What is pizza like in Italy? What the most popular types of pizza in Italy?
Napoletana
- This is a type of pizza originated from Napoli, Italy that does not pursue fancy ingredients, but emphasizes using simple and fresh ingredients: basic dough, fresh tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, basil, and olive oil. Its biggest feature is that the sauce is often more abundant than the cheese, making the middle of the pizza soft and moist.
- In 1984, the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (True Neapolitan Pizza Association) was established in Naples, and multiple standards were set to evaluate whether a pizzeria follows traditional methods to make Neapolitan pizza, such as using specific flour and yeast. Today, hundreds of restaurants in Italy and around the world have earned recognition for their pizza.
al Taglio
- Roman rectangular pizza is baked on a baking sheet and then cut into pieces for sale. Therefore, it is also called pizza in teglia (pizza on a baking sheet) and pizza al trancio (sliced pizza). Usually, it is sold by weight in pizzerias.
- During the baking process, in order to prevent some ingredients from being overheated, they are added halfway or at the end. This careful method also makes rectangular pizza the best partner for many high-end cheeses, cured meats, or seafood.
- However, it should be noted that not all rectangular pizzas come from Rome. Rectangular pizzas are available in many regions of Italy and have developed their own characteristics. Similarly, not all Roman pizzas are rectangular. There is another round pizza called pizza romana tonda in Rome. Compared to the softer texture of Neapolitan pizza, this pizza is thin and crispy and not easily soggy.
Siciliana
- In Sicily, many pizzerias have pizzas that look like round pies, but the ingredients are more decisive than the shape: the dough is made with coarse semolina flour and other grains, and the toppings include goat cheese, Sicilian sheep cheese, and cow’s milk cheese, as well as often using tuna as an ingredient.
Pizza Fritta
- Street fried food is popular all over Italy, especially in Naples where fried pizza is one of the local favorite dishes.
- After World War II, the living conditions in Naples became very poor, and pizza ingredients like mozzarella cheese and materials needed for an oven, such as wood, became unaffordable. In contrast, fried pizza became more accessible, using a variety of cheap ingredients like pork fat, bell peppers, and ricotta cheese.
- At the time, housewives would make their own fried pizza and sell them on the streets to supplement their income. Because times were tough, customers could even get credit when buying fried pizza, such as “pizza a otto”, which means eight. This allowed customers to eat the pizza on the spot and pay eight days later.
Alla Pala
- This type of pizza, which has a shape similar to a playground, is made directly in a kiln. If there are many people, the pizza can be made in an elongated shape, called pizza a metro. In Italian, “pala” means shovel, referring to the long-handled shovel used to place the pizza in the oven. The texture and thickness of this pizza can vary, but it is usually quite crispy, with a thickness of about half an inch.
Calzone
- The culinary method of folding pizza dough like this can be traced back at least 150 years ago. In the book “Usi e Costumi di Napoli” (translated as “Customs and Traditions of Naples”), pizza calzone was listed as one of the types of pizza.
- Although it is a type of pizza, it doesn’t mean that the cooking method has to be exactly the same as pizza. While the dough is rolled out like regular pizza, there’s no need to focus on the edges. In addition, the ideal calzone should not be too heavy on the taste, making it less of a burden to eat.
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