Almost everyone knows the story: in 1889 Neapolitan pizzaiolo Raffaele Esposito made a pizza in the colors of the Italian flag for Queen Margherita of Savoy, and it was named in her honor. This episode takes that origin story apart, starting with what a true Neapolitan Margherita actually is: a dough of only water, salt, yeast and type 00 flour, hand-crushed tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella or fior di latte, fresh basil and olive oil, baked in a wood-fired oven.

We then look at the historical record. Emmanuel Rocco described tomato, mozzarella and basil on flatbread in 1849, and Francesco de Bourcard catalogued similar Neapolitan street pizzas in 1866. Food historian Zachary Nowak classes the royal tale as fakelore, pointing to a doubtful letter displayed at Pizzeria Brandi and the complete absence of press coverage in 1889. The Margherita name and its legend were heavily promoted in the 1930s and 1940s, an invented tradition that suited the nationalism of the era.

• The strict ingredients and stretching technique behind an authentic Neapolitan Margherita
• How the puffed, blistered cornicione forms in a 900 degree Fahrenheit wood-fired oven
• Pizza a portafoglio, the folded wallet pizza eaten on the streets of Naples
• The 1849 and 1866 records showing the flavor combination existed long before 1889
• Why historians consider the royal letter and the Queen Margherita story fakelore