what popular food is thought to have originated in naples italy
History of pizza The precursor of pizza was probably the focaccia, a flat bread known to the Romans as panis focacius,[1] to which toppings were then added.[2] Modern pizza developed in Naples, when tomato was added to the focaccia in the late 18th century.
Gelato However, gelato was invented by Buontalenti, in Florence (Tuscany), during the Renaissance period. The eccentric Buontalenti created the dessert for the Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici, who wanted him to organize an opulent banquet to celebrate the Spanish deputation. It was October 5, 1600, and Buontalenti had worked for four months to prepare such a banquet.[citation needed] In Florence, most shops selling hand-made ice-cream also usually offer a "Buontalenti" flavour. In 1686, the Sicilian fisherman Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli perfected the first ice cream machine.[7] However, the popularity of gelato among larger shares of the population only increased in the 1920s–1930s in the northern Italian city of Varese, where the first gelato cart was developed. Italy is the only country where the market share of artisanal gelato versus mass-produced gelato is over 55%.[8][9] Today, more than 5,000 modern Italian ice cream parlors employ over 15,000 people.[10]