Italy Serves Up World's Longest Pizza At Expo Milano 2015

On June 21st, the 30,000 visitors that attended the Expo Milano 2015, a six-month-long Universal Exhibition that is currently going on in Milan, Italy, were in for a special treat - a slice of the world's longest pizza! Measuring 1.59545 kilometers, or just under a mile, the delicious pie that extended across 800 tables handily surpassed the previous record holder - a 1.1415-kilometer-long pizza made by Spanish chefs in 2011.

The pie that took 80 of Italy's finest pizza artisans a total of 18 hours to create was no easy feat. They began by tossing 1.7 tons of dough and then slathering it with 2 tons of tomato sauce, 1.5 tons of mozzarella cheese and 330 pounds of olive oil. The 5-ton pie was then baked to crisp perfection using five ovens.

But it was well-worth the effort given that the record-breaking pizza was made to commemorate the 126th birthday of the classic margherita pie. According to Italian folklore, the delicious concoction was first made by Naples-based pizza maker Raffaele Esposito for Queen Margherita of Savoy.

According to the legend, the chef came up with three creations - one that included garlic, another that was sprinkled with anchovies and a third whose toppings were picked to resemble the Italian flag - red (tomato), white (mozzarella) and green (basil).

Though the Queen did not care too much for the first two, she loved the third pizza, prompting the chef to name it The Margherita! There is some dispute about whether Esposito invented the recipe or adapted it from a similar one in Francisco DeBouchard's 1866 book "Customs and Traditions of Naples." However, nobody is arguing the fact that it was his version of the margherita pizza that has become the worldwide favorite.

Resources: italymagazine.com, Bgr.com