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Neapolitan

Small (about 10-inch diameter), thin-crust pizzas made in a wood-burning oven.

Usually have a puffy "cornicione" (lip or end crust) and marked by use of the
freshest ingredients applied sparingly for a careful balance. Perhaps the most
popular is the pizza Margherita--topped with fresh sauce made from San
Marzano tomatoes, fresh buffalo mozzarella or fior di latte, and a little bit of
basil. Other traditional variations include the marinara (just sauce and maybe a
sprinkling of an aged cheese) or the Napoletana (a marinara pie with anchovies).
This style, of course, is known the world over.

Related
Naples Pizza Photo Gallery [Slice]
Naples: Pizza at Its Source [Slice]

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Philadelphia Tomato Pie

Not to be confused with its neighboring tomato pie to the north, Philladelphia
Tomato Pie is stretched and baked into sheet pans. The thick, bready crust is as
thick as a Sicilian—about 1 inch tall. The tomatoes for this sauce are cooked
down with lots of seasoning into a thick, heavy, sweet sauce. In his review of
Conshohocken Bakery pizza, Philly correspondent Hawk Krall described this
style as, “distinct from everyday pizza—the best Tomato Pies come room
temperature from old-school neighborhood bakeries rather than hot from a
pizzeria. No toppings and no cheese, save for a scant shake of Romano or
Parmesan. For many who grew up in the area, this simple bakery style pie says
"Philly" more than any other style of pizza." That makes these slices more like
Italian bakery-style slices than the round Tomato pies from Trenton.

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

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Roman Pizza al Taglio

Roman pizza al taglio came into existence in the 1960s. These long rectangular
pizzas, also called pizza al metro (referring to the one meter length of the pie)
are sold out of take away shops by the weight. Pizza al taglio literally means
"pizza by the cut", since scissors are used to portion off the desired amount.
Toppings play a greater role on this style than on pizza bianca. And these large
slabs of pizza are generally thicker and softer than bianca, as they are baked in a
pan in an electric oven rather than directly on a stone or the floor of a gas oven.

[Photograph: Nick Solares]

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Schiacciata

Schiacciata can be synonymous with focaccia, or pizza without sauce, and

literally means "squashed" or "flattened down". One famous version is
Schiacciata d'uva, which is made during the Tuscan grape harvest. Other
versions consist of the bread baked plain, and then sliced in half, filled, and
baked again.

[Photograph: Michael Berman]

Sfincione

Originating in Palermo, Sfincione is the Sicilian slice that Sicilians eat. The
name literally means "sponge", which describes the way the dough behaves
when soaking up the oils in the pan. The resulting texture is tall and spongy,
never dense or doughy. The crisp olive-oil saturated bottom layer gives way to a
moist, tender middle that is crowned with a thick tomato sauce made with
anchovies and lots of onions. You won't find any mozzarella on this pan proofed
square slice. A light grating of caciocavallo, a hard sheep's cheese, finishes this
style, along with a crumbly crunch of breadcrumbs.

Get the recipe »

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

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Pizza di Sfrigole

Editor Carey Jones encountered this style in Abruzzo, Italy and offers up this
analysis of the style: "It's nothing more than lard, flour, and salt kneaded
together extensively, then incorporating those luscious little pig bits (orsfrigole)
before it's baked. Though different in composition, of course, it's not that far off
from prosciutto bread, where the actual meat is apparent but the added animal
fat's richness is what really makes it exceptional. The result is super-flaky and
almost pastrylike, which makes sense when you consider how lard is so often
used in pie crusts and such."

[Photograph: Carey Jones]

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Pizza Bianca

Similar in appearance to focaccia, pizza bianca is an olive oil laden, thin and
crisp Italian bread with good chew. In developing a recipe for bianca, Kenji
defined it as, "The long, flat, lightly dimpled, flecked-with-coarse salt, crisp-on-
the-outside, just barely chewy bread sold by the square in Rome." Unlike
focaccia, which is baked in a pan, pizza bianca gets stretched out to lengths of up
to six feet and is baked right on the oven floor. When toppings are involved, they
are applied sparingly. Typically, bianca comes drizzled with olive oil and
sprinkled with sea salt. Two of the most renowned Roman pizza bianca vendors
are Forno Campo de'Fiori and Antico Forno Marco Roscioli in Rome. (Ed put
them in a head-to-head here.)

