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Pizza (Template:PronEng listen, in Italian: ) is a popular dish made with an oven-baked, flat, generally round bread that is covered with tomatoes or a tomato-based sauce and mozzarella cheese. Other toppings are added according to region, culture or personal preference.
Originating as a part of Italian cuisine, the dish has become popular in many different parts of the world. A shop or restaurant where pizzas are made and sold is called a “pizzeria”. The phrase “pizza parlor” is also used in the United States. The term pizza pie is dialectal, and pie is used for simplicity in some contexts, such as among pizzeria staff.
Non-Italian types of pizza
In the 20th century and onward, pizza has become an international food and the toppings may vary considerably in accordance with local tastes. These pizzas consist of the same basic design but include an exceptionally diverse choice of ingredients.
United States styles and specialties
Due to the wide influence of Italian and Greek immigrants in American culture, the United States has developed quite a large number of regional forms of pizza, many bearing only a casual resemblance to the Italian original. During the latter half of the 20th century, pizza in the United States became an iconic dish of considerable popularity. The thickness of the crust depends on what the consumer prefers; both thick and thin crust are popular. Often, "Americanized" foods such as barbecued chicken and bacon cheeseburgers are used to create new types of pizza. Mexican pizza, or taco pizza, is also popular in the U.S., popularized by the Taco Bell chain.
Ingredients
American pizza often has vegetable oil or shortening (often, but not always, olive oil) 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 dough.
Various toppings may be added, most typically:
- Tomato sauce usually replaces the tomato mixture used on Italian-style pizzas, and is usually a fairly heavily seasoned, smooth sauce with a low water content. On some variants without tomatoes, pesto, alfredo and barbecue sauce are also used.
- Cheese, usually mozzarella but also provolone, cheddar, parmesan or a blend of other cheeses.
- Herbs and seasonings such as basil, oregano and black pepper.
- Fruits and vegetables such as garlic, artichoke hearts, eggplant, olives, onions, spinach, tomatoes, bell peppers, banana peppers, jalepenos and pineapple.
- Mushrooms.
- Meat, such as sausage (pepperoni, salami or Italian sausage), ham, bacon, ground beef, and chicken, or seafood such as anchovies, tuna, salmon and shrimp.
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). In the Philadelphia area there are also tomato pies—sauce only, or sauce with ripe Roma tomatoes and spices but no cheese—and upside-down pizzas, i.e., the cheese on the bottom and topped with sauce. Pizza is normally eaten hot (typically at lunch or dinner), but is sometimes eaten as cold leftovers for breakfast.
Variations
New York-style pizza is a style originally developed in New York City by immigrants from Naples, where pizza was created. It is often sold in generously sized, thin and flexible slices. It is traditionally hand-tossed, moderate on sauce, and moderately covered with cheese essentially amounting to a much larger version of the Neapolitan style. The slices are sometimes eaten folded in half, or even stacked, 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 very similar to the basic style common through the United States and known simply as pizza. Many pizza establishments in the New York metropolitan area offer two varieties of pizza: “Neapolitan”, or “regular”, made with a relatively thin, circular crust and served in wedge-shaped slices, and “Sicilian”, or “square”, made with a thicker, rectangular crust and served in large, rectangular slices. Another type of pizza, more popular on Long Island but can be found, albeit rarely, in Queens and Manhattan is Grandma pizza. It is cooked in a square pan like Sicilian, but it is much thinner. It has a thin, crispy crust, usually has tomato chunks in addition, or in exception, to the sauce. Generally, it will contain less cheese than regular slices, and sometimes has extra spices or oils baked into the crust.
New Haven-style pizza, also known as apizza, popular in southern Connecticut. It has a thin crust that varies between chewy and tender, depending on the particular establishment. The default version is a “white” pizza topped with only garlic and hard cheeses; customers who want tomato sauce or mozzarella cheese have to ask for them explicitly. Apizza has a very dark, “scorched” crisp crust that offers a distinctive bitter flavor, which can be offset by the sweetness of tomatoes or other toppings.
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. Variations in other parts of the country include using feta cheese, Kalamata olives, and Greek herbs such as oregano.
