CHRIS RUNDLE

FOR NEW YEAR CHRIS REMINDS US THERE IS LITTLE TO BEAT HOME-CRAFTED BREAD WITH A TASTY TOPPING, ALL SERVED STRAIGHT FROM THE OVEN

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Of course, the Italians weren't the only ones to come up with the idea of slathering some toppings on a piece of dough and baking it. They just had better PR. And, it must be admitted, a more marketable product.

If you start delving into the origins of the pizza, in fact, you will rapidly find yourself in the middle of a lively engagement in a long-running food war.

Because just over the border in the area of Provence around Nice they reckon their local dish predates the pizza by decades. If not centuries. And they will swear that the Italians merely crept over the frontier under cover of darkness and nicked the idea.

Which is a little hard to substantiate since this area of the Mediterranean margin swapped nationality between France and Italy (with a couple of interludes of independence) for centuries.