Who on earth doesn’t like pizzas? Those slices of gooey deliciousness and cheesy irresistibleness, loaded with veggie delights and meaty morsels, saucy and spicy or even fruity and chocolatey- pizzas truly are redefining of the very assertion of food love. But beyond those Margheritas and Neapolitans and New York styles that we rattle off while ordering from the menu or customise instead our preferences in toppings and cheesiness and sides alike, there exists a whole lot many diverse expressions that are equally pizzeatic in nature, so as to say. Here’s taking a look at some such rather interesting pizza types and styles and forms and names as well that you would like to binge on the next time you have those ever-so-often and intense as well pizza cravings-
White Pizza
Very baffling in its namesake identity being alluding exactly to the white appearance so uncharacteristic of a pizza is this starkly manifesting staple hailing though from the very land of its origin. Tomato sauce being a strict no- no in the white pizza or Pizza Bianca ‘diet’ is what explains its non red appeal even though it might feature at times tomato slices upon its white expanse of space. Olive oil and garlic and cheese and salt generally flavor up the pizza dough, more often topped with spinach and herbs to establish it truly as the most unstrikingly striking pizza to ever be.
Pizza al taglio
The alternately popular and essentially similar identity of pizza as pizza pie goes for a toss in this yet again different style of the Italian fare even within the confines of that certain curation in cuisine. The pizza al taglio is a pizza in a rectangular shape, establishing therefore with distinction the identity of it. But even more specific happens to be the characteristic feature of this preparation, literally occurring as pizza by the slice that dwells in its beginnings from the capital city of Rome. That though isn’t all the oddity that this particular preparation occurring less as a dish and more as a type of street food or fast food sums up within its singular serving of slice.
Also known as the pizaa al metro in asserting the additional aspect of its being is this type that is sold by weight or in literal translation by the measure of the meter. A double baked pizza, traditionally rising to glory in a wood fired oven that tastes as delicious as any other and is even more interesting in its thick yet crisp and light crust and a soft, bubbly interior making also for a very distinctive type of pizza in its quite unusual texture and its defining, as unique serving method.
Hawaiian Pizza
Simultaneously the most loved and most hated pizza of the world perhaps, the pineapple topped slices of deliciousness or disgust as one might fancy makes for an unmissable option. And while pineapple on pizza might be the phrase one attributes to this ‘provoking’ variant of food it is the more proper identity of being a Hawaiian pizza that sums up this conflicting or collaborating notion as regards to individual taste. But turns out that the Hawaiian alluding tends to be a misnomer, invented as it was in Canada by a Greek born Canadian San Panopolous who went about naming it such after the brand of pineapple slices that he used to top his creation with.
And yet the quirk of this food so very adept in instigating more than vocal views of extreme polarising extents is not merely resident on the etymological premises of its being. Influenced by the Chinese taste in combining sweet and savoury flavors and going on to chart particular popularity in the continent of Australia has been this most eccentric of pizzas to ever emerge out of the oven in equal contention for descriptions of the gross or the gourmet.
Deep fried Pizza
A pizza that is anything but baked- is that a pizza after all? Turns out it is, as the hugely popular deep fried variant stemming from both Italy and Scotland but as not essentially the same. The Italian style occurs as the pizza fritta and involves frying the pizza base made out of a regular pizza dough before being topped and then served. The toppings- or rather the fillings in this case can also be enclosed within the dough and then fried all together in more a calzone like style over a proper pizza though this isn’t a proper pizza anyway perhaps. But entailing as it does from the region of its very origins, at least in the modern day mass reception of the insanely popular food that it is, this sure is a type of pizza to consider for all pizza lovers- and also haters perhaps.
The Scottish take on the deep fried version of the pizza is a more detailed preparation, but often more convenient. With the pizza base generally being a frozen or a parbaked one topped already with the basics, it is this entire ‘oven ready’ pizza that ironically finds way in hot oil instead to assume that delicious drip of deep fried indulgence served with chips and sauce in some cases and without them in other. Yet another emergence from the same spectrum of identity both in the Scotland reference and the deep fried pizza alluding happens to be a batter coated large pizza or half pizza which while might not be pizza per se is phenomenal to say the least.
