broccoli, spinach, olives, onions, and artichoke hearts meat or fish products such as sausage, pepperoni, salami, ham, bacon, ground beef, anchovies, chicken, shrimp and mushrooms.

The crust is traditionally plain, but may also be seasoned with butter, garlic, or herbs, or stuffed with cheese. In some pizza recipes the tomato sauce is omitted, or replaced with another sauce, usually garlic butter but can be sauces made with spinach or onions. Pizza is normally eaten hot, typically at lunch or dinner, but leftovers are often eaten cold for breakfast or as a snack.

The etymology of the word pizza is disputed. The form pizza first appears in Naples, Italy in the 16th century. Piza or pissa is late Vulgar Latin used 9th century flat bread, and apparently came to mean flat bread with a cheese topping by the 14th century in some Italian dialects. Pizzo, which means point in Italian, may have been an influence. Many languages around the Mediterranean have similar words meaning flat bread or unleavened bread, see pita. The Italian word for a person with talent for making pizza is pizzaiolo. A restaurant that serves pizza is called a pizzeria; the phrase pizza parlor is also used in the United States. Pizza can also be purchased in grocery stores or supermarkets, usually, but not always, frozen; in many countries, pizza can also be ordered by telephone to be delivered, hot and ready to eat, to almost any address within range of the restaurant. The first pizzeria established in the United States was Lombardi's in New York.

Pizza, a local food item originated from a small region of Italy, has become popular in the whole world, even more than the hamburger, and is now a symbol of cultural globalization. Pizza delivery is the service of delivering a pizza to a customer. A number of variables that factor into the efficiency of pizza delivery include map knowledge, driving skills, route planning, the quality of the vehicle, and customer management on the part of the delivery person.