Can’t say I relate, but fair. How do you find other styles of pizza?
Mr. Piergiorgio, so I got a question: is the pizza the whole thing or just the bread? So if I don’t have any toppings, not even cheese, it’s just a disc-shaped dough thing, is it still pizza? Also, as an Italian what do you think of pineapple on pizza? Also, would you eat a pizza made on a frying pan, or is that insulting?
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I’m literally sit above the very origin of said bread:
That is the forerunner of the pizza is plainly obvious from the depiction (I have actually seen live the relic at the Neapolitan archeological museum (perks of living around the very centre of the ancient world…) and I concur with the archeological interpretation.
actually, I where a line should be drawn between the bread and pizza lies in the olive oil: pouring oil on the dough prior of baking is what turns a bread into a pizza. And the simplest one is oil and very chopped origano (actually at least one restaurant actually serves slices of this type of pizza instead of bread; you can legally call it the oldest type of bread still served…)
on frying a pizza, if is cooking, IS a blaphemy, no extenuaning circumstances, but when reheating a pizza, a sprinkling of oil on the pan helps restoring the original flavor, esp. with the Marinara.
OTOH, here in Naples we call “pizza fritta” what elsewhere in Italy is called “panzerotto” (the latter word in Naples means another dish…):
so, provided that is smaller and round or elongated, a fried pizza is another, non-blasphemous food.
Canonical regards from Naples,
dott. Piergiorgio.
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I love pizza, and I like any kind of pizza.
My favorite one is the Margherita, even if I when I was a kid I didn’t liked cheese, so I always had pizza Marinara and, recently, I had some problem digesting tomato, so I discovered my new obsession “calzone scarola e provola” witch also includes olives, capers, and anchovies.
My girlfriend and I are from northern Italy, and we had this this thing of trying a pizza every place abroad we went. My favorite one was a Margherita slice to-go we had from Joe’s Pizza in New York.
Now, I have two famous local pizzas I want to try: Pizza Rossini in Pesaro, and Chicago-style pizza. I don’t know if I will like them, but I have an obsession on trying new things and I feel I can’t miss them! My only doubt is: I don’t eat meat, is Chicago-style pizza always with meat or there is also a classic vegetarian or pescatarian recipe I can try?
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You can absolutely get either deep-dish or tavern-style without meat. I love a spinach deep-dish myself; it helps break up the mass of (delicious) cheese.
More generally speaking, the pizza toppings I favor, in varying combinations and no particular order, are pepperoni, spinach, mushrooms, garlic, and (yes) pineapple.
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Is it just me or did I not expect to ever hear “deep fried” and “pizza” next to each other, let alone learn that it’s somehow native Italian?! Also, I noticed how you expertly dodged the mention of pineapples… is it really that bad?! Surely there is one Italian pineapple-on-pizza-enjoyer out there…
On the note of carb reduction… what would you call it if you took tomato sauce, cheese, and a selection of pizza toppings, tossed them in a dish and baked them? E.g. what is pizza without the crust?
Also, what is Margherita pizza? I thought Margherita was a type of cocktail(I think martini glasses, salted rims and limes might be involved, but I’m not well versed in alcohol)… Sorry if I’m coming across as an uncultured American heathen…
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Some kind of cheesy sauce, I’d say. Not really anything specifically related to pizza.
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My knowledge of this comes from the American TV series Mysteries at the Museum.
In 1889, Queen Margherita of Savoy visited Naples and wanted to try the famous local cuisine. She asked Raffaele Esposito, a renowned pizza maker, to make her a pizza. He did so and she didn’t like it, so he tried a second time with different ingredients and she didn’t like that either, so he tried a third time. This time around, he used simple ingredients that were the colour of the Italian flag, red tomato paste, white mozzarella cheese and green basil leaves. The queen loved it and that style of pizza was subsequently named after the queen.
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I don’t eat pineapple anymore because it’s a bit too acidic for me, but I did love it on pizza.
Also a big fan of pepperoni… and anchovies. That Futurama episode where everyone hates them is quite mistifying to me…
These days, I prefer to go with a “white pizza” (no tomato). When I make my own, I shred bellpepper to replace for tomato. Reflux.
As an apart, the types of pizza I really like are the ones that look like bread, not even totally flat. Flat and perfecty circular pizzas to me taste humdrum. Maybe I’m just too used to them, and those bready-pizzas are more exotic to me.
Sucuk (Turkish sausage), especially on actual pide.
From a typical North American pizza place, pepperoni, and that’s mandatory on some regional styles. Buffalo-style pizza, for example, has a distinctive cup-and-char pepperoni, and Windsor-style has shredded pepperoni; it doesn’t really feel like you’re having that style of pizza without them.
For actual Neapolitan pizza, it’s less about the individual topping and more about the composition of the specific pizza type.
Tomatoes, tomato sauce, basil leaves (not flakes), fresh mozzarella (in circles, not shredded), and sometimes olive oil.
I can talk for experience, in Italy pineapple pizza is not something usually on the menu. It’s something you can find in “all you can eat pizza” or “experimental” pizza restaurants. I personally had it only twice, just to tell people I tired it.
First time ananas was served in ultra tin slices, which a liked, second one was served in chunks which I didn’t.
Anyway, when I’m in Italy, I have several local kind of pizza with fresh local ingredients I don’t think I will ever try it again, but I’m into trying it if I’ll be somewhere is a typical flavour with fresh local pineapple!
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I tried to explain things to English-speaking people, and I used english terms when applicable.
If i delved into Italian terms, the explanation will quickly became tedious. I pointed, for example, to a potential issue when in Italy (that is in Naples “panzarotto” refers to fried mashed potatoes, not fried pizza (“pizzette fritte”) and that in other regions of Italy, a “panzarotto” IS a fried pizza.
Regional differences can be substantial between northern and southern Italy, one of the less known, but bewildering even an Italian, is that an ashtray is called “ceneriera” in southern Italy, and “posacenere” in northern Italy.
Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.
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What would you people consider the best drink to a pizza? Coke? Beer? White wine?
it might depend on the type of pizza. 
Soda always seems to work well - coke and ice tea in particular - but I’ve once had a seafood pizza that would not have been amiss with the proper wine for fish.
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I’m not sure since I pretty much only drink water with meals, I do drink fizzy drinks sometimes though, it just depends. I think Coke works quite well though.
Going to introduce some truly perverted discourse here, but the greatest factor in choosing a drink is what beverage tastes best when you dunk the crusts in it after you’ve finished the rest of the slice. It has to be sweet, cold, and carbonated (the fizz on the wet crust is key), and preferably not fruit-flavored. Coke, Dr. Pepper, and Pepsi are best, RC cola is fine, orange sodas are meh.
Someone please back me up, I’m so scared I’m going to be the only one who has ever done this. (I don’t eat a lot of pizza these days, and I almost never drink any kind of soda, so this is more a dark backstory than a confession.)
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Don’t be. You do you. I like breaking up cookies and eating them with a spoon from a bowl of water as though they were breakfast cereal with milk. I particularly enjoy sucking the water out from them when they’re in my mouth.
Your thing is not my thing, but let’s rejoice in the fact that we have things, and they work for us.
Booyah.
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Iced tea.