Pizza quattro stagioni
Birthing within the country of its greater birth is the Italian Pizza quattro stagioni or the four seasons pizza that truly is a gastronomic as well as a visual wonder, at least in the uniqueness of it. Asserting its fore over the four quotient is this pizza of a very discernibly diverse composition that sports four distinct types of toppings within the ambits of its four very defined sections.
The seasonal reference comes to play as well in as much emphasis, with the variety of the toppings each encompassing the essences of the four major seasons of the years generally employing artichokes for spring, tomatoes and/ or basil for summer, mushrooms for autumn and the ham, prosciutto or olives for winter. Regarded as a classic serving of the Italian culinary staple is this authentically delicious and popularly preferred pizza type that indeed lives up to the colossal pizza reputation as a food of almost maverick mentions.
Pizza quattro formaggi
If four seasons pizza was about the four different varieties of toppings, the four cheese pizza or pizza quattro formaggi is, very evidently, a pizza variant taking it upon itself to embrace four different varieties of cheeses all at once to more than justify the cheesy identity of this equally classic and contemporary global phenomenon in devouring. Consider also the essence of each of the cheeses permeating the entire dish in asserting every ounce the flavor of their kind, melted as they are together to deliver a fusion experience in the cheesy irresistibleness and the four cheese pizza makes for one of the most iconic listings on every pizzeria menu.
A once again Italian take on this as accurately Italian invention, the pizza quattro formaggi also delves really deep into the world of food science with such cheeses combined together that best complements each other to deliver a pizza more than establishing of its gastronomic appeal. Mozzarella and Gorgonzola most definitely find first place of preference with other local cheeses following on the basis of their full fat or at least semi fat prominence, with the flavours essentially varying to cook up the most impeccable serving of the exquisite pizza experience.
Detroit style Pizza
Iconic yet again an assertion of the pizza though not in a circular manifestation and neither in the Italian residing is the style of this dish that originated instead in the US expanse of Detroit. A very popular local food there, this is a deep dish pizza very definite in its calling for Wisconsin brick cheese and a cooked tomato based sauce that dominates the as definite chewy crusted, crispy exterior span of the thick rectangular slice boasting of cheese all the way to the edges, even caramelising along the length and breadth of it.
Equally interesting happens to be the unique manner of ‘arranging’ the Detroit pizza as far as its layering is concerned. The sauce generally tends to be the final topping- and in so much essentialness that renders also upon the dish the assertion of being the ‘red top’. This means that the toppings are already applied on the cheese lined crust, and the cooked red sauce is poured upon it, generally as dollops or even as stripes before being let to bake.
In some preparations though, the sauce is finds pouring only after the pizza is all ready out of the oven, marking therefore the prominence that the redness of the sauce enjoys in very glaring evidentness. Despite the red top alluding though, it still is the crispy caramelise cheese running along the edges of the pizza that is the star of the show as well as the testament of taste for this Detroit style way in pizzazz!
Grandma Pizza
Pizzas might be comfort food despite all their richness or even exoticness but they have never been just ‘simple’. And yet there is one very distinct type of the pizza that finds relish in all love and fondness of its immense simplicity- but hearty still as is evident from what strums the chords of the heart in its adorable mention as the Grandma Pizza.
Typically thin and rectangular, often with just cheese and tomato sauce as the ‘toppings’, requiring to be baked not in any specific pizza oven which rendered it very conducive to simplistic home preparations has been this invention by 20th century Italian immigrants to the area of Long Island in New York. It has been this fuss free essence in heartiness of the emotions rather than heaviness of the palate that made this rustic style pizza take upon the endearing expression as being the Grandma Pizza with something very comforting about these small squares of the most satisfying simplicity.
