That wouldn’t really ge a case of me changing my mind; the bottom image looks like the kind if pizza I’d like! Just the top one misses my radar.
There’s a chance they might not appreciate you denying their Italian heritage so brusquely.
No, Italy has many different styles.
Have you actually tried it? In any case, you can have the top style with more/different cheese too.
Oh, @Frenzie , come on🙄! We’re not in the “offensive” thread anymore😅
This is not the case. I was defending italian heritage against who claims “new york style pizza” is an american dish, actually.
If you prefer, I might rephrase: "simply a pizza (italian food), made by american -living chefs, being them of italian heritance, or any other heritance since you don’t necessarily have to be italian to make pizza as a living* with american ingredients.
*this is true in Italy too. We have many foreign pizzaioli, especially from Egypt and Turkey.
Yes, indeed. Now that you make me think of it, just to avoid confusion: “pizza margherita” is not a pizza style, but simply a “plain pizza”, just with tomato and mozzarella. You can have a margherita in ANY style. But all pizzerias have a long menu listing from 10 to 100 recipes with different toppings, plus you can make your own recipe with the available toppings. People who ask for a margherita are kids, or on a diet, or just want to try the quality of a new pizzeria without being distracted by too many flavours.
Anyway, your invitation to “try” is my nudge to comfort zone. I’m aware most of italians wouldn’t even try a Chicago style. And this is an error.
The fact is that if you’re accustomed to american pizza and you happen to travel to Italy, you’ll realize after some times that chefs and customer put a lot of attention at things that american chefs and customers don’t care at (and maybe care at something else, like @BaronGrackle demonstrates).
I mean this when I say food is culture. If a foreign visitor (from any country to any other country) tries to put himself in the shoes of a local and pays attention to what they look for and appreciate, there’s a cultural exchange. If each remains in their comfort zone, it doesn’t happen.
I linked in the previous post my home-made pizza because in the last years (job, kids, etc) it happens I have home made pizza way more often than from restaurants.
We do that every weekend, and I know most of my friends do the same, more or less.
This is culture, I think. I don’t even know if in the US that is a thing, too.
“Have you actually tried it” is a vague question here. I’ve had margherita pizza here in the States. It tastes fine. But for me, it doesn’t beat the versions of thicker crust and more cheese. I get sad when I eat so many bites without cheese. 
Because of my known preferences, I have trouble imagining that I’d prefer Italian thin crust versions over Italian thick crust versions.
As for this super buffalo cheese I’ve heard about, I’m eager to try it. But I imagine I’d prefer it with the delicious cheese as a layer to the pizza, as opposed to being a few chunks of topping that exposes huge areas of the pizza as merely tomato sauce and bread.
No, maybe we weren’t clear.
I understand you don’t like the form “the real thing” but we meant that.
Actually the last pic of Milan style is the picture of a “pizza margherita” made By Spontini, Milan.
As I wrote before, “margherita pizza” is NOT the idea you have of pizza with chuncks of cheese. That’s a pizza with bufala.
A “margherita”, technically speaking, is a pizza with just tomato, mozzarella, basil. It can be made any style: neapolitan, New Yorker, whatsoever.
And this regardless of the meaning “margherita pizza” might have in america.
In italian, margherita is that: any pizza with just tomato, mozzarella and a basil leaf.
That’s just as like the example I made you for “latte”. Latte means “milk”, and not what you might think.
If you could try a pizza with “the real thing” which is a “mozzarella di bufala campana” you’ll understand it is impossible to get that kind of pizza you have in mind “with a uniform layer of cheese” unless you want to eat it with a straw, because your pizza would be flooded with water and milk.
So that’s why that pizza has that “chunks” look, and trust me, that’s the best way to enjoy THAT KIND of pizza.
Since it is not easy even for Italians outside Naples area, too, to get some good mozzarella di bufala (the one you can find in grocery stores is just a pale imitation), if you’ll ever manage to travel to Naples, I suggest to get past your ideas about pizza, trust the chef, and give that a try.
(if you’re worried about the idea of a small bite of pizza might reach your mouth with no mozzarella on top, you could do one of the following: 1. take larger bites 2. Ask for a mozzarella di bufala on a plate, and not as pizza topping 
)
Very interesting, I love learning about pizza. I was on a pizza making forum for a number of years with very dedicated enthusiasts who had their lives absolutely run by their love of pizza and learning the craft.
Your picture from Spontini looks great, but is this a Milanese style or just how the Spontini brand/pizzeria does it? I guess more to the point, if an Italian ordered a Margherita pizza outside of Naples - Milan or otherwise - would they be surprised to be served a Spontini-style pizza, or perhaps some regional style, as opposed to the ever-anointed Naples-style margherita?
In italian, margherita is that: any pizza with just tomato, mozzarella and a basil leaf.
This probably answers my question, but I guess I’m just surprised because I assumed the folks in Naples had the nomenclature locked down on that one.
