The Magic Of Pizza
Pizza comes in varieties.
Pizza is a popular Italian dish originating in
Naples, characterized by a flattened, leavened dough base
topped with tomato sauce, cheese, and a variety of other ingredients,
which is then baked at high temperatures. Evolving from ancient
Mediterranean flatbreads, the modern pizza emerged in the
18th-century Neapolitan street food scene, becoming a
cheap and easy meal for the working class.
Today, it is a globally
loved dish, with variations in toppings, preparation, and cultural
adaptations worldwide. I want to take you through the amazing world of
pizza. We will be examining different kinds.
I hope you enjoy cheers.🍻
- Detroit-Style Pizza
- New York Style Pizza
- Sicilian Pizza
Detroit-style pizza was created at Buddy’s Pizza in Detroit in 1946. The owners pressed pizza dough into a deep, rectangular steel pan from a local auto shop, loaded it with cheese and sauce (in that order), and baked it until crisp. The result was something unexpectedly delicious and unique. The crust was light, crisp, and oily, and the cheese burnished around the rim of the pie. Although Buddy’s still uses the same steel pans, seasoned from years of use, Detroit-style pizza has become so popular that similar pans are now readily available to recreate the hefty, square pizza at home. Using a dark metal pan is the key to getting the correct bake on the pizza and containing all the cheese.
New York takes its pizza pretty seriously, and in New York City, it’s hard to walk more than two blocks without seeing a slice shop. Despite claims that the local water is the secret to great New York-style pizza, there is more to the style. Italian immigrants brought their history and recipes for Neapolitan pizza to New York in the late 1800s, but the style adapted to fit their new circumstances, including cooking the pies in a coal-fired oven and making the pizzas larger with a slightly thicker and more evenly risen crust. Lombardi’s was the first (or one of the first) pizzerias to offer New York-style pizza in 1905 in lower Manhattan, in a neighborhood we now call Little Italy.
In a world of round pizzas, the thick square of Sicilian at the end of the counter in the pizza shop stands out. Originally hailing from Sicily, a true Sicilian, called sfincione, is markedly different than what we see now as Sicilian pizza. Sfincione, which means “sponge,” is named for the thick, airy crust it resembles. Sfincione features a tomato-based sauce cooked with onions, anchovies, and herbs, a topping of goat or sheep’s milk cheese, and a sprinkle of breadcrumbs. As Sicilian pizza adapted to American ingredients and tastes, the thickness and shape of the crust stayed the same, but the toppings morphed to include a more simply seasoned tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese.