The modern pizza was originally invented in Naples, Italy but the word pizza is Greek in origin, derived from the Greek word pēktos meaning solid or clotted. The ancient Greeks covered their bread with oils, herbs and cheese. The first major innovation that led to flat bread pizza was the use of tomato as a topping.

Tomatoes were first introduced to Italy from South America in 1522. At first the tomato was believed to be poisonous. Fortunately, the poorer peasants of the region finally overcame their doubts about tomatoes in the 17th century and began adding it to the bread dough, and the first pizzas were created.

As the popularity of the tomato became widespread, mozzarella cheese was slowly gaining ground. Mozzarella had become available in Italy only after water buffalo were imported from India in the 7th century, (mozzarella was first made with water buffalo milk). Its popularity grew very slowly until the last half of the 18th century, but the cheese and tomatoes did not meet on a pizza until 1889.

While it is difficult to say for sure who invented the pizza, it is however believed that modern pizza was first made by baker Raffaele Esposito of Naples. In fact, a popular urban legend holds that the archetypal pizza, Pizza Margherita, was invented in 1889, when the Royal Palace of Capodimonte commissioned the Neapolitan pizzaiolo Raffaele Esposito to create a pizza in honor of the visiting Queen Margherita. Of the three different pizzas he created, the Queen strongly preferred a pie swathed in the colors of the Italian flag: red (tomato), green (basil), and white (mozzarella). Supposedly, this kind of pizza was then named after the Queen as Pizza Margherita.

In the later half of the 19th century, pizza migrated to America with the Italians. By the turn of the century, the Italian immigrants had begun to open their own bakeries and were selling groceries as well as pizza. Gennaro Lombardi opened the first true U.S. pizzeria in 1905 at 53 1/3 Spring Street in New York City, a part of town known as “Little Italy.”

Sources:

Picture 1: http://video.epicurious.com/watch/the-secret-history-of-pizza

http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/reading-history-of-pizza.php

http://www.foodreference.com/html/a-pizza-history.html

PART 1