Chicago-style pizza, or Chicago-style deep-dish pizza, contains a crust which is formed up the sides of a deep-dish pan. It reverses the order of some ingredients, using crust, cheese, filling, then sauce on top. Some versions (usually referred to as stuffed) have two layers of crust with the sauce on top. The invention of deep-dish pizza occurred in America and transcends a single ethnic origin. Deep-dish pizza was invented by Ike Sewell and Ric Riccardo and first served in 1943 at Pizzeria Uno, which is still operating along with its twin restaurant, Pizzeria Due, in the River North neighborhood.
Chicago-style thin-crust pizza has a thinner crust than Chicago-style deep dish, and is baked flat rather than in a deep dish pan. The crust is thin and firm enough to have a noticeable crunch, unlike a New York-style pizza, yet thick enough to be soft and doughy on the top. The crust is invariably topped with a liberal quantity of southern-Italian style tomato sauce, which is usually quite herbal or highly spiced, and typically contains no visible chunks of tomato. Next, a layer of toppings is added, and a layer of mozzarella cheese which frequently separates from the bottom crust due to the quantity of tomato sauce. Chicago-style thin crust pizzas are cut into three-to-four-inch (8–10 cm) squares, also known as “party cut”, as opposed to a “pie cut” into wedges. The small size of the squares makes it unnecessary to fold the slices. Chicago-style pizza is prevalent throughout the Midwestern US. In fact, most of the neighborhood pizza parlors in Chicago and the rest of the Midwest serve Chicago-style thin crust, not deep dish as is commonly assumed. Chains that are well known for Chicago-style thin-crust pizza are Aurelio's Pizza, Home Run Inn and Rosati's Pizza.
St. Louis-style pizza is a variant of Chicago-style thin crust that is popular in and around St. Louis, Missouri. The most notable characteristic of St. Louis-style pizza is the distinctively St. Louisan Provel cheese used instead of (or rarely in addition to) the mozzarella common to Chicago-style thin crust.
California-style pizza refers to pizza with non-traditional ingredients, especially those that use a considerable amount of fresh produce. A Thai-inspired chicken pizza with peanut sauce, bean sprouts, and shaved carrots is a popular variant in California-style pizza restaurants, as are pizzas that use chicken and barbecue sauce as toppings. The style was invented by Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, California, and popularized by the California Pizza Kitchen chain, along with Wolfgang Puck’s various fine dining and casual restaurant chains and retail products.
Old Forge-style pizza is a rectangular, double-crust pan pizza, made in both red and white varieties, that originated in the town of Old Forge, Pennsylvania, located between the cities of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre in Northeast PA. Red pizza is made with tomato sauce and cheese, while white pizza uses no sauce but is stuffed with a blend of cheeses and topped with olive oil and rosemary leaves. The cheese is believed to be a blend of traditional mozzarella and some domestic varieties.
Hawaiian pizza has “Canadian bacon” (or sliced ham) and pineapple toppings with Mozzarella cheese. This type of pizza is especially popular in the western United States, and is also a popular topping combination in Australia, Canada, and Sweden, but notably not in Hawaii. This type is also common within the EU, where it is known as pizza Hawaii.
Taco pizza has ingredients usually associated with tacos, such as; lettuce, shredded beef or hamburger, chopped tomatoes, avocados, corn chips, cheddar cheese, sour cream and taco sauce.
Grilled pizza, invented in Providence, Rhode Island, uses a fairly thin crust cooked on a grill; the toppings are placed on the baked side after the pizza has cooked for a bit and been flipped over.
English muffin and French bread pizza and pizza bagels are common convenience pizzas made at home in an oven or toaster, usually with a simple topping of tomato sauce, sliced or shredded cheese, and perhaps pepperoni. French bread pizza is sometimes available commercially as a frozen meal.
Pizza in Australia
Pizza is popular in Australia, where a significant percentage of the population is of Italian descent. The usual Italian varieties are available, but there is also the Australian, or australiana, which has the usual tomato sauce base and mozzarella cheese with bacon and egg (seen as quintessentially Australian breakfast fare). Prawns are also sometimes used on this style of pizza.
In the 1980s Australian pizza shops and restaurants began selling gourmet pizzas, essentially pizzas with upmarket ingredients such as salmon, dill, rocket, bocconcini, tiger prawns, and even such outré toppings as kangaroo, emu and crocodile meats. Wood-fired pizzas, cooked in an impressive-looking ceramic oven heated by wood fuel, are also popular.
