Italian Pizza vs American Pizza

A side view so you can see the thinness of the crust. 

So what are the big differences between Italian and American pizzas? Well, I’ll inform you of what my hubby and I have noted in our experience with pizza. Here in Italy, Pizza crusts are much thinner than in the states, where even the “thin crust” options don’t seem quite as thin as the Italian crust. And there are no other options, like “deep dish” or “stuffed crust”, the pizza crust has seemed to be universal throughout Italy, the same type and thickness everywhere we go.

Here, it also seems expected that everyone order their own pizza, whereas in the states it seemed a given that any pizza you ordered would be shared with many other people. The other night when we had friends over for a game night, we ordered 7 pizzas, and the restaurant gave us an interesting box stack of all seven pizzas. This is common, but I feel that if one was in the states ordering seven pizzas would imply a huge party, not 6-7 people.

Here is a common box stack. I have seen the Italians simply take the layer with their pizza and use the cardboard piece underneath as their plate. 

Pizzas don’t come in various sizes. There are no “personal, small, medium, large,” etc. There is simply, "pizz"a, and it seems to come in the same size everywhere we order it without further options.

I feel as though pizzas in the states come with far more toppings. There will be a list (such as on a combination pizza) and it will say, olives, bell pepper, onion, mushroom, pepperoni, etc. Then the pizza arrives and it has all of these ingredients on it. In Italy, the number of ingredients seems to cap off at about four, including the cheese. Also, it’s no guarantee that all these ingredients will come on the pizza in the form an American pizza would. On several occasions I have ordered a pizza listing four ingredients, such as: ham, artichoke hearts, mushroom, and mozzarella cheese. The pizza arrived and I found it neatly divided into four sections, each containing one of the ingredients listed, when I had thought all four ingredients would be combined all over the pizza.

This was a prosciutto, mushroom, and Ricotta cheese pizza I ordered. So delicious!

Only on one occasion did we encounter a pizza that was precut into slices for us, otherwise the pizza was served to us whole and we were given a fork and knife to cut it with. One restaurant provided us with mini pizza cutters, but the norm I have found to be simply using a knife and fork. One doesn’t cut it into bite-sized pieces however, but normal slices. I have then seen people roll up the slice or fold it before eating it, something not as easy on an American pizza as they are much larger, but definitely feasible on an Italian pizza. 

So which is better? Currently, I am fonder of the Italian pizzas. I believe they have a much greater variety of choices than anything I have experienced in the states. Each restaurant seems to have a menu with several pages of pizza topping options. (My current favorite being artichoke hearts! Man that’s good on pizza!) Their simplicity is also rather refreshing, and I find I can focus on the flavors of the few specific ingredients in ways that would be lost on an American pizza. I think that Italian pizzas are “fresher”. This is difficult to describe as you could argue you watched your American pizza made in front of you, thereby implying it was freshly made. Perhaps I mean the ingredients seem of higher quality and thus the pizza seems “fresher”? For instance, when I ordered a pizza with meat on it, there were large chunks of ham and prosciutto laid out across the pizza instead of perfect round meat slices or pieces of thinly sliced deli ham placed and spaced in a pattern around the pizza. It just seems more… natural? Not sure if I’m explaining this in the manner to convey what I really mean, but in short I feel it to be fresher, higher quality, and lighter on the stomach (as opposed to the heavier over-stuffed sort of feeling that can come with American food).  

The only downside I have found is that I don’t believe Italian pizza keeps as well. I think American pizza lasts longer when refrigerated and holds up better when reheated. Italian pizza is best fresh and can be eaten the next day as leftovers. After that… it’s really not very good. I’ve had American style pizza in the fridge for over a week and it doesn’t change form/lose quality as much. (But is that really a good thing? Haha, not sure…)

 Some other good things to know when ordering: if you see “peperoni” under the listed ingredients and get excited and order it, know that you’re actually ordering bell peppers, as that’s what “peperoni” means in Italian, not some form of meat. 

Yum! We got a Hawaiian, a seafood pizza, a prosciutto and ricotta cheese pizza, a four cheese pizza, and an artichoke heart with ham and mushrooms pizza. Om nom! I don't know if I'll ever be able to go back to American pizza!

P.S. at one restaurant they had a pizza entitled "American Pizza". It was actually still Italian style with the crust and size and what not, but the ingredients included hot dog pieces and ground hamburger. :P So that is how they see us, eh?