Nancy’s Pizza scion pens corporate history

Marisa Palese plans to write a book about what the Chicago Tribune called “the long-disputed story behind the most controversial of all the Chicago-style pizzas.” That’s the stuffed pizza, invented in 1971 by her father, Rocco Palese, who with her mother, Annunziata Palese, opened the original Nancy’s Pizza in 1974. The franchise now has 25 locations, including 18 in Illinois and the rest in Georgia, Missouri and North Carolina. Marisa Palese owns the last pizzeria remaining in the family at 8706 W. Golf Road in Niles. She is looking for a publisher for her book, which will be “a saga of love, war and pizza,” according to the Chicago Tribune.