt for in the wine aisle of your favorite store, try to remember that though pizza is not chopped liver, it certainly is not something as refined and sophisticated as culinary creations go, so you shouldn’t splurge on that super expensive red or white you have your eye on. Instead, save that wine experience for something that is a bit more complex in flavor-such as a rich pasta dish or a fine assortment of cheeses.

Browse wine accessories at Rhino Wine Gear. Find wine decanters and wine bags that will enhance any wine experience.

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Then there are the old standbys for the summer months as well. What better way to cool off in the middle of a heat wave than with a cool Popsicle? Who hasn’t enjoyed a baseball game while munching on a hot dog? It seems there are foods and drinks for every season and most of them really add to our enjoyment of any particular time of year.

One of the all-time favorite summer foods is one that we’ve been enjoying in North America for one hundred years. Ever since Gennaro Lombardi opened the first pizza place in New York in 1905, we’ve been enjoying the tasty treat that’s got a very interesting history. Of course it might be no surprise that pizza’s origins are claimed by the Italians, and as you munch a piece of Toronto pizza in the middle of little Italy, you might think that the food’s history only goes back to turn of the century Europe, but pizza has an even bigger past.

Although modern people munching Hamilton pizza might not have considered it on a hot July day, most historians agree that Italians have more than likely been eating the food since the Stone Age, perhaps as far back as the 6th century BC where soldiers baked a kind of flat bread and covered it afterward with cheese. The word itself has some interesting historical connotations.

Pizza is obviously Italian, but not many people know that the word means "a point" and the earliest forms of this popular food were baked like a lot of other things beneath the stones of a fire. At first, this early form of the modern food that has been popularized as Mississauga pizza was used as a kind of plate to sop up the excess gravy that was left over from other meals. However, like all great ideas, it wasn’t long before pizza took off in its own right.

It seems that another great culture, The Greeks, helped bring what we now know as the modern day pizza along. Because their version of the flat bread was convenient for the working man and his family at the time, they decided that the flat round bread they were using for meals should have some kind of topping, and in this way the predecessor of the modern pizza pie was born.

It wasn’t until years later that the modern world caught up to this popular summer food and in 1957 frozen pizzas were introduced and soon became the most popular food that you could get from the freezer.

Order Pizza Pizza online and have it delivered fresh to your door. Various pizza toppings, side items and more. Over 21 locations for Pizza Pizza in Mississauga to serve you.

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If you are like a lot of people you will love pizza, but here is the problem.

Can you eat just one slice or do you eat the whole pizza?

What toppings do you have on that pizza?

How many calories are you eating?

What food groups are in the pizza that you are about to eat?

How can you make the pizza healthier?

Many people are not disciplined when it comes to pizza and how much they eat of it. They see that a pizza does not look that large, maybe the size of a plate and eat it without much thought to the calories being consumed.

Let’s take for our example a supreme 12" pan pizza. This is normally sliced into 8 portions. Are you ready for a reality check here?

One slice is 330 calories which means the whole pizza is 2640 calories. As you see if you are on 1400 calories that means if you eat the whole pizza in one day you are left with -1240 calories for the rest of the day. In other words you have overeaten in just one meal.

But let’s continue with the facts here. I am looking at one slice only if you eat more than one slice you need to multiply it by the number of pieces eaten.

Calories 330
Calories from fat 160
Total fat 17g
% Daily Value 26%
Saturated Fat 6g
% Daily Value 30%
Cholesterol 35g
% Daily Value 12%
Sodium 850mg
% Daily Value 35%
Carbohydrates 29g
% Daily Value 10%
Dietary Fibre 2g
% Daily Value 8%
Sugar 3%
Protein 14%

When broken down like this it doesn’t look too good, does it?

How do you eat pizza if you love it? You have to learn about the consequences of what you eat. You also need to decide between picking up the telephone and ordering pizza to making your own which will be healthier.

Make your own dough, and then you know exactly what goes into it. Basic dough which will make more than one pizza is a simple recipe. 16 oz strong flour/bread flour, 1 tsp yeast, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp salt and enough warm water to mix into dough. You can’t reduce the sugar and salt as both are needed to cause the yeast to ferment but notice that you are not putting in any fat, milk powder or added extra sugar and salt.

Make your own tomato sauce, with tomato, garlic and onions. No fat or sugar needs to be added. Low calories and can be used as the basis for a tomato soup or pasta sauce.

Then load your pizza with plenty of fresh vegetables.

What about meat? Take one piece of skinless chicken and dice it, cook it with Cajun spices. You can dry fry it if you have a good frying pan. Again no fat is needed to be added.

Finally to the cheese, mix together a low fat mozzarella with Parmesan. You don’t need to put on huge amounts of cheese as the cheese is there for one purpose to stop the other ingredients burning when the pizza is in the oven. Try it and see if your family prefer the home made pizza.

But what if you can’t resist picking up the phone or eating a pizza in a restaurant? Is it failure because you eat badly? Not it you take responsibility for your actions. You see you need to learn what to do because it is about learning to live a healthy lifestyle.

Consequence Time

To work off the 2640 calories eaten with the pizza means 11 hours of walking. You can eat your calorie laden pizza if you want but are you prepared to walk for 11 hours? Walking burns 240 calories per hour if walked at a leisurely pace.

For many of you maybe you are thinking I don’t eat a whole pizza and that is great, but how many calories are you consuming in a day? Remember all the snacks and those sugary drinks. You need approximately 1300 calories to live if you are a woman and 1600 calories for a man. That is if you are staying in bed all day and not doing anything else.

If you keep a diary and find you have overeaten with 250 calories today then you need to do at least 1 hours exercise to balance your food intake with the calories burned.

Yes you can have pizza but are you now prepared to take the consequences of your action?

Tim is the owner of the online supplement store, Scottsdale Nutrition Supply, he enjoys writing articles that are informative to everybody that maybe looking for nutritional and supplement information that can help anybody in their everyday lives.

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Wood-fired ovens have been used for centuries, dating back to ancient Rome, where excavations have unearthed brick ovens. They have also been found all throughout Europe, not differing from the models found in Rome. A brick oven can vary in size and shape, but each is similar. Stone, slabs of wood, or layers of tough terracotta bricks can be used to make the base of the oven. An igloo-shaped cover with one small opening on its side, typically made of clay bricks or other material, is placed over the base. A common method of piecing the two pieces together was to cover it in mud, which acts as a sealant and seeps in any cracks. Some ovens also placed a funnel on top of the igloo-shaped cover so the smoke can travel out of the oven.

Cooking in wood-fired oven is very much like cooking meats and vegetables on a barbecue. The end result is a fantastic meal with flavors that cannot be mimicked with other techniques. Cooking a pizza in a modern contraption at a local pizzeria or in your oven at home can usually take several minutes, but in a wood-fired oven, the pizza can be done in as little as a minute. Because of the intense heat from the fire’s flames, the pizza must be turned 180 degrees to ensure that the pizza cooks as evenly as possible.

If you have never had authentic pizza, either take a trip out to Italy or visit a local pizzeria that is not a chain. You will be pleasantly surprised and possibly hooked!

Rachel Yoshida is a writer of many topics, visit some of her sites, like Chicago Water Damage Restoration and Boston Water Damage Restoration.

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