The Different Pizza Styles You’ve Got to Try

Exploring Delicious Pizza Varieties: Styles Every Foodie Should Try

At first glance, pizza is just a flatbread topped with pepperoni and melted mozzarella. But scratch beneath the surface, and you'll find it's so much more. Pizza's a labor of love that's been perfected by innovators and enthusiasts alike. Across the country, you've got styles like Neapolitan, California, and Chicago, each with its own unique twist. Then there are the pizza zealots, churning out memes, pizza-themed fashion, and reviews of every New York City pizzeria under the sun. Whether you're a foodie or just a pizza fanatic, it's clear that America is fully enthralled with this beloved dish.

What makes every pizzeria different from the one next door? Seemingly, it’s the same key ingredients tossed in a hot oven and baked into an aromatic slice of bread. Obviously we can't go over all pizza styles, but let's dive into the different  pizza styles that bring so much flavor and cheesiness to the table. What makes one pizza stand out from another?

There are different Pizza Styles in Town

1.   Neapolitan Pizza

This style of pizza has earned its respect - it's the original that all others are based on. Going back to the 18th century, when pizzas first came to be, Neapolitan pizza has been a staple.
It originated in Naples, Italy, and is still one of the most affordable pizzas around. The story goes that the city's poorer residents needed something cheap, quick, and filling. Neapolitan pizza fit the bill, and you could find it at just about every street vendor.
Over time, variations of Neapolitan pizza have become popular all over. One of its defining features is the super-soft dough - so soft you need a knife and fork to eat it. The dough is fermented for several days and then baked in a very hot wooden oven for just 90 seconds, which gives it those dark char spots and a crunchy texture.
Two other things that make a true Neapolitan pizza stand out are the fresh ingredients and homemade sauce. The sauce must be made from real tomatoes, the cheese from buffalo milk, and the dough from high-protein Italian flour.

Image source: Pexels

2.  New York Pizza

The classic New York-style pizza is a thin, wide crust that's perfect for folding, and let's be honest, it's often messy. Most pizzas you get today follow the New York style, with its characteristic hand-tossed crust. It's similar to a Neapolitan pizza but has become a style all its own.
The New York pizza was first made at Lombardi's, the US's first pizzeria, back in 1897. What sets it apart is its light coating of sauce, a thin and crusty dough, and a generous helping of cheese. You can top it with just about anything - mushrooms, sausages, anchovies, and more. It's the perfect food for the city's fast-paced lifestyle.
Some people believe that the secret to the New York pizza's unique taste lies in the tap water. Apparently, there are special minerals in it that set the dough apart from other pizzas. Whether or not that's true, New York pizza is enjoyed all over the city and beyond, including in New Jersey, Connecticut, and other places.

3.   Sicilian Pizza

What sets Sicilian pizza apart is its shape – it's not like those standard triangular slices. Instead, it's a thick, pillowy crust in a rectangle or square shape. It's one of the oldest types of pizza out there, with roots dating back to when it was called pan-pizza or sfincione, meaning "sponge." It all started in Sicily in the 19th century, thanks to Sicilian immigrants who brought it to our shores.

One standout feature of this pizza is its crazy-thick crust – we're talking one to two inches. It's super soft, like a sponge, and chewy, whether you get it with cheese or not. Toppings are usually minimal, with the cheese tucked under the tomato sauce to hold it all together and make for a delicious bite.

The way it's cooked also makes a big difference – instead of being baked in an oven, Sicilian pizza is cooked in a pan greased with olive oil. This makes the crust all doughy instead of crusty. It's basically a pizza-style delight on a bread-like dough, and people love it.

Image source: King Arthur Baking

4.   California Pizza

California pizza is a fusion of American flavors and Italian crust that's been popular since the 1970s. It originated from an Italian chef's bold experiment at Prego restaurant. His unorthodox toppings quickly became a hit, and the California pizza style was born.

The same chef was later appointed head pizza chef at California Pizza Kitchen, where he developed over 250 innovative pizza recipes. This creativity set the restaurant apart and turned it into a pizza lover's paradise.

