Pizza Part One
Everybody knows what pizza is. From traditional Pizza Napoletana to its modern variations, it stays one of the most popular dishes in the world.
In these notes, we will discuss a few of the best or most well-known traditional styles and then start exploring the lesser-known modern variations. Please note that these notes are for people thinking of starting a business. So it must be viewed from that perspective.
Italy
Authentic Neapolitan pizza (pizza napoletana)
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
Pizza pugliese, prepared with tomato, mozzarella, and onions
Sicilian pizza (locally called sfincione or sfinciuni), a thick-crust or deep-dish pizza originating during the 17th century in Sicily: it is essentially a focaccia that is typically topped with tomato sauce and other ingredients.
Other variations of pizzas are also found in other regions of Italy, for example pizza al padellino or pizza al tegamino, a small-sized, thick-crust, deep-dish pizza typically served in Turin, Piedmont.
USA
Common toppings for pizza in the United States include anchovies, ground beef, chicken, ham, mushrooms, olives, onions, peppers, pepperoni, pineapple, salami, sausage, spinach, steak, and tomatoes. Distinct regional types developed in the 20th century, including Buffalo,[51] California, Chicago, Detroit, Greek, New Haven, New York, and St. Louis styles.[52] These regional variations include deep-dish, stuffed, pockets, turnovers, rolled, and pizza-on-a-stick, each with seemingly limitless combinations of sauce and toppings.
American pizza often has vegetable oil or shortening mixed into the dough; this is not as common in Italian recipes (for example, the pizza dough recipe in the influential Italian cookbook Il cucchiaio d’argento does not use oil). This can range from a small amount in relatively lean doughs, such as New York style, to a very large amount in some recipes for Chicago-style deep-dish dough. In addition, American pizza (at least thin-crust) is often made with a very high-gluten flour (often 13–14% protein content) of the type also used to make bagels; this type of flour allows the dough to be stretched rather thinly without tearing, similar to strudel or phyllo.
In some pizza recipes, the tomato sauce is omitted (termed white pizza), or replaced with another sauce (usually garlic butter, but sauces can also be made with spinach or onions).
Argentina
Standard Argentine pizza has a thicker crust, called “media masa” (half dough) than traditional Italian style pizza and includes more cheese.
Argentine gastronomy tradition, served pizza with fainá, which is a Genovese chick pea-flour dough placed over the piece of pizza, and moscato wine.
The most popular variety of pizza is called “muzzarella” (mozzarella), similar to Neapolitan pizza (bread, tomato sauce and cheese) but made with a thicker “media masa” crust, triple cheese and tomato sauce, usually also with olives. It can be found in nearly every corner of the country; Buenos Aires is considered the city with the most pizza bars by person of the world.[54]
Other popular varieties include jam, tomato slices, red pepper and longaniza.
Two Argentine-born varieties of pizza with onion, are also very popular: fugazza with cheese and fugazzetta.
The former one consists in a regular pizza crust topped with cheese and onions; the later has the cheese between two pizza crusts, with onions on top.[55][56]
Cheese
| Mozzarella | Used by the vast majority of pizzerias, usually a low-moisture variety. Less often it is mixed with other cheeses. |
| Provolone | Second most popular cheese after mozzarella. Some U.S. pizzerias mix it with low-moisture mozzarella, while a few are said to use only provolone. |
| Cheddar | Third in pizza-cheese popularity, and usually mixed with low-moisture mozzarella to preserve chewiness. |
| Parmesan (generic) | Parmesan, is a hard, aged cheese, available in a variety of moistures. U.S. pizzerias generally use generic imitation parmesan, not PDO Parmigiano-Reggiano. Parmesan is often pre-processed and sold in dehydrated, granular form. It generally has a sharp flavor. |
| Romano (generic) | Romano is another hard, aged cheese commonly used on pizza. The Italian Pecorino Romano is made from sheep milk; the commonly used U.S.-made imitations are made from cows’ milk, with an enzyme added to simulate the sharper flavors of the original. |
| Ricotta | Ricotta is used on white pizzas and inside calzones. On white pizza, it may be used instead of tomato sauce. It is often covered with another cheese that melts better during baking and which holds the ricotta in place during consumption. |
Other Cheese
USA - Pizza variations
- Bar pizza, also known as tavern pizza and sometimes Milwaukee-style pizza,[11] is distinguished by a thin crust, almost cracker-like, and is cooked, or at least partly cooked, in a shallow pan for an oily crust. Cheese covers the entire pizza, including the crust, leaving a crispy edge where the cheese meets the pan or oven surface. Bar pizzas are usually served in a bar or pub and are usually small in size (around 10″ in diameter). This style of pizza is popular in the Boston area, particularly the South Shore, other parts of the northeast, the Chicago area, and the midwest.[12]
- California-style pizza is distinguished by the use of non-traditional ingredients, especially varieties of fresh produce. Some typical California-style toppings include Thai-inspired chicken pizza with peanut sauce, bean sprouts, and shaved carrots, taco pizzas, and pizzas with chicken and barbecue sauce as toppings.