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So what if you put the bufala chunks on top of a separate layer of cheese, the type of cheese that does layer more easily?
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No, unless @Gffp corrects me. Among everybody I know, “margherita” is a neutral term. It can also be used in a negative connotation, typically “Aw, you always spend half an hour browsing the menu, then you always end up asking for a common margherita!”
This is cool. Are you in restaurant/catering business or is it just a personal interest? Was it an american or international forum?
I’m afraid my answer might be long, but since you’re interested, I’m not afraid of getting you bored.
First, I have to say that in Italy “pizza” is not just fast food. We do have fast food pizza indeed, but the vast majority of pizza is eaten at a restaurant. You sit, choose on the menu, ask the waiter. That’s why you get a whole pizza, and not a slice. Because your pizza is prepared at the moment just for you.
So, let’s ignore the many traditional styles of pizza you can find on wikipedia, I’ll describe you only the most common, because they only account for maybe less 1% of pizzas sold/eaten in Italy.
I’m not speaking of actual data, but my esteem might say that 80% of italian pizza is sold in restaurant and 20% as fast food.
In reaturants you can find Roman style, neapolitan style, and Milanese style.
Roman style perhaps is 90% of it. In fact this is “pizza by definition” In Italy (unless you are in Naples, obviously). Nobody calls it “roman style” indeed, except on wikipedia and among insiders. Everybody refers to it simply as “pizza”, or “pizza tonda” (round pizza) to distinguish it from the Milanese style.
It is a thin, crispy dough disk, cooked in a wood oven directly on the stone, 35-40 cm in diameter, prepared at the moment for the customer, who is supposed to eat the whole thing. It is served on special dishes, which are flat and bigger than usual to accomodate all your pizza.
Pizza Margherita, Roman style
You find this kind of pizza everywhere in Italy, except in the area of Naples, where almost 100% of pizzerias serve a pizza napoletana.
Napoletana is smaller (25-30 cm), is slightly thicker, with a considerably bigger crust, and way softer and elastic. Until the 90es it was very diffcult to find it outside Naples, but it has become more and more popular nowadays. You can find many “neapolitan styles” pizzerias scattered over the whole country, but the highest concentration is in main urban and touristic areas, since neapolitan is the most requested by tourists, despite Roman style is -by far- still the most common style you can find in Italy.
Pizza Margherita, Neapolitan Style
In the nineties in Milan there were only 3-4 pizzerias making neapolitan style, and we went there when we were in the mood for something different. Nowadays Neapolitan style has become more and more popular, and it accounts, based on my subjective impression, for 40% of all pizzerias in the town of Milan.
So, here we are to Milanese Style. Actually NOBODY except foreign people calls it like that. In Italy this style is known as pizza al trancio (pizza by the slice), to underline that is the only kind of pizza sold in restaurants where you are supposed to eat only a section of a bigger pan. This kind of pizza is prepared in the wood oven inside a pan, and not on the stone. The pan is greased with EVO, and serves up to 6 people. It has a crispy bottom, a very soft body and it is very thick (3-4 cm). Due to this preparation this pizza is much more anointed then Roman and neapolitan, which, on the contrary are quite dry and floury.
This style is quite recent, being developed in Milan after WWII. That’s why it is accounted as “Milanese style” abroad, but actually the majority of pizzerias in Milan are NOT al trancio (not milanese style).
Pizza al trancio is quite a niche style, and everybody from time to time eat al trancio, just for a change. Spontini is very famous since it is one of the first (or maybe the first) in proposing this style, but you can find it in many other pizzerias scattered on the whole territory.
So, to give a final reply to your question… No way an italian can be surprised by the style of their margherita (or diavola, or 4 stagioni, or whatever topping they choose).
Because you always know which style of pizza serves the restaurant you’re in.
In general, if a friend invites you “for a pizza”, you:
- DO NOT EXPECT a Spontini-style, since usually your friend would have specified that.
- If you are in Naples, chances are 99% youl’ll get a neapolitan style
- If you are in Milan, Rome, Venice, Florence, chances are maybe 50% roman and 50% neapolitan
- If you are anywhere else in Italy, chances are 99% you’ll get a roman style.
If you are very interested, I can also discuss “fast food pizza” and “home made pizza”
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You can do that, it’s a good solution. But in this case your pizza is cooked like a normal margherita, then chunks of bufala are added last minute to avoid that the heat messes everything up. You only have to eat faster, cause it gets cold sooner.
It is a common solution in Roman style pizzerias, usually neapolitan pizzerias don’t do that in my experience
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Ah, my local grocery store has buffalo mozzarella. I might get some just to taste on it.
Yes, but as I told you, Neapolitan one is very peculiar. In Milan, Italy I can find only poor imitations, I’d be very surprised you could find something remotely like the neapolitan one in your hometown. Not to mention that usually export products have lower quality, since the first choice is saved for the local market. So if you try it and you don’t find it special, it might not be reliable
@Gffp may be more precise than me
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Don’t worry about that. Look… I haven’t given a realistic gauge of how I eat when I travel. I do try out local specialties.
