When Allied troops stormed the beaches of Sicily on July 10, 1943, they expected brutal combat in what Winston Churchill called "the soft underbelly of Europe." In most cases, they got what they expected. What they didn't expect was to fall in love with some of the local cuisine, especially a simple flatbread topped with tomato sauce, oregano and cheese: Pizza.
Before the Italian Campaign, pizza was almost unknown outside Italian immigrant neighborhoods. In 1939 the New York Herald Tribune felt compelled to explain what "peet-za" was and how to pronounce it. The dish remained confined largely to immigrant communities in cities like New York, Boston and Chicago, where Southern Italians had opened small pizzerias beginning in the early 1900s.