- Chicago-style pizza is distinguished by a thick moist crust formed up the sides of a deep-dish pan and sauce as the last ingredient, added atop the cheese and toppings. Stuffed versions have two layers of crust with the sauce on top.[13][14][15]
- Detroit-style pizza is a square pizza similar to Sicilian-style pizza that has a thick deep-dish crisp crust and toppings such as pepperoni and olives, and is served with the marinara sauce on top. The square shape is the result of an early tradition of using metal trays originally meant to hold small parts in factories.
- Grandma pizza is a thin, square pizza, typically with cheese and tomatoes. It is reminiscent of pizzas cooked at home by Italian housewives without a pizza oven, and was popularized on Long Island.[16]
- Greek pizza is a variation popular in New England; its name comes from it being typical of the style of pizzerias owned by Greek immigrants. It has a thicker, chewier crust and is baked in a pan in the pizza oven, instead of directly on the bricks. Plain olive oil is a common part of the topping, as well as being liberally used to grease the pans and crisp the crust. A significantly different variation in other parts of the country includes using feta cheese, Kalamata olives, and Greek herbs such as oregano.
- Grilled pizza, created by taking a fairly thin sheet of pizza dough, placing it directly over the fire of a grill, and then turning it over once the bottom has baked and placing a thin layer of toppings on the baked side.[17] Toppings may be sliced thin to ensure that they heat through, and chunkier toppings such as sausage or peppers may be precooked before being placed on the pizza.[18] Garlic, herbs, or other ingredients are sometimes added to the pizza or the crust to maximize the flavor of the dish.[19] Grilled pizza was offered in the United States at the Al Forno restaurant in Providence, Rhode Island.[20] It has precedents in Italy and Argentina, where it is known as pizza a la parrilla.[21] It has become a popular cookout dish, and there are some pizza restaurants that specialize in the style. The final product can be likened to flatbread with pizza toppings.[20] Another Providence establishment, Bob & Timmy’s Grilled Pizza, was featured in a Providence-themed episode of the Travel Channel‘s Man v. Food Nation in 2011.[22]
- New Haven-style pizza, also known as apizza (pronounced as “ah-beetz” in the local dialect), is popular in Connecticut. It has a thin crust that varies between chewy and tender, depending on the particular establishment. Apizza has a very dark, “charred” crisp crust that offers a distinctive bitter flavor, which can be offset by the sweetness of tomatoes or other toppings. A “plain” pizza has tomato sauce and no cheese besides grated Romano cheese; mozzarella cheese is considered a topping.[23] New Haven-style pizza is traditionally cooked in coal-fired brick ovens.[24]
- New York-style pizza is a style originally developed in New York City by immigrants from Naples, Italy, where pizza was created.[25] It is often sold in generously sized, thin, and flexible slices. It is traditionally hand-tossed, moderately topped with southern Italian-style marinara sauce, and liberally covered with cheese essentially amounting to a much larger version of the Neapolitan style. The slices are sometimes eaten folded in half, as its size and flexibility may otherwise make it unwieldy to eat by hand. This style of pizza tends to dominate the Northeastern states and is particularly popular in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Jumbo slices are particularly popular in Washington, D.C..
- Ohio Valley-style pizza is pizza that was developed in Steubenville, Ohio and has made its way up the Ohio River to Pittsburgh, PA. It uses a square pizza dough that rises thick but maintains a light consistency. The crust and bottom are crunchy. The sauce on this style of pizza is typically sweet and the pizza is baked with no toppings, including cheese. Immediately after being removed from the oven, the cold toppings are put on the hot pizza, including the cheese, in prodigious amounts. Most of the cheese melts, but not all. The other toppings used remain cold on top of the cheese.[26]
- Old Forge-style pizza is a variety of pizza from Old Forge, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania. It is square-shaped and typically has a thick crust. The sauce often has onions in it and is sometimes a bit sweetened. It also often has unorthodox cheese mixes including cheeses such as American and Cheddar.[27]
- Pan pizza is cooked in a dish with sides. A variation of moderate thickness was popularized by Pizza Hut; deep-dish styles like Chicago and Detroit are considered by some to be varieties of pan pizza.