Here at home, there’s a chain restaurant where I can get a version of a muffaletta. I always choose turkey instead of ham, because I prefer its taste with turkey.
If I ever make a trip to New Orleans, Louisiana, though, I hope to try an “authentic” muffaletta from that city… and it will probably be the version with ham. I’ll smile and be happy because it will be a local specialty, and the ingredients will be fresher, etc. Then if I’m still in town the next day, I’ll get the version with turkey. And since I know that my own taste buds prefer turkey to ham, there’s a good chance I’ll enjoy it more. But so what, right?
The fact is that not every food is apt to be industrialized or exported.
That’s the case of mozzarella di bufala. It is an artisanal product which is expected to be eaten on the day of production. This is why it is difficult to find it outside Naples, where most of italian buffalo breedings are set.
We have one or two buffalo farms in Milan, too, but obviuosly they can’t have the certification of origin.
I know there are a few buffalo farms in america which produce buffalo mozzarella, but I really don’t know if they use artisanal methods and can provide you with a daily fresh product.
If so, I suggest to stick to an american artisanal product instead of an original italian industrial mozzarella. It won’t be the same as a neapolitan one, but I’m sure it will be a quality product (I know well american artisanal cheese from fairs, and it is top notch).
But if it’s industrial, you’ll taste the same bad imitation you can find in italian supermarkets, you’ll just pay it more.
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I know I’ll be beheaded for this comment, but I have eaten a great amount of pizzas around the world (also in Italy), and the best pizzas I’ve eaten come from my home town, and they contain kebab and mayonnaise 
We call our pizzas “Känkky”, and even Gordon Ramsey has given his blessing on those pizzas.
My main food opinion is that, when you get into types and styles of food, then a considerable amount is going to be based on personal taste.
For example: I can guarantee you that your neighborhood’s version of pizza will never be my favorite because I do not like the taste of mayonaise.
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I remember the pizza you ate with me in a random pizzeria in the middle of italian nowhere… I bet your blaspheme mayonnaise pizza was indeed better 
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First, a little introduction about pizza!!!
Pizza as we know it is from Naples, Italy, and has been invented in the XIX century. It is true, as @Sushi said, that the term existed before in Italian, but it had a different meaning: it was referred to some kind of bread, cake (salty or sweet), or other preparations. We still have here in Campania “la pizza di scarole”, which is a salty cake filled with cooked escarole (and it’s delicious btw 
). Since the invention of pizza as we intend it now, the term progressively lost its previous meaning, with a few exceptions like the above mentioned. If you talked about “pizza” outside of Naples in the early XIX century, just everybody would have got only the meaning of cake.
Starting from the original pizza invented in Naples, many other cities and local producers in Italy started to make their local versions. It has been quite a long process: two or one century ago, way more than today, supplying of ingredients, methods of cooking where heavily influenced by the regional setting. It wasn’t easy to travel or send perishable edibles like today. During time, regional variations consolidate as @Ema said (pizza romana etc.) Up to our times when there are variations in the United States too (Chicago Style etc.) that our american fellows cited before.
Pizza Margherita. Pizza invented in the XIX century is basically today Neapolitan Pizza as for the ingredients of the dough and the cooking. The ingredients put on were simple, most of the times just oil, garlic, and often tomato sauce and basil. But even in the nineteenth century Naples, people loved to add other ingredients, like mozzarella di bufala that always mixes well with tomatoes.
Starting from that popular use, in 1889 Pizza Margherita standard was set in Naples to celebrate Queen of Italy Margherita of Savoy. It is a precise preparation which has remained the same until today, and its peculiarity is in the standard preparation itself, which is a refined recipe of the previous use.
Mozzarella di bufala is a delicious food. Almost as delicious as it is difficult in preparation and in preservation. I never found a mozzarella di bufala (made with buffalo milk) that tasted like the original one outside of the region of Campania. Centres of production are basically two here: province of Caserta, and around Battipaglia (near Salerno). The first one is more salty, the second one more sweet. Both delicious. The peculiarity is the porous swollen structure which easily breaks down in just a couple of days and with high temperatures. But it cannot be preserved in the fridge, just in its preparation water.
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It is somehow reassuring when you realize not everything can be globalized.
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Definitely. But some people take it to extremes, which can be funny. For example, quite a number of diehard NY-pizza (and -bagel) people will swear up and down these things cannot be made outside of NYC because of NYC’s “unique tap water.” Outlandish nonsense as far as I know, but NYC does have pretty good tap water (last I checked), brought in from reservoirs upstate (I grew up a few minutes from one).
I had heard about mozzarella di bufala in America being a rather poor substitute for the real thing. I’ve heard the same about San Marzano tomatoes, which are quite cherished in the pizza game. Do my Italian friends have any thoughts on that regional specialty ingredient?
The mineral composition of water is definitely something noticeable. My favorite tap water is probably in Luxembourg.
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