Organic certification for pizza

Courtesy: Organic certification for pizza

Italy

Authentic Neapolitan pizza (pizza napoletana) is made with San Marzano tomatoes, grown on the volcanic plains south of Mount Vesuvius, and either mozzarella di bufala Campana, made with milk from water buffalo raised in the marshlands of Campania and Lazio or Fior-di-latte. Buffalo mozzarella is protected with its own European protected designation of origin. Other traditional pizzas include pizza alla marinara, which is topped with marinara sauce and is supposedly the most ancient tomato-topped pizza, pizza capricciosa, which is prepared with mozzarella cheese, baked ham, mushroom, artichoke, and tomato, and pizza pugliese, prepared with tomato, mozzarella, and onions.

A popular variant of pizza in Italy is Sicilian pizza (locally called sfincione or sfinciuni), a thick-crust or deep-dish pizza originating during the 17th century in Sicily: it is essentially a focaccia that is typically topped with tomato sauce and other ingredients. Until the 1860s, sfincione was the type of pizza usually consumed in Sicily, especially in the Western portion of the island. Other variations of pizzas are also found in other regions of Italy, for example pizza al padellino or pizza al tegamino, a small-sized, thick-crust, deep-dish pizza typically served in Turin, Piedmont.

United States

Pizza banquet in the White House (2009)

The first pizzeria in the U.S. was opened in New York City’s Little Italy in 1905. Common toppings for pizza in the United States include anchovies, ground beef, chicken, ham, mushrooms, olives, onions, peppers, pepperoni, pineapple, salami, sausage, spinach, steak, and tomatoes. Distinct regional types developed in the 20th century, including Buffalo, California, Chicago, Detroit, Greek, New Haven, New York, and St. Louis styles.^[ These regional variations include deep-dish, stuffed, pockets, turnovers, rolled, and pizza-on-a-stick, each with seemingly limitless combinations of sauce and toppings.

Thirteen percent of the United States population consumes pizza on any given day  Pizza chains such as Domino’s Pizza, Pizza Hut, and Papa John’s, pizzas from take and bake pizzerias, and chilled or frozen pizzas from supermarkets make pizza readily available nationwide.

Argentina

Argentina, and more specifically Buenos Aires, saw significant Italian immigration at the end of the 19th century. Immigrants from Naples and Genoa opened the first pizza bars, though over time Spanish residents came to own the majority of the pizza businesses.

Standard Argentine pizza has a thicker crust, called “media masa” (half dough) than traditional Italian style pizza and uses more cheese. In Argentina pizza slices are often served topped with fainá, a Genoese chickpea-flour pancake, and accompanied by moscato wine. The most popular variety of pizza is called “muzzarella” (mozzarella), similar to Neapolitan pizza (bread, tomato sauce and cheese) but made with a thicker “media masa” crust, triple cheese and tomato sauce, usually also with olives. It can be found in nearly every corner of the country; Buenos Aires is considered the city with the most pizza bars per person of the world. Other popular varieties include ham, tomato slices, red pepper and longaniza. Two Argentine-originated varieties of pizza with onion, are also very popular: fugazza with cheese, a regular pizza crust topped with cheese and onions, and fugazzetta, with the cheese between two pizza crusts, with onions on top.

Records

As of 2021 according to Guinness World Records:

• The world’s largest pizza was prepared in Rome in December 2012, and measured 1,261 square meters (13,570 square feet). The pizza was named “Ottavia” in homage to the first Roman emperor Octavian Augustus, and was made with a gluten-free base.
• The world’s longest pizza was 1,930.39 meters (6,333 feet 3+¹⁄₂ inches) long; it was made in Fontana, California in 2017.
• The world’s most expensive commercially available pizza recognised by Guinness World Records costs US$2,700, and was sold at Industry Kitchen (USA) in New York, New York, USA, as of 24 April 2017. It is made of black squid ink dough, and topped with UK white Stilton cheese, French foie gras and truffles, Ossetra caviar from the Caspian Sea, Almas caviar, and 24K gold leaves.
• More expensive pizzas have been reported, but are not recognised by Guinness World Records, such as the £4,200 “Pizza Royale 007” at Haggis restaurant in Glasgow, Scotland, which is topped with caviar, lobster, and 24-carat gold dust, and the US$1,000 caviar pizza made by Nino’s Bellissima pizzeria in New York City, New York.
• A pizza made by the restaurateur Domenico Crolla that included toppings such as sunblush-tomato sauce, Scottish smoked salmon, medallions of venison, edible gold, lobster marinated in cognac, and champagne-soaked caviar. The pizza was auctioned for charity in 2007, raising £2,150.

Pizza and health

Boy Scouts with pizza

Some pizzas mass-produced by pizza chains have been criticized as having an unhealthy balance of ingredients. Pizza can be high in salt and fat, and is high in calories. The USDA reports an average sodium content of 5,101 mg per 36 cm (14 in) pizza in fast food chains.There are concerns about undesirable health effects.