Rhetorical opportunism.

Yeah, I find the idea that a flattened leavened (maybe?) bread with something on top is "pizza" to be quite a stretch.

Some of my favorite pizzas have no tomato sauce:

* White clam pizza

* Amici's Milano or Trentino

* State of Mind's Peas on Peas on Peas (when it's in season)

Why would the lack of tomato sauce make it not a pizza?

(You didn't specifically mention tomato sauce, but GP did and it sounds like you are in agreement? Please forgive me if I misunderstood.)

I'm saying Bread + topping is not inherently a pizza. There are lots of other dishes that are bread + topping that we don't call pizza.

Is crostini a pizza? Is bruschetta? Is sabich? Is lahmacun? Arepas? Is an open face bagel with cream cheese?

I think you hit the nail on the head. Yes, bread + topping is by definition not pizza. Pizza is made with raw pizza dough and toppings, not with already-baked bread.

Of course if the pizza dough is wrapped around the toppings/fillings and pinched around the edge in a half moon shape, now it is a calzone, not a pizza.

Or is it an empanada? ;-)

And thank you for that list! I have never had sabich or lahmacun, so you have given me some new things to try.

Pizza is cooked on one side; it is cooked after adding toppings; it is cooked rapidly in an oven. Most flatbreads are flipped; some are cooked with open heat.

Because they called it pizza and modern pizza is a direct descendant of it.