[Photograph:Robyn Lee]

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French Bread Pizza

While most people know French bread pizza as something boxed and placed in
the freezer aisle by Stouffer's, the original version was sold out of a food truck in
Ithaca, NY. Invented by Bob Petrillose, this half pizza/half sandwich creation
was coined Poor Man's Pizza (PMP) but is also known as "Hot Truck" after the
wagon from which it was vended. The original version, still sold today by both
Hot Truck and Shortstop Deli, was summed up in this review as follows: "A
third of a loaf of light, airy Ithaca Bakery French bread is halved horizontally,
spread with a generous amount of pizza sauce and mozzarella, baked open-face
until the bread is satisfyingly crisp, and then folded over to make the whole
thing easily portable." Whether created at home, reheated out of a box, or
bought off a truck, this crusty, sauce and cheese topped loaf is ever popular with
the audience of cash poor students that it was created for.

[Photograph: Meredith Smith]

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The Montanara

The montanara is a type of pizza fritta. Specifically, it is a Neapolitan-style

dough that gets stretched and then deep-fried. The golden crust, once extracted
from its oil bath, is then topped. According to master pizzaiolo Roberto
Caporuscio, his mentor Antonio Starita introduced the idea of finishing the
montanara in a wood-fired oven in order to dry the oil; a technique that has
since been emulated by other pizzaioli. Starita was the first pizza maker to bring
the montanara stateside, where it premiered in 2007 at A Mano in Rdigewood,
NJ. Traditionally, this fried pizza is finished with a hard cheese, like Parmesean
or Romano, but restaurants like Don Antonio and Forcella are using smoked
mozzarella and fior di latte. In his review of Forcella, Adam Kuban has this to
say of his first taste of the montanara: "Imagine a very good Margherita pizza…
but with a foundation reminiscent of one of those fried-dough wonders you only
see at the state fair—at once crisp, chewy, moist, and puffy in only that way fried
breads get."

[Photograph: Sam Bowman]

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New York–Neapolitan (aka 'Neapolitan-American')

Once the Italian immigrants brought their Naples-style pies to the States, it
evolved a bit in the Italian neighborhoods of New York to something I've seen
referred to as "New York-Neapolitan." This is basically what all the coal-oven
pizzerias of New York serve. It follows the tenets of Neapolitan style in that it's
thin-crusted, cooked in an ultra-hot oven, and uses a judicious amount of cheese
and sauce (sauce which is typically fresh San Marzano tomatoes, as in Naples).
It deviates from Naples-style in that it's typically larger, a tad thinner, and more
crisp. New York–Neapolitan is rarely found outside New York City. However, I
believe this style eventually evolved into ...

Pizza shown is from Totonno's. [Photograph: Adam Kuban]

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New York style

The round, thin-crust stuff that most people in the U.S. think of as "pizza." And
don't anyone give me guff on this. Go ahead and think of a pizza. Nine out of ten
of you thought of something round and more on the thin side than the thick
side, right? Even the major chain stuff, with all their variations in crust style, I'd
say that their default pizza is closer to regular NY-style than, say, deep dish or
Sicilian or what not. A true New York-style pizza ideally has a crust that's at
once crisp and chewy. Can be topped with whatever you want but is best with
only one or two toppings applied (so crust remains crisp). New Yorkers
generally fold it while eating. Also referred to in New York as a "regular" pie or a
"regular" slice. The default regular slice is a "plain" slice, i.e., no toppings, only
cheese.

Pictured slice from 99¢ Fresh Pizza. [Photograph: Adam Kuban]

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Sicilian style

A rectangular pizza with a thick crust. Cheese may or may not appear under the
sauce, though it's my understanding that Sicilian traditionally used to feature
the cheese under the sauce. Often marked by the strong presence of garlic. Also
known as a "square slice," because it's cut into squares (or rectangular shapes
close enough to square to merit the name). Usually the same price or a quarter
more than a regular slice, so get this if you're broke and hungry. Doesn't seem to
be as popular in New York as the regular slices and pies, primarily because only
a few places really do square pies right. Those places are treasures and should be
appreciated.

Pizza pictured from Rizzo's. [Photograph: Adam Kuban]

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Grandma style (aka 'Nonna Pizza')

Essentially a thin-crust Sicilian. I've gotten guff for saying that in the past, so if
any of you out there want to correct me and argue for a workable definition of
this style, please comment. It was sort of a Long Island thing until the past
couple of years, when it started making inroads into the boroughs of New York
City. Typically has a fresh, lightly seasoned sauce.

From Pizzeria Corso, Marine Park, Brooklyn. [Photograph: Adam Kuban]

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New Haven style

Cooked in a coal oven, has a very crisp crust that is typically thinner than New
York pizzas. Marked by a characteristic oblong shape, often served on a sheet of
waxed paper atop a plastic cafeteria tray. Thought to be the place where clam
pizza was developed (Frank Pepe's). The two biggies here are Sally's and Pepe's,
but there are others (notably Modern) with their adherents. New Haven
partisans often argue that pizza was invented here, but I believe NYC has them
beat on this claim.

