Fun Facts About Pizza

What’s the difference you may ask, pizza is pizza. Round base, tomato sauce, cheese and your favourite choice of toppings. But for the pizza fanatic, they might end up with a dish of disappointment if their favourite fast-food feast came out with a different base, unusual measures of sauce and a selection of small cold meats thrown across its face.

As with the English language, Americans adopted pizza and then made it their own. But what defines an American, and what defines an Italian pizza?

A sensible place to start is the base, and then work upwards.

The Base

You could argue that the base is one of the more significant difference in the pizza. Whilst an American style pizza is often very round, large and cut into perfect triangular slices. The Italians usually opt for a smaller misshapen personal pizza for one.

Ingredients for the base remain largely the same, however with Italian pizza you’ll find a lot more variation than just the thickness.  The deep pan is an American creation, with some places moving close into bread territory, over an inch thick. The Italian methods tend to create more thin and crispy bases, but also provide more choice with flatbreads, focaccia’s or sourdough, to name a few.

The Saucy Bit

This is where you’ll find bigger differences in the overall taste of your pizza. The tangy nature of the tomato differs dependent on its preparation. A good sauce recipe is where you can really make a pizza your own.

An American pizza favours a sauce cooked slowly over a couple of hours. Subject to what else is added, it’s usually thick and tangy and could contain any combination of herbs or spices.

The Italian method favoured a fresh pureed tomato, some cloves of garlic and a little olive oil. As with the American sauce, there’ll be a range of herbs and spices to personalise the flavour. Basil leaves, chilli flakes and oregano are all popular additions.

Topping it Off

This is continually a matter of much contention, worldwide. One of the hottest debates on the planet is whether pineapple has any place on a pizza. The truth of the matter is, it’s all down to preference.

When it comes to cheese, mozzarella comes fresh for the Italian and usually processed and grated for the American. Dustings of parmesan can be found on both, and generally the American pizza chefs will be much more liberal with their cheese application.

The Italian toppings list will always lean towards flavour with parmesan cheese, cured hams like prosciutto, mushrooms and chillies. In the good old US of A, there seems to be an endless list of spicy, ground, round or by the pound meats to satisfy the most carnivorous carnivore.

But Who is King?

The beauty and popularity of pizza is owes purely to its personalization. With an array of mix and match options from the base to the sauce and the endless list of toppings, you really can make it your own.

The Italians have the stake in both the name and the recipe though. A traditional Italian pizza is so much more lush lunch than fast food. From the fresh flavorsome sauces, to the salty sundry of sliced bases, the world of pizza is still dominated by the Italian. And so they keep themselves capped with the pizza corona. Ladies and Gentlemen, Italy the Pizza King.