Quote:
Originally Posted by Ultramaroon
On the real, I understand that actual Italian pizza has little to do with the North American version. Is that true?
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That is my understanding. It did not have tomato sauce, and probably not nearly so much cheese. It might be a thinner focaccia with a thinly sliced vegetable and a sprinkling of parmigiano. The Neapolitan style margherita is typically believed to be the first resembling what we call pizza today.
You can get an amazing Neapolitan style in Chicago right up the street from me at Spacca Napoli.
You can get American style pizza in Italy, but that much sauce and cheese is the hallmark of such and is unusual there even today. Chicago style is unique in its own way - it has clear roots in other traditional dishes (lasagna, for example.)
Crust thickness, well... Neapolitan style is obviously rather thin, but focaccia can be quite thick. So the roots of varying thickness are there in the foods that evolved into pizza. Often just as regionally contentious as pizza is in the US.
I enjoy them all for what they are. I'm most likely to make a Neapolitan style, but I have a couple other crust styles for when the mood strikes or I run out of 00 flour.