Pizza can be prepared in many ways and in Italian restaurants, there are many types of pizza. Often in America and in other countries, pizza is really very different from the one you can taste in Italy. For this reason, when foreign tourists travel to my country and go to a pizzeria, they’re surprised by the quality and goodness of this typical Italian food.
Many restaurateurs and famous pizza makers sell pizzas seasoned with particular ingredients and invent new types to add to the menus. In any case, there’s a list of standard flavors that you can find in almost every pizza place.
Toppings and types of pizza
Very often in the menus of Italian restaurants, you’ll find the list of pizzas divided between “white pizzas” and “red pizzas”. The former has no tomato and usually have a mozzarella base. The latter has a tomato base on which the other ingredients are placed.
Although pizza was born as a dish eaten by commoners and characterized by the simplicity of the dough’s raw materials and of the toppings, today there are variations made with very sophisticated seasoning combinations.
The 10 main types of pizza you can’t miss in Italy
During your trip to Italy, you better get to the pizzeria already prepared on the different types of pizzas, to consciously choose from the menu. The main pizzas found in most Italian towns are:
- white pizza or focaccia,
- pizza with olive oil, rosemary, and salt,
- pizza Margherita (tomato, mozzarella, and basil),
- Marinara pizza (tomato, garlic, and oregano),
- Pizza Napoletana (mozzarella, anchovies, and oregano),
- pizza Diavola (tomato, mozzarella, and spicy salami),
- Boscaiola pizza (tomato, mozzarella, sausage, and mushrooms),
- four cheese pizza (mozzarella, parmesan, gorgonzola, and provola cheese),
- four seasons pizza (tomato, mozzarella, artichokes, cooked ham, mushrooms, and olives distributed in four slices of the round pizza),
- pizza Capricciosa (tomato, mozzarella, artichokes, cooked ham, mushrooms, and olives all mixed on the round pizza).
Pizza Margherita, one of the most famous in the world
Pizza Margherita is one of the most famous in the world. The seasonings to dress it are San Marzano peeled tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, mozzarella fiordilatte, basil leaves.
There’s also a version much loved by Italians which is the one with buffalo mozzarella. According to the traditional recipe, mozzarella must be shredded by hand and put raw on freshly baked pizza.
Other types of pizza that you can find in pizza places
In addition to the 10 main flavors of pizza that I’ve listed above, it’s quite easy to find some variations in almost all Italian pizza places, such as:
- Diavola pizza with mushrooms (tomato, mozzarella, and sautéed mushrooms),
- pizza with sausage (tomato, mozzarella, and sausage),
- sausage and potato pizza (mozzarella, sausage, and potatoes),
- porcini mushroom pizza (mozzarella, porcini mushrooms, and parsley)
- Pescatora or seafood pizza (tomato, mozzarella, and seafood),
- Mari e Monti pizza (tomato, mozzarella, half with cooked ham and mushrooms and half with mixed seafood),
- vegetarian or vegetable pizza (mozzarella, zucchini, and grilled aubergines),
- courgette flower and anchovy pizza (mozzarella, courgette flowers, and anchovies).
Round, oval, thick or thin pizza?
Regardless of the types of pizza, this food should always be cooked in a freshly prepared wood oven. Some restaurateurs prepare the dough first and freeze it; others cook pizza in the electric oven. You must know that the result isn’t the same!
The Roman pizza or the one that you’ll find in most of the pizza places in Rome is characterized by a very thin dough that highlights the sauce. The Neapolitan pizza that is the one made by pizza makers in Naples town, on the other hand, is generally thicker.
There is also the Roman pinsa, invented in ancient Rome and characterized by a mixture of millet, barley and spelled flour, salt, aromatic herbs, and mother yeast. The shape isn’t round but oval. A typical Sicilian pizza is the Sfincione, which is thick and soft.
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