Frozen and ready-to-bake pizzas
Pizza is also found as a frozen food in grocery stores and supermarkets. Some popular brands of these in the US are Tombstone pizza, DiGiorno's, Red Baron and Home Run Inn. A considerable amount of food technology ingenuity has gone into the creation of palatable frozen pizza. The main challenges include preventing the sauce from combining with the dough and producing a crust that can be frozen and reheated without becoming rigid. Modified corn starch is commonly used as a moisture barrier between the sauce and crust. Traditionally the dough is somewhat pre-baked and other ingredients are also sometimes pre-cooked. More recently, frozen pizzas with completely raw ingredients have also begun to appear, as have those with “self-rising” crusts. Many grocery stores and supermarkets also sell fresh, ready-to-bake pizzas. Recently, nearly all of the frozen pizza makers like Jack's, Tony’s, Red Baron and Totino's, as well as the store brands have switched to a lower quality of pepperoni and sausage made with a combination of pork, beef and the recently added mechanically separated chicken (sometimes known as Spam).
Another form of uncooked pizza is available from take and bake pizzerias. This pizza is created fresh using raw ingredients, then sold to customers who take it home and bake it in their own ovens and microwaves. Many supermarkets also offer this service.
Similar dishes
- “Farinata” or “cecina”. 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 tarte flambée (German: Flammkuchen) is a thin disc of dough covered in crème fraîche, onions, and bacon.
- The Anatolian Lahmacun (Arabic: lahma bi ajeen; Armenian: lahmajoun; also Armenian pizza or Turkish pizza) is a meat-topped dough round. The bread is usually very thin; the layer of meat often includes chopped vegetables.
- The Provençal pissaladiere is similar to an Italian pizza, with a slightly thicker crust and generally a topping of cooked onions, anchovies, and olives.
- Calzone and stromboli are very similar dishes (calzone is traditionally half-moon-shaped, while a stromboli is tube-shaped) that are often made of pizza dough rolled or folded around a filling.
- Garlic fingers is an Atlantic Canadian dish, similar to a pizza in shape and size, and made with the same type of dough. It is garnished with melted butter, garlic, cheese, and sometimes bacon.
- Pizza is sometimes used as a general word for a savory pie; the Campanian pizza rustica and the Italian American pizzagiena (Easter pie) are examples of this more general sense.
- Pizza Puffs are folded dough, similar to that used in an eggroll, with cheese and ingredients stuffed inside, and deep fried. Puffs are popular at hot dog and gyros stands. Similar to the Pizza Puff is the Pizza Pocket, which is not deep fried, and is a sort of knock-off calzone.
Italian and European law
In Italy there is a bill before Parliament to safeguard the traditional Italian pizza, specifying permissible ingredients and methods of processing (e.g., excluding frozen pizzas). Only pizzas which followed these guidelines could be called “traditional Italian pizzas”, at least in Italy.
Italy has also requested that the European Union safeguard some traditional Italian pizzas, such as “Margherita” and “marinara”. The European Union enacted a protected designation of origin system in the 1990s.
Health issues
Some pizzas can be very high in salt and fat and concerns have been raised about the negative effect these pizzas can have on people’s health. Pizza Hut has come under criticism for the high salt content of some of their meals which were found to contain more than twice the daily recommended amount of salt for an adult.
However, it should also be noted that commercially made fast food pizza is very different from well made Italian pizza, particularly from a good restaurant which is concerned with using only good ingredients, or even more so in a homemade pizza. The salt and saturated fat content of a homemade pizza is usually far less if using original recipes. Mozzarella cheese is not as fatty as many other cheeses, and should be used judiciously in any event. Feta cheese, which has an even lower saturated fat content, is often used in homemade pizza recipes. There is the added bonus of being able to include other healthy ingredients as well, such as fresh tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, rocket, spinach, courgettes (baby marrow) and eggplant, as just a few examples.
Health conscious pizzaiolos (pizza makers) are also able to substitute some of the sodium chloride (common salt) with potassium chloride, which is almost indiscernible in taste, is far healthier and has little effect on those suffering from high blood pressure.
Nutrition researchers in Europe investigating the eating habits of people suffering from cancer of the mouth, oesophagus, throat or colon, made an interesting finding with regard to eating pizza. 3,300 sufferers were questioned regarding their eating habits, and their answers compared to over 5,000 healthy respondents.
