Her holy host, "Ave Rosa Maria"

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                                              Her special “Ave Rosa Maria”

Itstarted with a rhythm of colors and textures. Maria  Esposito saw it in her imagination, and then she smelled it and tasted it. In her slow meditative way, she began to work. She brought a dozen ripe tomatoes in from the garden. She went out again and came back with clusters of fresh basil, and then she pulled three mozzarella rounds out of the brine and washed them at the pump. She cut the tomatoes and mozzarella into thin slices and spread them out on three long long round stones covered in dough, used for baking flat bread, along with the basil leaves: tomato, cheese, basil, Ave Maria,  tomato, cheese, basil. The rhythm came to life before her eyes. She looked and looked at the three stones; then, with a nod of her head, she sent her little granddaughter down to the cellar for some dried oregano. She poured fresh olive oil over her creation and then sprinkled the dried oregano over it.

At noon, the men and women came in from the fields and vineyards. On a sunny table by the cottage, they found her creation. "Ave Rosa Maria," they said, touching her and smiling. "Ave Rosa Maria." Exclamations filled the air as they began to eat. She turned away from them and hurried back into the cottage.

To her mild surprise, soon -- amazingly soon, in only a few months -- her creation became the New Thing. Everyone was making it. She even heard that they were making it in Rome, over the hills to the west. She lived to see it become like a new song, that first was on everyone's lips, and then settled itself in the hearts of men and women as

part of a love song,  “….When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s Amore….”

Rosa Maria, was sold in the streets in Naples at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It was cut from a large tray that had been cooked in the baker's oven and had a simple topping of tomatoes, basil, and mozzerella. As the culinary favorite became more popular, stalls were set up where the dough was shaped as customers ordered. Various toppings were invented. The stalls soon developed into the pizzeria, an open-air place for people to congregate, eat, drink, and talk.

Raffaele Esposito, Maria’s brother decided to open a small Rosa Maria shop in Naples,  Even the queen came to taste his wares and so he dedicated his specialty to the Queen and called it "Pizza Margherita."  But Maria had Dedicated it to the Mother of God, it was from that music that she first heard, Tomato, Basil, Cheese, Ave Maria.