Italian Food · Larry's kitchen notes
Pizza Styles: Neapolitan to Grandma, Explained
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Pizza isn't one dish. A Neapolitan pie and a Detroit square share flour, cheese and tomato and very little else. This guide covers the styles people search for most, the oven each one needs, and a recipe to try where there is one. Place associations describe where a style is commonly linked, not who invented it, and every pizzeria does things its own way. Larry's view: almost every style can take sausage and peppers. You just change how heavy you go on the toppings.
Quick answer
Common pizza styles: Neapolitan (soft center, blistered rim, very hot oven), New York (large, thin, foldable), grandma (thin, crisp sheet-pan square), Sicilian-American (thick, airy square), New Haven apizza (thin and charred), Chicago deep dish (sauce on top), Detroit (crisp cheese edge) and pizza bianca (no tomato). Place names are associations, not inventor claims.
The styles
- Neapolitan-style
- Soft, thin center with a puffy, blistered rim. Commonly associated with Naples. Simple dough of flour, water, salt and yeast.
- Oven: Very hot oven — an outdoor pizza oven is the easiest way at home.
- Try a recipe →
- New York-style
- Large, thin, foldable slices with a crisp but bendable crust. Dough often includes a little oil and sugar.
- Oven: Home oven with a steel or stone.
- Try a recipe →
- Grandma pie
- Thin, crisp square pie pressed into an oiled sheet pan, often with sauce spooned over the cheese. Associated with Long Island and New York home kitchens.
- Oven: Any home oven.
- Try a recipe →
- Sicilian-American square
- Thick, airy, focaccia-like square baked in an oiled pan. Italian sfincione is a related, saucier style.
- Oven: Any home oven.
- Try a recipe →
- New Haven apizza
- Thin, charred and chewy, baked in very hot ovens. Associated with New Haven, Connecticut.
- Oven: Very hot oven or outdoor pizza oven.
- Chicago deep dish
- Tall pan pie with cheese and fillings under a layer of chunky tomato sauce. Sausage is a common filling.
- Oven: Home oven, with a longer bake.
- Detroit-style
- Rectangular pan pie with cheese baked to a crisp, lacy edge and sauce on top.
- Oven: Home oven in a deep rectangular pan.
- Pizza bianca (white pizza)
- Any pie without tomato sauce — olive oil, garlic, cheese or greens instead.
- Oven: Any oven.
- Try a recipe →
Sausage and peppers, any style
Start with the best sausage and peppers pizzas, then pick the oven that fits.
Common questions
What is the difference between Neapolitan and New York pizza?
Neapolitan-style pizza is small, soft in the center and blistered at the rim from a very hot oven. New York-style is larger, thinner and foldable, and is usually baked at lower heat with a little oil and sugar in the dough.
What is a grandma pizza?
A thin, crisp square pie pressed into an oiled sheet pan, often with sauce spooned over the cheese. It's associated with Long Island and New York home kitchens.
Is Sicilian pizza the same as grandma pizza?
No. Sicilian-American pizza is thicker and airier, like focaccia. Grandma pizza is thinner and crisper. Both are baked in pans.
Which pizza style is easiest at home?
Pan styles — grandma, Sicilian and Detroit — are the most forgiving because the pan does the work and no special oven is needed.
Which pizza style is best for sausage and peppers?
Any of them. Light toppings suit Neapolitan and outdoor-oven pies; pan styles can carry a heavier load of sausage, peppers and onions.