Contrary to belief, not everywhere in Italy makes great pizza.
Naples and Rome do it the best, but what is the difference between napoletana and romana? Napoletana is the more traditional version because, after all, pizza was invented in Naples. In 2017 Naples was awarded UNESCO heritage status for its pizza making process which has a thicker, more elastic dough. Pizza Romana has a thinner, crispier base.
And if you think that tomato sauce is in the DNA of every pizza, not in Italy. Pizza bianca is white pizza and pizza rossa is red pizza. Some pizzerias clearly differentiate between the two on the menu.
Peperoni isn’t salami - it’s capsicum or bell peppers. Italian peppers tend to be the sweeter red or yellow type and are cooked in copious amounts of olive oil until they become extremely tender. If you like a spicy pizza, look for pizza diavola (’devil’s pizza’, which contains spicy salami).
Pizza al taglio
Pizza by the slice is very popular, especially at lunch time. It is made in a large metal baking pan and cooked in a baker’s oven. Pizza ovens are the best, but they take a long time to heat up, which is why most pizzerias only open in the evening. The pans are rectangular and typically displayed in the counters of bakeries or cafe-bars. A slice will be cut into a square or rectangle to the size that you request.
It’s all in the crust
What makes a superb pizza is the crust and what makes a superb crust are the ingredients and how long you let the dough rise. A minimum of 48 hours is good, but 72 hours is the ultimate. It’s all about the digestibility.
If you see this written in a pizzeria, be very excited - “organic ingredients, ferment natural 72 hours, no animal fats, high digestibility’.
It is a proud declaration of how they prepare their dough, what ingredients they use and how long they let it rise. You can see this written in a tiny pizzeria behind the Pantheon where you can buy pizza by the slice.
Pizza rules
Fingers or knife and fork? Italians mostly eat round pizza with a knife and fork. Another rule of thumb is no more than four toppings. Fewer toppings are a sign of confidence in the product because each ingredient has to be exemplary. Your pizza will arrive at your table whole, not cut into pieces.
Pineapple on pizza is a cringeworthy crime
Or is it? Last year world famous pizza maker, Gino Sorbillo, stunned food purists by adding pineapple pizza to the menu at his historic Naples restaurant. What was he thinking? A pizza bianca (with no tomato layer) boasting no fewer than three types of cheese and a caramelised pineapple topping was the chef’s attempt at “combating food prejudice”.
“I’ve noticed in the last few years that lots of people were condemning ingredients or ways of preparing food, purely because in the past most people didn’t know them, so I wanted to put those disputed ingredients - that are treated like poison - onto a Neapolitan pizza,” he said.
Gino Sorbillo’s controversial creation was discussed on national television. Reactions ranged from utter outrage to positive reviews.
Earlier this year in Italy, I thought I had misread pineapple pizza on a menu, but there it was. Could this be the beginning of the end of one of Italy’s most feared food crimes?
Who makes the best pizza?
In 2017, the 50 TOP PIZZA project started to create rankings that evaluate professionally the world’s pizzas. The evaluation method involves a large network of more than one thousand inspectors in Italy and around the world going incognito to examine the most important pizzerias. They are evaluating the tastiness of the pizza; its digestibility and the pizza maker’s ability to make it special. It is the most influential guide in the world of pizza.
Here are the top five for 50 TOP PIZZA ITALIA 2025:
I Masanielli by Francesco Martucci, Caserta in Campania (not far from Napes)
Diego Vitagliano Pizzeria, Naples in Campania and Confine, Milan in Lombardy (equal second)
Seu Pizza Illuminati, Rome in Lazio
I Tigli, San Bonifacio, province of Verona in Veneto
Cambia-Menti di Ciccio Vitiello, Caserta in Campania
The entire list for Italy includes 518 pizzerias. Campania (capital Naples) is the most represented region with its 100 pizzerias, followed by Lazio (capital Rome) with 57 and Lombardy (capital Milan) with 41.
Among the top 100, the most represented city is Rome with 9, followed by Naples with 8 and Milan with 5.
When in Italy, nothing beats a great pizza!!
Ci vediamo la prossima settimana.
Deb