- Quad City-style pizza originates from the Quad Cities and is a thin crusted dough that incorporates a “spice mix” that is heavy on malt, which lends a toasted, nutty flavor. The smooth, thin sauce contains both red chili flakes and ground cayenne, and is more spicy than sweet. The sausage is a thick blanket of lean, fennel-flecked Italian sausage that is ground twice and spread from edge to edge.
- Sheet pizza is any thin-crust style baked on a baking sheet. It is typically rectangular (like the sheet) and served for events with a large number of people.
- Sicilian pizza in the United States is typically a square pie with a thick crust.[28][29] It is derived from Sfinciuni, a thick-crust variety from Sicily, and was introduced in the US by early Sicilian immigrants. Sicilian-style pizza is popular in Italian-American enclaves in the Northeast, Metro Detroit, and Portland, Oregon.[29]
- St. Louis-style pizza is a variant of thin-crust pizza popular around St. Louis and southern Illinois notable for its use of distinctive Provel cheese instead of (or, rarely, in addition to) mozzarella. Its crust is thin enough to become very crunchy in the oven, sometimes being compared to a cracker, and toppings are usually sliced instead of diced. Even though round, St. Louis-style pies are always cut into small squares.
- Tomato pie, in several areas around the Northeast, especially Philadelphia and Utica, New York, refers to a square-cut thick-crust pizza topped with chunky tomato sauce and sprinkled with pecorino romano cheese, very similar to Sicilian sfinciuni. Also known as party pizza, pizza strips, gravy pie, church pie, red bread, strip pizza, and bakery pizza.
- Trenton tomato pie[30][31] or New Jersey tomato pie[32] is a type of circular thin-crust pizza named after Trenton, New Jersey.[33][34][35] In this style of pizza, the mozzarella and toppings are placed on the crust first, with tomato sauce on top.[31] Joe’s Tomato Pie (now defunct), which opened in 1910, was the first restaurant to serve Trenton-style tomato pie. Papa’s Tomato Pies, whose proprietor learned the trade at Joe’s, was opened two years later in 1912.[36] The Trenton region is home to the two oldest New Jersey tomato pie restaurants in the United States, Papa’s and De Lorenzo’s.[33]
- Upside-down pizza, made with tomato sauce on top of the cheese.[37][38] Putting the cheese on the bottom prevents the tomato sauce from making the crust soggy.[39]
Similar Dishes
- Calzone and stromboli are similar dishes that are often made of pizza dough folded (calzone) or rolled (stromboli) around a filling.
- Panzerotti are similar to calzones, but fried rather than baked.
- “Farinata” or “cecina”.[76] A Ligurian (farinata) and Tuscan (cecina) regional dish made from chickpea flour, water, salt, and olive oil. Also called socca in the Provence region of France. Often baked in a brick oven, and typically weighed and sold by the slice.
- The Alsatian Flammekueche[77] (Standard German: Flammkuchen, French: Tarte flambée) is a thin disc of dough covered in crème fraîche, onions, and bacon.
- Garlic fingers is an Atlantic Canadian dish, similar to a pizza in shape and size, and made with similar dough. It is garnished with melted butter, garlic, cheese, and sometimes bacon.
- The Anatolian Lahmajoun (Arabic: laḥm bi’ajīn; Armenian: lahmajoun; also Armenian pizza or Turkish pizza) is a meat-topped dough round. The base is very thin, and the layer of meat often includes chopped vegetables.[78]
- The Levantine Manakish (Arabic: ma’ujnāt) and Sfiha (Arabic: laḥm bi’ajīn; also Arab pizza) are dishes similar to pizza.
- The Macedonian Pastrmajlija is a bread pie made from dough and meat. It is usually oval-shaped with chopped meat on top of it.
- The Provençal Pissaladière is similar to an Italian pizza, with a slightly thicker crust and a topping of cooked onions, anchovies, and olives.
- Pizza bagel is a bagel with toppings similar to that of traditional pizzas.
- Pizza bread is a type of sandwich that is often served open-faced which consists of bread, tomato sauce, cheese,[79] and various toppings. Homemade versions may be prepared.
