What’s the first image that comes to mind when you hear the world ‘pizza’ associated to Italy? Likely, it’s the round, soft, wood-fired Neapolitan pizza – the iconic margherita bearing the colours of the Italian flag – hot from the oven and with its appealing crusty edge.
Naples is the city where pizza history was made, properly acknowledged as its birth place and an essential destination for anyone who loves pizza and wants to master the art of its making. Yet, there’s more to pizza than the Neapolitan variety; travelling through Italy one becomes aware of the huge diversity of the country’s food. In the wake of the recent pizza renaissance which exploded in Italy and abroad, attracting the attention of food critics and a growing number of enthusiasts all over the world, the pizza universe has become wider and more varied, sometimes even moving away from its street food roots to a more gourmet one and becoming an experimental field for the most adventurous pizzaioli.
Regional styles and schools developed along personal creations, joining the different local traditions of what is essentially seasoned flatbread – from the thin cheese focaccia in Liguria to the thicker bases served with tomatoes and olives in Puglia. Even within Naples’ borders it’s easy to find different varieties, including the pizza fritta, a stuffed, folded and fried dough to be eaten on the go, an incredible example of Italy’s amazing street food.
But finding your way through the midst of this constantly growing diversity is not easy. One point of reference to help distinguish between different types of pizza is the crusty edge. From the thin, almost indiscernible one found on Roman pizza to the fluffy and exaggerated charred edges marking the latest trend in Neapolitan pizza, the dimensions of the crust surrounding the centre (making the task of eating a single slice by hand without letting any sauce or cheese spill over much easier) is a good indicator of what kind of pizza you are eating and, possibly, even of where you are eating it.
So, let’s try to sort out the different kinds of pizza available in Italy today based on their crust, shape and toppings.