Those who ate pizza at least once a week had less chance of developing cancer, they found. Dr Silvano Gallus, of the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmaceutical Research in Milan, who led the research said: "We knew that tomato sauce could offer protection against certain tumors, but we did not expect pizza as a complete meal also to offer such protective powers." Nicola O'Connor, of Cancer Research UK, told BBC News Online: "This study is interesting and the results should probably be looked at in the context of what we already know about the Mediterranean diet and its association with a lower risk of certain types of cancer.
"The secret is probably lycopene, an antioxidant chemical in tomatoes, which is thought to offer some protection against cancer, and which gives the fruit its red color.
"But before people start dialing the local pizza takeaway, they should consider that some pizzas can be high in saturated fat, salt and calories". In contrast to the classic Italian pizza used in the research, most UK pizza takeaway varieties are often loaded with high fat cheeses and fatty meats and yeast, a high intake of which can contribute to obesity, itself a risk factor for cancer. "Our advice is to enjoy selected Italian pizza (ie. healthy pizza) in moderation as part of a balanced diet that includes plenty of vegetables and fruit."
Italian Carlo La Vecchia, a Milan-based epidemiologist said Italian pizza lovers should not see the research as a license to indulge their fondness for pizza food. "There is nothing to indicate that pizza is the only thing responsible for these results." He continued: "Pizza could simply be indicative of a lifestyle and food habits, in other words the Italian version of a Mediterranean diet." A Mediterranean diet is rich in olive oil, fiber, vegetables, fruit, flour and freshly cooked food - including traditional Italian healthy pizza.
Notable U.S. pizzerias and chains
- Lombardi's
- Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana
- California Pizza Kitchen
- CiCi's Pizza
- Domino's
- Gino's East
- Giordano's Pizza
- Little Caesar's
- Lou Malnati's
- Papa Gino's
- Papa Johns
- Papa Murphy's
- Pizza Hut
- Rosati's Pizza
- Sbarro
- Vocelli Pizza
- Uno Chicago Grill
Notable Canadian pizzerias and chains
Records
- The largest pizza ever made was at the Norwood Pick ’n Pay hypermarket in Johannesburg, South Africa. According to the Guinness Book of Records the pizza was 37.4 meters in diameter and was made using 500 kg of flour, 800 kg of cheese and 900 kg of tomato puree. This was accomplished on December 8, 1990.
- On March 22, 2001, Bernard Jordaan of Butler's Pizza, Cape Town, South Africa, delivered a pizza 11,042 km (6,861 mi) from Cape Town to Sydney, Australia, to set the world record for the longest pizza delivery. This record was acknowledged in the Guinness Book of Records.
- In Feltham, London, a new record for the farthest food delivery was achieved by Lucy Clough of Domino’s. A vegetarian supreme pizza was cooked on November 17, 2004 and travelled a distance of 10,532 miles (16,950 km) to its delivery point at 30 'Ramsey Street', Melbourne, on November 19, 2004. The record is in the 2006 version of the Guinness Book of Records.
- The most expensive pizza created was made by the restaurateur Domenico Crolla, who created a pizza which included toppings such as sunblush-tomato sauce, Scottish smoked salmon, medallions of venison, edible gold, lobster marinated in the finest cognac and champagne-soaked caviar. The pizza was sold at auction for charity for £2,150.
- What has been called “the world’s most extravagant pizza” is available at New York’s Nino’s Bellissima restaurant. Topped with six varieties of caviar, chives, fresh lobster and creme fraîche, this 12-inch (30 cm) pie, called the “Luxury Pizza”, retails at US$1,000.00 (or $125.00 a slice).
See also
References
- Australian Bureau of Statistics: Ancestry of Australia's population
- Brick Oven Cecina
- Bill for traditional Italian pizza
- Permissible ingredients and methods of processing
- Più vicina la tutela europea per la pizza, from an Italian government website
- Food Standards Agency - Survey of pizzas
- BBC NEWS | Health | Fast food salt levels 'shocking'
- Mario Negri - Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche
- Mama Lena's pizza 'One' for the book...of records
- Chef cooks £2,000 Valentine pizza, BBC News.
- New York Restaurant Cooks Up $1,000 Pizza Pie, Reuters, as given by Fox News on March 15, 2007.