- Pizza sticks may be prepared with pizza dough and pizza ingredients, in which the dough is shaped into stick forms, sauce and toppings are added, and it is then baked.[80] Bread dough may also be used in their preparation,[81] and some versions are fried.[82]
- Pizza Rolls are a trade-marked commercial product.
- Okonomiyaki, a Japanese dish cooked on a hotplate, is often referred to as “Japanese pizza”.[83]
- “Zanzibar pizza” is a street food served in Stone Town, Zanzibar, Tanzania. It uses a dough much thinner than pizza dough, almost like filo dough, filled with minced beef, onions, and an egg, similar to Moroccan bestila.[84]
- Panizza is half a stick of bread (often baguette), topped with the usual pizza ingredients, baked in an oven.
 Simple calzone in an Italian pizzeria, cut in half | |
| Type | Folded pizza, Turnover |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | Italy |
| Region or state | Apulia, Abruzzo, Basilicata, Campania, Calabria, Sicily, Sardegna |
| Main ingredients | Ricotta, mozzarella, salami/ham, parmesan/pecorino |
| Variations | Tomato, provolone, anchovies, olives, onions, chards, minced meat, fish, cabbage |
A calzone (UK: /kælˈtsoʊni, –neɪ/, US: /kælˈzoʊn, –zoʊneɪ, –ni/, Italian: [kalˈtsoːne]; “stocking” or “trouser”)[1] is an Italian oven-baked folded pizza, often described as a turnover, made with leavened dough.[2] It originated in Naples in the 18th century.[3] A typical calzone is made from salted bread dough, baked in an oven and is stuffed with salami, ham or vegetables, mozzarella, ricotta and Parmesan or pecorino cheese, as well as an egg.[4] Different regional variations in or on a calzone can often include other ingredients that are normally associated with pizza toppings. The term usually applies to an oven-baked turnover rather than a fried pastry (i.e. panzerotti),[5] though calzoni and panzerotti are often mistaken for each other.[5][6][7][8]
A calzone is similar to a stromboli, an Italian-American pizza turnover, and the two are sometimes confused.[9][10] Unlike strombolis, which are generally rolled or folded into a cylindrical or rectangular shape, calzones are always folded into a crescent shape, and typically do not contain tomato sauce inside.[11]
Regional variations
In Italy
Sandwich-sized calzones are often sold at Italian lunch counters or by street vendors, because they are easy to eat while standing up or walking.[12] Fried versions of the calzone are typically filled with tomato and mozzarella: these are made in Apulia and are called panzerotti.[13]
In Basilicata, a variety of calzone is known as pastizz, which originated between the 18th and 19th century.[14] Pork (or, more rarely, goat meat), eggs and cheese are main ingredients for the filling.
The Sicilian cuddiruni or cudduruni pizza is distantly related to the calzone. This is a dish stuffed with onions (or sometimes other vegetables, such as potatoes or broccoli), anchovies, olives, cheese and mortadella; the rolled pizza dough is folded in two over the stuffing and the edges are sealed before the dish is fried.
In the United States
In the United States, calzones are typically made from pizza dough and stuffed with meats, cheeses, and vegetables.
Traditional calzone dough, consisting of flour, yeast, olive oil, water, and salt, is kneaded and rolled into medium-sized disks. Each is then filled with cheeses such as ricotta, mozzarella, Parmesan, provolone, and other traditional vegetables or meats. The dough is then folded in half over the filling and sealed with an egg mixture in a half-moon shape, or is sometimes shaped into a ball by pinching and sealing all the edges at the top. It is then either baked or fried.
In some areas, just before serving, they are topped with marinara or other traditional sauce, or with a mixture of garlic, olive oil, and parsley.
Quick Recipe
Calzone is a popular Italian form of pizza. The word means sock because the resulting pizza looks similar to a sock.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (240 mL) ricotta cheese
- 1 cup (240 mL) shredded mozzarella cheese
- 4 ounces (115 g) any topping (such as ham, bacon, salami, pepperoni, and/or sausage) (optional)
- 2 teaspoons (10 mL) oregano
- 1 package pizza dough (store-bought)
Procedure
- Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).
- Combine first 4 (or 3) ingredients.
- Roll the pizza dough between 2 pieces of waxed paper.
- Spoon the cheese mixture into the center.
- Moisten edges of dough slightly.
- Fold the dough over.
- Seal edges by pressing with a fork.
- Bake until golden brown, about 10 or 12 minutes.
- Serve with marinara sauce.