BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) 鈥� In Hungary鈥檚 capital, a city best known for its goulash, a pizzeria is inviting diners to travel back two millennia to a time before tomatoes, mozzarella or even the word 鈥減izza鈥� were known in Europe.
At Neverland Pizzeria in central Budapest, founder Josep Zara and his team have created a limited-edition pie using only ingredients that would have been available in ancient Rome, long before what we know today as pizza ever existed.
鈥淐uriosity drove us to ask what pizza might have been like long ago,鈥� Zara said. 鈥淲e went all the way back to the Roman Empire and wondered whether they even ate pizza at the time.鈥�
Strictly speaking, they did not. Tomatoes arrived in Europe centuries later from the Americas, and mozzarella was as yet unknown. Some histories have it that the discovery of mozzarella led directly to the invention of pizza in Naples in the 1700s.
But Romans did eat oven-baked flatbreads topped with herbs, cheeses and sauces, the direct ancestors of modern pizza, which were often sold in ancient Roman snack bars called .
In 2023, archaeologists depicting a focaccia-like flatbread topped with what appear to be pomegranate seeds, dates, spices and a pesto-like spread. The image made headlines around the world, and sparked Zara鈥檚 imagination.
鈥淭hat made me very curious about what kind of flavor this food might have had,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 where we got the idea to create a pizza that people might have eaten in the Roman Empire, using only ingredients that were in wide use at the time.鈥�
Zara began researching Roman culinary history, consulting a historian in Germany as well as the ancient cookbook De re coquinaria, thought to have been authored around the 5th century. Following his research, he compiled a list of historically documented ingredients to present to the pizzeria’s head chef.
鈥淲e sat down to imagine what we might be able to make using these ingredients, and without using things like tomatoes and mozzarella,” Zara said. “We had to exclude all ingredients that originated from America.鈥�
Head chef Gergely B谩rdossy said the constraints forced the team into months of experimentation, and a few false starts.
鈥淲e had to discard a couple ideas,鈥� B谩rdossy said. 鈥淭he fact that there wasn鈥檛 infrastructure like a water system at the time of the Romans made things difficult for us, since more than 80% of pizza dough is water. We had to come up with something that would have worked before running water.鈥�
The solution: helping the dough rise using fermented spinach juice. Ancient grains such as einkorn and spelt, widely cultivated in Roman times, formed the base, and the dough ended up slightly more dense than that of most modern pizzas.
The finished pie is topped with ingredients associated with Roman aristocratic cuisine, including epityrum, an olive paste, garum, a fermented fish sauce ubiquitous in Roman cooking, confit duck leg, toasted pine nuts, ricotta and a grape reduction.
鈥淥ur creation can be called a modern pizza from the perspective that we tried to make it comprehensible for everyone,鈥� B谩rdossy said. 鈥淎lthough we wouldn鈥檛 use all its ingredients for everyday dishes. There is a narrow niche that thinks this is delicious and is curious about it, while most people want more conventional pizza, so it鈥檚 not for everyday eating. It鈥檚 something special.鈥�
For Zara, the project reflects Neverland Pizzeria鈥檚 broader philosophy.
鈥淲e鈥檝e always liked coming up with new and interesting things, but tradition is also very important for us, and we thought that these two things together suit us,鈥� he said.
However, he added, there is a the restaurant will not cross.
鈥淲e do a lot of experimentation with our pizzas. But of course, we definitely do not use pineapple,鈥� he said.
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Associated Press journalist B茅la Szandelszky contributed to this report.
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This story corrects the first name of the head chief to Gergely.
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