Pizza estimated that annual production of pizza cheese was in the U.S. and in Europe. Authentic Neapolitan pizza ("pizza napoletana") is made with San Marzano tomatoes, grown on the volcanic plains south of Mount Vesuvius, and mozzarella di bufala Campana, made with milk from water buffalo raised in the marshlands of Campania and Lazio. This mozzarella is protected with its own European protected designation of origin. Other traditional pizzas include "pizza alla marinara", which is topped with marinara sauce and is supposedly the most ancient tomato-topped pizza, pizza capricciosa, which is prepared with mozzarella cheese, baked ham, mushroom, artichoke and tomato,
San Marzano Oliveto prospered there in ancient times. This hypothesis is supported by the existence of an ancient olive press in nearby Santo Stefano Belbo, and by the fact that olives continue to thrive there, although not in any great quantity, to the present day. The first human settlers to the area came from Liguria, but the first extant buildings and documentary evidence of settlement date from Roman times. Tradition has it that the four towers, now collapsed, of the present castle were built by the Romans. The history of San Marzano, like that of Moasca, Calamandrana, Rocchetta Tanaro and Calosso, is linked