The food depicted in the roughly 2,000-year-old fresco did not include cheese and tomato but could be a “distant ancestor” of pizza, archaeologists said.
What was pizza sauce made of before tomatoes were introduced to Italy?
Oh, experts say it’s not pizza. 😔
https://www.npr.org/2023/06/28/1184724633/pizza-a-wall-painting-pompeii
A still-life fresco discovered recently in the Pompeii archaeological site looks like a pizza, but it’s not, experts at the archaeological site said Tuesday.
They noted that key ingredients needed to make Italy’s iconic dish — tomatoes and mozzarella — were not available when the fresco was painted some 2,000 years ago.
Tomatoes were only introduced to Europe from the Americas a few centuries ago, and some histories have it that the discovery of mozzarella led directly to the invention of pizza in nearby Naples in the 1700s.
The image is instead believed to be a focaccia covered with fruit, including pomegranate and possibly dates, finished with spices or a type of pesto, experts said. In the fresco, it is served on a silver plate and a wine chalice stands next to it.
