National Pizza Day 2021: 20 Fascinating Facts That Will Make You Grab A Slice

It's National Pizza Day! Pizza lovers are everywhere so it is no surprise that this savory and versatile dish has a day dedicated to celebrating it.

To mark National Pizza Day this Tuesday, here are 20 facts about the Italian delicacy that you may not have known.

1. Pizza was considered a cheaper food

According to researchers from the William E. Macaulay Honors College, tomatoes were thought to be poisonous in the early 1500s, so pizza was considered a cheaper food at the time. Lower-income people of Naples would put tomatoes on their dough and top it with cheese for a quick meal.

2. Every second, 350 slices of pizza are eaten in the U.S.

Americans share a love for pizza unlike any other. According to reports, around 350 slices of pizza are eaten in the U.S. every second, putting the number at 21,000 slices per minute.

3. Pizza in Italy weren't always round

Grandma-style pizza or Sicilian pizza is the original shape of the famous Italian dish and contained Romano cheese instead of mozzarella.

4. The outer edge Is called the cornicione

The more technical term for "crust" is the cornicione or the "end crust."

5. Hawaiian but make it Canadian

The Hawaiian pizza was invented in Canada in 1962 by Sam Panopoulos.

6. New York's love for pizza

Thousands of pizza places are scattered all around New York, and mostly good ones too. Within the city alone, one can find over 9,000 pizzerias.

7. India's most common pizza topping is tofu

In India, people prefer to enjoy their pizza with tofu on top. Minced mutton and pickled ginger are also at the top of their list.

8. Counting calories

Each slice of pizza contains about 220-370 kilocalories, according to dietitians.

9. Bill Murray worked at a pizza restaurant

Long before he became a renowned actor, Bill Murray worked at a Little Caesars pizza shop in Illinois. Jean-Claude Van Damme also used to work as a pizza delivery driver before he became famous.

10. Papa's Tomato Pies is America's oldest pizzeria

Founded in 1912 by Giuseppe Papa, the Trenton, New Jersey pizzeria continues to serve Americans to this day.

11. Anchovies, what?

Anchovies were the least favorite pizza topping of Americans, according to a survey.

12. Nobody knows how the word "pizza" originated

The first time the word "pizza" was documented was around 997 AD in Gaeta, Italy. The name caught on shortly after.

13. Pizza literally went out of this world

Pizza Hut said it paid the Russian space agency about $1 million dollars in 2001 to be able to send a six-inch pizza to the International Space Station.

14. No longer considered a cheap food

The most expensive pizza in the whole world costs $12,000 and was created by Renato Viola in Salerno, Italy. Its dough is made from organic Arabian flour, and some of its ingredients include three rare types of caviar, lobster from Norway, seven types of cheese and grains of pink Australian sea-salt from the Murray River.

15. A million ways to eat pizza

Domino's gives its customers the freedom to choose their combination when picking out a pizza, and the number of combinations amounts to about 34 million. That should give their customers a lot of choices.

16. Saturday nights are pizza nights

Uber Eats found that a large number of Americans eat pizza for dinner on Saturday nights. Good choice!

17. October is National Pizza Month in the U.S.

National Pizza Month was created by the publisher of Pizza Today magazine and pizzeria owner, Gerry Durnell, in 1984. He chose October because it's the month the first issue of his magazine debuted.

18. Americans prefer meat lovers pizza

Americans are obviously big fans of meat, so this doesn't come as a surprise.

19. There are an estimated 70,000 pizzerias across America

Coast-to-coast, the number of pizza places one would find in the country is almost endless, according to Trip Advisor.

20. Pizza delivery sales experience surges on Super Bowl Sundays

At every Super Bowl gathering, pizza will always be present. This is why pizza delivery sales get an estimated 35% surge in deliveries on this day over a typical Sunday.