Pizza By Style

Pizza has no clear originator. People have been putting toppings on bread since time immemorial. But most modern pizza descends from two Italian traditions: the thin, round pizzas of Naples and the thicker, pan-baked pizzas of Sicily.

The Neapolitan tradition gives us the thin pizza family: round pies, direct heat, crisp-to-soft crusts, and a careful balance of dough, sauce, cheese, and bake. In New York, Neapolitan pizza evolved into the coal-fired New York-Neapolitan style and eventually into the classic New York slice. Many American regional styles and today’s modern slice shops are all, in different ways, descendants of this Naples-centered tradition.

The Sicilian tradition originated with sfincione, the thick, spongy bread-pizza of Palermo. Sfincione’s roots predate tomato, introduced to Italian cooking from the New World, as a defining pizza ingredient. It began closer to seasoned bread, built around dough, oil, onions, anchovies, cheese, and breadcrumbs before tomato became central. In America, where cheese was more abundant, this tradition evolved into the American “Sicilian” slice.

This is the thick pizza family: breadier, oilier, often square or rectangular, with more emphasis on crumb, fermentation, structure, and the contrast between a crisp bottom and a soft interior. Sicilian, grandma, tomato pie, bakery pizza, and Detroit-style pizza all sit broadly in the Sicilian tradition.

This split is far from perfect. Great pizzas borrow across traditions. But I think it is a useful starting point.