Types of Pizza: 10 Different Styles of Pizza

There are many different types of pizza and many regional styles in the United States of America, Italy, and beyond. Here are ten types of pizzas:

1. 1. California: A California-style pizza uses a thin crust and ingredients commonly found or grown in the state, including nontraditional toppings like artichokes, goat cheese, feta cheese, ricotta, prosciutto, or red peppers. The California-style pizza arrived in the 1980s, introduced by chefs like Ed LaDou and Alice Waters, a pioneer of California cuisine.
2. 2. Chicago deep-dish: Chicago is home to one of the most decadent and thickest pizzas around, with crusts reaching two to three inches thick. Deep-dish–style pizza features layers of sauce over a thick amount of gooey cheese. You will have an easier time eating Chicago-style pizza with a fork and knife, especially if you add more toppings, like pepperoni or sausage, to the deep-dish pizza.
3. 3. Detroit: Detroit-style pizza is a rectangular, pan pizza with an extra thick crust, crispy bottom, and marinara sauce on top of the cheese. Chefs bake Detroit-style pizza in an industrial-sized square pan with lots of oil. The result is a crust with a chewy texture and crunchy bottom and edges.
4. 4. Greek: This Greek-style pizza, popular in New England pizzerias, features a crust baked in olive oil in a thin-lipped pan rather than on a pizza stone or in a deep dish like Chicago-style pizza. The resulting crust is very crisp from the oil but with an airy and soft interior. Feta cheese or provolone replaces the traditional mozzarella in Greek pizza. Other toppings include oregano, peppers, tomatoes, and olives.
5. 5. Neapolitan: Originating in Naples, Italy, Neapolitan pizza is a staple of Italian cuisine. The most classic type of Neapolitan pizza is a Margherita pizza, which uses San Marzano tomatoes, fresh buffalo mozzarella cheese, and fresh basil. This thin-crust pizza cooks in a wood-fired oven and has a crispy crust with just a hint of chew.
6. 6. New Haven: This city in Connecticut is home to thin, crisp pies—called apizza—cooked in coal ovens that give the pies their signature charred crust. New Haven–style pizzas are distinct for their crust and cooking technique, but toppings vary. One famous New Haven pizza is a white pie topped with clams, and another is a simple tomato pie topped with grated Parmesan cheese.
7. 7. New York: Created by Italian immigrants in New York City, New York–style pizza is an offshoot of the thin, crispy Neapolitan–style pizzas, but New York pizza dough contains oil and sugar and stretches into a thicker and sturdier crust. The oil lowers the amount of gluten formed and creates a tender, chewy pizza crust as the pizzas cook in a deck oven. You can get a New York slice across the New York City metropolitan area, from Brooklyn to New Jersey.
8. 8. Roman: Roman-style pizza is a crispy, rectangular pizza known as pizza al taglio (“pizza by the cut”) or pizza romana in Italy. Cut with scissors and sold by weight, this pizza is popular in bakeries and street food carts across Rome. Like focaccia, pizza al taglio is rectangular and works with a wide variety of toppings.
9. 9. Sicilian: Sicilian pizza, also known as sfincione (“thick sponge” in Italian), is a thick-crust, rectangular pizza from Sicily with a crust similar to focaccia bread. The thick, pillowy crust distinguishes Sicilian pizza from thin-crust Neapolitan pizza, Roman pizza, and New York–style pizza.
10. 10. St. Louis: A regional specialty in the Midwest, St. Louis–style pizza has a thin, cracker-like crust that doesn’t use yeast. Instead of pie-like wedges, you cut this pizza into squares or rectangles.

You can make many different kinds of pizza at home using pizza dough and ingredients like marinara sauce, olive oil, mozzarella or Parmesan cheese, and traditional toppings like pepperoni and anchovies, or you can experiment with toppings like pineapple and ham. Here are seven recipes to try for your next homemade pizza:

1. 1. Artichoke pizza: Artichoke pizza is a New York–style pizza with white cream sauce, spinach, and artichokes topped with mozzarella cheese and pecorino romano. The creamy topping of artichoke pizza closely resembles spinach-artichoke dip baked over a crispy pizza crust.
2. 2. BBQ chicken pizza: Topped with BBQ sauce, grilled chicken, and veggies like grilled red onions and peppers, a BBQ chicken pizza can be thin crust or thick crust. You can also make BBQ pizza with similar sauces, such as Buffalo sauce.
3. 3. Grandma pizza: You can make grandma pizza by baking it on a rimmed baking sheet coated in olive oil to create crispy-bottomed square slices of pizza. Topped with a layer of fresh mozzarella cheese and dollops of tomato sauce or sliced tomatoes, grandma pizza is a spin on an Italian classic and a great way to make crunchy, melty homemade pies without a pizza oven.
4. 4. Hawaiian pizza: Contrary to its namesake, Hawaiian pizza originated in Canada. To make Hawaiian pizza, top dough with tomato sauce, shredded mozzarella, diced pineapple, sliced ham, and red pepper flakes and then bake until golden.
5. 5. Margherita pizza: Margherita pizza is a classic Italian pizza traditionally topped with four ingredients: a simple tomato sauce, chewy mozzarella cheese, fresh basil, and extra-virgin olive oil. The key to tasty Margherita pizza is a crispy homemade crust, baked to golden-brown perfection in a high-heat oven and topped with high-quality Italian ingredients.
6. 6. Marinara pizza: Marinara pizza, also called a tomato pie, is a type of Neapolitan pizza that has no cheese. Marinara sauce, oregano, and fresh garlic are the only toppings in this recipe.
7. 7. Salad pizza: Make this healthy twist on pizza by baking your dough with nothing but olive oil on top. Once it's out of the oven, pile arugula and cherry tomatoes on top of the salad pizza and drizzle with olive oil, aged balsamic vinegar, and salt and pepper.

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