Pizza is a food that unites cultures, that’s why the art of making pizza has become a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. It originates in Italy in the early 18th century, but immigrants only brought its culture to the U.S. big metropolis during the early 20th century. The old traditions of how to prepare a pizza changed completely.
Today the five most influential regional pizza styles in the U.S. are:
- New York pizza
- New Haven-style apizza
- Detroit-style pizza
- Chicago deep dish pizza
- California pizza
As an Italian I can assure that none of these pizzas resemble an authentic one, however it doesn’t mean they are not good.
The main difference lies in the freshness of the ingredients, most of the time in the dough or in the different flavors. In Italy, people eat mostly:
- “margherita” pizza (red sauce, mozzarella cheese, basil),
- “diavola” pizza (red sauce, mozzarella cheese and spicy salami),
- “bufala” pizza (red sauce, bufala mozzarella cheese, basil),
- “four cheese” pizza (mozzarella cheese, gorgonzola, fontina and Parmigiano-Reggiano),
- “capricciosa” pizza (mushrooms, ham, artichoke and olives).
Italians, especially kids, also enjoy the so-called “pizza americana,” which includes red sauce, mozzarella cheese, potato fries and hot dog sausage.
Whilst some American pizza flavors call to mind Italian ones (as for the pepperoni, mushroom or sausage pizza), others couldn’t be further, for example the extra cheese, bacon or barbecue pizza. Although these pizzas could be banned if they reached the Italian ground, a very much loved pizza here that Italians cannot even stand hearing of, is the “Hawaiian pizza,” most known as pineapple pizza.
During my brief experience here in the U.S., I, an exchange student from Italy, had the opportunity to try some different pizzas and this is how I rated them:
- Restaurant 800* Degrees margherita pizza
- Frederik’s by Meijer Gorgonzola Cheese & Pear frozen pizza
- Frederik’s by Meijer Mushroom & Truffle frozen pizza
- Pizza Hut pepperoni pizza
- Pizza Hut cheese pizza
No one would have ever thought that a frozen pizza would be better than a restaurant one, but America is full of surprises.
Pizza prices also change between the two countries: in Italy for a margherita pizza the selling price ranges from 3.5 euros in the cheapest places to 7 to 8 euros in the most expensive cities.
In the U.S. the average price of a margherita is usually over 10 dollars.
Pizza might differ all over the world, however it is finding a new life also in its birthplace: Gourmet pizza is the new trend for Italians who want to try a new version of their favorite food.
A Gourmet pizza could be described as a high quality pizza, with different varieties of ingredients that create new combinations of flavors, going over the traditional ones. An important aspect about it is also the flour the chef chooses to use for the dough. Someone could say that this kind of pizza perfectly matches the concept of innovation.
If you want to know more about pizza and how to prepare an authentic Italian one, click here (make sure you hit the translate button, because it is an Italian website).
