This Budapest pizzeria just took the pizza back to the Roman Empire
Can't dream of your pizza slice without tomatoes and cheese? This curation will make you reconsider
In Budapest - a city better associated with steaming bowls of goulash - a certain pizzeria is nudging diners deliciously backwards in time; a time when tomatoes stained dough red and before mozzarella melted into its stretches - basically before Europe even had the vocabulary for the word 'pizza'.
At Neverland Pizzeria in central Budapest, founder Josep Zara and his team have rolled out a limited-edition pie built entirely from ingredients that would have existed in ancient Rome, long before the modern-day slice took form, and centuries before pizza cemented its global domination of taste buds. Speaking to AP, Josep said, “Curiosity drove us to ask what pizza might have been like long ago. We went all the way back to the Roman Empire and wondered whether they even ate pizza at the time.”
The history of bread marrying sauce and cheese
Historically speaking, tomatoes only made their European debut centuries later via the Americas, and mozzarella hadn’t even entered the culinary chat. In fact, some food historians argue that the discovery of mozzarella in Naples in the 1700s was the crowing catalyst for the pizza renaissance, an era that agreeably seems permanent. But the Romans weren't exactly far off. Oven-baked flatbreads layered with herbs, cheeses and sauces were often sold at ancient Roman snack counters known as 'thermopolia', their version of takeaway counters.
{{/usCountry}}Historically speaking, tomatoes only made their European debut centuries later via the Americas, and mozzarella hadn’t even entered the culinary chat. In fact, some food historians argue that the discovery of mozzarella in Naples in the 1700s was the crowing catalyst for the pizza renaissance, an era that agreeably seems permanent. But the Romans weren't exactly far off. Oven-baked flatbreads layered with herbs, cheeses and sauces were often sold at ancient Roman snack counters known as 'thermopolia', their version of takeaway counters.
{{/usCountry}}But in 2023, archaeologists in Pompeii unearthed a fresco portraying a focaccia-like flatbread crowned with what looked like pomegranate seeds, dates, spices and a pesto-like smear. This image is what inspired Josep's vision. He said, "That made me very curious about what kind of flavor this food might have had. That's 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."
The process
{{/usCountry}}But in 2023, archaeologists in Pompeii unearthed a fresco portraying a focaccia-like flatbread crowned with what looked like pomegranate seeds, dates, spices and a pesto-like smear. This image is what inspired Josep's vision. He said, "That made me very curious about what kind of flavor this food might have had. That's 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."
The process
{{/usCountry}}Josep plunged headfirst into Roman culinary history, looping in a historian based in Germany and poring over De re Coquinaria, the ancient cookbook widely believed to have been compiled around the 5th century. What followed in his process was the drafting of a historically attested list of ingredients which was then handed over to the pizzeria’s head chef for the next round of curation on the kitchen counter. Josep shared, "We sat down to imagine what we might be able to make using these ingredients, and without using things like tomatoes and mozzarella. We had to exclude all ingredients that originated from America."
Head chef Laszlo Bardossy weighed in here, telling AP, "We had to discard a couple ideas. The fact that there wasn't 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."
The final slice
The workaround? Swapping out modern yeast for fermented spinach juice to have the dough rise. The base leans on ancient grains - einkorn and spelt, both widely cultivated in Roman times - resulting in a crust that’s noticeably denser than the airy Neapolitan standard everyone swears by. For layering, the team settled for epityrum (an olive paste) and garum (a fermented fish sauce and also a Roman kitchen staple). Final finishes included a confit duck leg, toasted pine nuts, ricotta and a glossy grape reduction.
The Head chef added, “Our creation can be called a modern pizza from the perspective that we tried to make it comprehensible for everyone. Although we wouldn't 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's not for everyday eating. It's something special.”
Now the pizzeria may be all-game for experimentation. But there is one thing they swear they'll never touch when it comes to their pie bakes - pineapple of course!