California pizza owes a debt to Naples' traditional Neapolitan-style pizza, but it's also deeply rooted in the state's eclectic culture. The more unconventional the toppings, the more authentic the California pizza experience. From buffalo chicken and smoked salmon to lobster and crème fraiche, the topping options are endless. In fact, California-style pizzas are often designed to be complete meals, loaded with flavors that keep pizza enthusiasts coming back for more.

5.   Chicago Pizza

Chicago pizza is the New York-style pizza's main competitor for the best US pizza spot, and more often than not, it comes out on top. This style of pizza originated in Chicago, thanks to an Italian immigrant's recipe.

In the early 1900s, Neapolitan-pizza fans flocked to Chicago and were on the hunt for a similar flavor. Ike Sewell, co-founder of Chicago's Pizzeria Uno, came up with a completely different take on the traditional thin-crust Neapolitan.

This new version would become the classic Chicago-style pizza, characterized by its thick crust and piled-high toppings, kind of like a pie. Chicago pizza is infamous for being super filling – a single slice is a meal in itself. You can load up on a variety of sauces, cheeses, and toppings like sausages, pepperoni, meats, beef, veggies, and just about anything else you can think of.

The combination of the thick, crunchy crust and massive toppings is a match made in heaven. The pizza is baked in both a pan and an oven, which takes a bit longer than other styles due to all the ingredients.

Image source: pexels-edward-eyer

Do pizza ovens affect pizza crust and flavor?
This is a question that's come up a lot with

pizzaiolos and pizza fans. The uncertainty around whether the oven really makes a difference in the crust and flavor of a baked pizza is now cleared up. It's interesting to note that different ovens can actually change how good or bad a pizza tastes.

Let's take a classic New York-style pizza as an example. We can look at some key findings on how the oven affects the flavor.

It turns out that the oven type really does make a difference in how a pizza tastes.

Wood-Fired & Brick Ovens

These types of ovens are super-hot and typically operating between 600 to 800 F, which means the baking time for a pizza is under 2 minutes. As a result, the topping has little to no time to dry off, and therefore, deliberate care should be taken when doing the coating.

The high, fiery shot of the heat raises the bread soft and full, which is characteristic of some of the pizzas we’ve discussed earlier, particularly the Neapolitan-style pizzas.

Brick ovens, also similar in functionality to wood-fired ovens, bake the perfect Italian-style pizzas. Both the ovens use wood as a fuel that embeds the smoky flavor, but brick ovens can also be gas-fueled.

Conveyor Ovens

The baking time in a conveyor oven ranges from 4 minutes or more. It brings on the char but doesn’t make the dough as boney as the wood-fired ovens. The airflow allows the topping to dry off so you can go a bit hard on the sauces and wet ingredients of the pizza. Subsequently, loaded pizzas that are just the right amount of dry and wet with sauce and cheese are baked into these kinds of ovens.

Similar to brick ovens, the characteristics of a pizza baked in deck ovens are close to the brick/wood-fired ovens. The key difference between the two is the use of radiant heat instead of forced air to dry off the topping. This makes deck ovens one of the top choices for a commercial pizzeria providing the traditional pizza experience.

Many of the pizzas we consume today are products of the deck ovens, with their rich and lighter edges and crispy, chewy pull. The cheese remains molten hot and gold, while the sauce dries enough not to drip from the slice. Deck ovens bake our favorite pizza pies; New York style and Californian pizzas.

Image source: Pexels

Pizzas should be baked excellent – or not at all.

This Italian gift to us is too precious to play with. The perfectly structured, baked, crisp, and crusty pizza should be handled with care. The artisan pizza is not everyone’s cup of tea, so if you can’t do it justice, you should better steer clear.

Pizza ovens are more than just equipment to bake the dough. It is critical to pizza-making more than anything else. A less-spicy or slightly dull-salted pizza, if baked with just the right amount of chewiness, still tastes delicious compared to an overcooked one. So, make sure you get the best pizza ovens to try the different pizza styles in the springs out.

 Image source: pexels-vincent-rivaud