Let's start with the classic of the classics, the round pizza, a disc of thin dough generally seasoned before cooking, which can be made in electric, wood or gas ovens.
The round pizza is actually a macro-category, which includes the queen of pizzas: the Neapolitan.
What most distinguishes the Neapolitan pizza on your plate, to other round pizzas of Italian tradition is neither the flour, nor - as argued - the water of Naples, but it is the cooking temperature.
The Neapolitan pizza is made in wood ovens, which produce very high temperatures, between 450 and 500 °. Such strong and rapid cooking means that much more moisture remains inside the dough in comparison to other types of pizza.
On the palate, Neapolitan pizza is not crunchy but soft. The crust, higher than that of other classic Italian pizzas, deserves a separate chapter.
In fact, the volume of the crust establishes differences within the Neapolitan tradition itself. In increasing order of size, only in Naples it is possible to distinguish at least three subsets: the “a ruota di carretto” (wheel on a cart), the “napoletana classica” (classic Neapolitan) and the “a canotto” (dinghy) pizza.
In Rome too, there is a much-loved format of round pizza, known as just that,“pizza romana” (Roman pizza).
The defining feature of this type of pizza results from the flattening, rolling of the dough, which causes the loss of all fermentation gasses and creates a crunchy crust, which is very thin and flat.
Even the resistance of the bottom of the pizza differs from the Neapolitan one, being a less hydrated style of pizza it’s slightly stronger and crunchier than that of Neapolitan pizzas.