Sally's Apizza, New Haven, Connecticut. [Photograph: Adam Kuban]

grilled pizza

Grilled pizza was invented in Providence, Rhode Island, by George Germon at

Al Forno. Grilled pizza has a thin crust and is cooked quickly--directly on the
grate of a grill. Contrary to what you'd think, it does not fall through the grate,
instead setting up quickly over the intense heat before being flipped and topped
with sauce and thinly sliced toppings. (Toppings must be thin so they heat
through in the short time--typically a minute a side. Sausage or anything
needing thorough cooking need to be prepped beforehand.)

Grilled pizza has since moved beyond Providence--there are at least five such
pizzerias in New York City, and the in the last three or so years we've seen this
dish move from obscurity to backyard grills nationwide, thanks to the annual
grilling coverage in magazines and newspaper food sections that crops up
around Memorial Day.

Related
Grilled Pizza archives [Slice]
Grilled pizza [Wikipedia]

Grilled pizza recipe on Serious Eats. [Photograph: Joshua Bousel]

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bar pizza

Ed Levine goes into this in his book, and you can read an excerpt about bar pizza
on Slice. Ed says, "It's usually very thin-crusted to (I'm guessing) leave plenty of
room in the eater's stomach for beer. It's baked in a gas oven that may have
replaced a coal oven if the bar is old enough. Bar pizza is made with decent,
commercial, aged mozzarella and comes topped with canned mushrooms,
standard pepperoni and, if you're lucky, house-made sausage." The bar pizza Ed
describes and that I've had is very similar to something I call "Midwest-style
pizza."

Pizza pictured from Colony Grill. [Photograph: Adam Kuban]

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Trenton tomato pies

Old Forge style

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Detroit style

deep dish

I don't know if I need to elaborate much on deep dish, since, like New York–
style, you already know what it's about. And I'm not trying to knock it here, but
it is more like a casserole—a really tasty one. That's because it's cooked in a deep
pan, with the main ingredients acting as "fillings" rather than "toppings." It's got
a buttery crust, a chunky tomato sauce, lots of cheese, lots of (and/or copious
amounts of) toppings.

Deep dish is usually layered from bottom up with sliced mozzarella, followed by
meats and veggies, then sauce, then grated cheese. Unlike New York–style pizza,

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it's eaten with a knife and fork. For more background on its origin, there's this
July 20, 1997, story from the Chicago Tribune.

Like Neapolitan-style and New York-style, deep dish has traveled far from its
birthplace. Although, with a few notable exceptions, good deep dish is still hard
to find outside Chicago.

Pequod's, Chicago. [Photograph: Robyn Lee]

stuffed pizza

Another Chicago specialty that is often confused with deep dish because of its
similarity. It's assembled and cooked in a similar manner to deep dish, but it has
a top layer of crust and is usually taller and more densely packed with toppings.

From Giordano's, Chicago. [Photograph: maveric2003]

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Chicago thin crust

Another form of pizza prevalent in Chicago, though it seems that folks outside
the Windy City mostly overlook this style when talking about Chicago pizza. It's
thinner than New York-style and crunchier, though it's also more tender and
flaky. Almost pastry-like. I think this crust style of this pizza has much in
common with the bar pizza or tavern pizza I've had in New York City and also
with the independent pizzeria pizzas I've had in Milwaukee. The Chicago thin-
crust has a smooth, highly seasoned sauce. Toppings are added under the
cheese, which is typically mozzarella. Often cut into a grid of square pieces
(instead of pie-shaped wedges) in what's known as the "party cut" or "tavern
cut." (See also "Midwest-style," below.)

From Marie's Pizza & Liquors, Chicago. [Photograph: Daniel Zemans]

Midwest style

Variations, I believe, are found throughout the Midwest--from Ohio to

Milwaukee to Chicago to wherever. I'd even go so far as to say that the "Chicago-
style" pizza just above is really a variation of "Midwest-style." The Midwest style
is round (but not always; see Maria's), thin, very crisp yet tender-flaky, and is
party- or tavern-cut into the grid. Sauces and topping preference may differ
from city to city and region to region, but this style seems to crop up often in the
heartland.

From Maria's Pizza, Milwaukee. [Photograph: Adam Kuban]

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St. Louis style

Might be mistaken for a Chicago thin crust at first, just on looks--and maybe for
the fact that Saint Louis and Chicago are only a few hundred miles apart. But
this style's very thin, crackerlike crust is unleavened. And it's topped with a
special three-cheese blend (provolone, Swiss, white cheddar) called Provel that's
used in place of mozzarella (and sometimes, but not often, in addition to
mozzarella). Like Chicago thin crust, it's usually done party cut. Imo's Pizza is
thought to be the originator.

Related
Imo's Pizza [Slice]
Saint Louis–style pizza [Wikipedia]

From Imo's, St. Louis. [Photograph: Martin Kalfatovic]

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California style

The crust is more a vehicle for unique toppings and striking flavor combinations
not typically found in Italian cuisine—say goat cheese, or avocado, or egg. Given
California's access to produce, fresh vegetables often make an appearance. Ed
LaDou, who made California pizza famous at Spago in Los Angeles and then
later developed the original menu at California Pizza Kitchen, is typically
thought of as its inventor.

And even though I think this might be a variation of the Midwest-style, I like
the description of the following ...

Peking duck pizza from California pizza kitchen. [Photograph: Karendotcom127]

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Ohio Valley style

If Trenton can have a style based on a couple places why can't the Ohio Valley?
Here, the blog Mine Road describes it: "The first thing that you'll notice that is
odd about our favorite pizza is that it's square. Square as in it's made in a square
pan and then cut into square pieces. Then you'll notice that the cheese isn't
melted all the way. The uncooked toppings are put on after the sauce, base
cheese (minimal), and dough are cooked. You always have to make sure to have
a slice ASAP before everything melts on the drive/walk back to your place. You'll
also notice that our pizza sauce isn't really much of a sauce at all as much as it is
just stewed tomatoes. Also the crust is a mix between a deep dish and thin crust.
It is very much focaccia bread, if you've ever had that. Oh, and the best part is
that you buy it by the slice."

[Photograph: Nick Sherman]

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New England Greek style

I had either never heard of this one or had heard of it at one point and pushed it
to the back of my mind because I rarely visit New England, but K2kid
commented about its absence in the original version of this list. Luckily,
Serafina chimes in with some hallmarks of the style:

Thin crust with a firm, but not crackerlike, bottom, which is

often oily enough to saturate the pizza box
Tomato sauce heavily spiced with oregano
Thin layer of cheese, sometimes a blend of mozz and cheddar
Cooked long enough for the cheese to become molten, slippery,
and sometimes separate, coating the entire top of the pie with
orange oil

And MikeNYC has a great description of the style in this comment.

[Photograph: Carey Jones]

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D.C. jumbo slices

While this one sounds like it's merely a style based on size, I've seen arguments
for it in the comments (here and here) and over on Boing Boing.

While I'm not sure it's going to be a widely recognized style, It's in the interest of
Slice readers to know about it, even if it, so ...

Yes, the jumbo slice of D.C. is mainly known for its size. There are
many competing places offering this style. The link to the article
below tells about the development of the jumbo slice, the competing
claims of who has the "First Oldest Original Jumbo Slice," a
laboratory-based nutritional analysis, and the fact that people only
eat it when they are drunk. ["Jumbo Slice Lore of D.C.," Washington
City Paper]

Related
Washington, D.C., archives [Slice]

From Pizza Mart, D.C. [Photograph: Nick Sherman]

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pizza parlor pizza

This one is not so much regional as it is contextual, circumstantial, or

philosophical. It's not striving for sustainorganica toppings or Neapartisanal
perfection. These places are just making pizza the way they've always done it—
passed on from generation to generation.

I'm not going to try to define "pizza parlor pizza" too narrowly, but I keep
thinking of something Mike Gebert (Sky Ful of Bacon) wrote in a really great
blog post:

I had my heart set on pizza, because I saw a box which said "Since
1957," and one of my rules is, always try a pizza that dates back to the
1950s. There is always a small possibility that in the intervening 35+
years, they have NOT screwed it up by trying to make it more like
Domino's or something.

And, so, I think that any place that has been opened since the '50s, still has the
same family running it, and hasn't really changed much since then pretty much
qualifies as serving "pizza parlor pizza" in my book. (Of course, I can think of
some newer places with similar vibe.)

Related
On Pizza Parlor Pizza »
Milwaukee: Maria's Pizza »

Maria's Pizza, Milwaukee, is pictured. [Photograph: Adam Kuban]

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Italian Bakery Style

You'll sometimes find pizza being made in longtime Italian bakeries. It happens
enough that it's been recognized — elsewhere and on Slice — as a legit style,
even though it blends elements of grandma and Sicilian pizzas. Italian Bakery
Style pizza is square and cooked in large sheet pans and cut into rectangular
pieces. Apart from that, it can vary from bakery to bakery. If you see it, grab a
slice. You might be pleasantly surprised.

20100122-feat-pizza-styles.jpg

20100122-feat-pizza-styles.jpg

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