20 Types Of Pizza Around The World

Humans have been eating bread with toppings for thousands of years. One of the earliest references was by the Roman poet Virgil, who described "thin wheaten cakes as platters for their meal" in his epic poem Aeneid. The characters top their "wheaten cakes" with foraged mushrooms and herbs and when they finish, one of them remarks, "Look! We've even eaten our plates!" Fast forward 2000 years — past the advent of margherita pizza in 1889 — and the joy of Virgil's "wheaten cakes" can be seen across the world. 

In 2015, Americans were eating 100 acres of pizza a day — that's about 80 football fields — and in 2022, the western European pizza market reached a value of $58 billion, just shy of North America's $58.3 billion. Pizza today is a dish that reflects many local tastes and cultures. Consequently, pizzas may be thin or thick, sweet or savory, topped with anything from pork, egg, or beef to olives, anchovies, onions, and even batter. Here are 20 types of pizza from around the world. 

Flammkuchen is from the Alsace region on the French/German border and it consists of thin, crunchy dough topped with soured cream and sprinkled with onions and cured ham — typically small pieces of streaky bacon or finely diced schinken, which is similar to lardons, only less fatty. 

Flammkuchen is a lighter pizza style that can blur the line between appetizer and main; in any case, it provides a simple balance of dairy, garlic, and umami flavors that pair very well with beers from Alsace or any other German region, for that matter. (We tried this dish in Bavaria, hundreds of miles from Alsace.) 

The French city of Nice was under Italian control as recently as the 1850s, and it shows in the food. Pissaladiere is a round or rectangular pizza tart topped with olives, anchovies, and herbs upon a thick layer of caramelized onions, producing a sweet, salty, and oily dish that can serve as a hors d'oeuvre or a full meal.

Every recipe has a contention or two; in pissaladiere's case, there are disagreements about dough. Caroline Craig, author of "Provence: Recipes from the French Mediterranean," believes that authentic pissaladiere is made with bread dough. Others believe that buttery shortcrust pastry is the superior base to work with.

Americans may know Sicilian pizza as a thick, crisp, and rectangular offering lathered in tomato sauce and covered with cheese and assorted toppings, but that's now how it is in the old country.

The original style of Sicilian pizza — known by locals as sfincione in Italian or sfinciuni in the Sicilian dialect — has a focaccia-like form that's thick but thinner than its American derivative. There is a tomato base, too, but it is smeared rather than smothered. Then, instead of mozzarella in the American recipe, Palermo street food vendors opt for local cheeses such as caciocavallo or pecorino. 

Chef, writer, and philosopher Vincenzo Corrado chronicled the Neapolitan pizza — or pizza Napoletana — in the early 18th century. He described what we now know as the marinara: a simple dough base with tomato sauce, garlic, and basil leaves. 

Cheese wouldn't appear until 1889 when fabled pizza chef Raffaele Esposito added mozzarella and created a new variation — the margherita pizza. Legend has it that Esposito made the dish to honor Queen Margherita of Savoy, presenting an item that was humble, delicious, and emblematic of the red (tomatoes), white (mozzarella), and green (basil leaves) of the Italian flag. 

Tlayuda or "Mexican pizza" is a popular street food — or antojito — found in Oaxaca, southern Mexico. The traditional dish comprises a large, corn tortilla that is baked and dried to produce a rigid base that can support a wide range of toppings including refried beans, lettuce, salsa, cheese, sliced tomato, avocado, beef, chicken, and pork. 

The effect is a thin and crispy pizza-like item bursting with fresh, meaty, and zesty flavors. The best examples of the dish remain in Oaxaca, but you can expect some decent offerings far to the north in Mexico City, too. 

Khachapuri is a big deal in Georgia. The small central Asian state is host to 47 varieties of the cheesy bread dish including the Adjarian style, which mixes flour, yeast, salt, cheese, butter, and an egg. 

The dough is not so much a base as a bathtub, for it is prepared with a thick ridge that holds the cheese, butter, and egg in its core. Don't worry about spillages, though. Just rip the ridge away, bit by bit, and dip them in the indulgent mixture. It will only take a few bites to discover why khachapuri is so dear to Georgians' hearts. 

The Jewish holiday of Passover may forbid the consumption of leavened bread, but that doesn't mean pizza can't be kosher. The answer is matzah, an unleavened flatbread that can serve as a thin base for cheese, tomato and whatever else is required, namely artichokes, olives, and mushrooms. 

Matzah pizza can be prepared by simply arranging the toppings on the bread and slotting it in the oven for about five minutes at 350 F, but some chefs recommend softening matzah by soaking it for 10 minutes or so. 

Chicago's famous deep-dish pizza can be traced back to 1943 when entrepreneurs Ike Sewell and Ric Riccardo made it the star meal of their new restaurant, Pizzeria Uno. The deep dish took the Margherita and turned it into a huge savoury pie with layers of meat, cheese, vegetables and a thick, golden crust. 

Pizzeria Uno is franchised across the world under the name Uno Chicago Grill, but the original restaurant remains with the same name and it is joined by numerous rival restaurants such as Lou Malnati's Pizzeria, Giordano's, and Gino's East. 

Detroit-style pizza was born in 1946 at Buddy's Rendezvous, a former speakeasy ​​at 6 Mile and Conant. In a romantic piece of Motor City legend, Gus Guerra and his staff used steel pans from nearby auto plants to bake a batch of rectangular pizzas. 

This form was novel not just in appearance but also texture and taste. Guerra double-stretched the dough to ensure it was thick but also fluffy, and he seasoned the pan to keep a lively flavor throughout the dense, heavy pie. The mix of Wisconsin brick cheese with a dash of oil was an inspired choice, too, for it produced the rich, buttery taste that is perhaps the most distinguishing feature of the style. 

Supply chains in communist Poland were not conducive to culinary innovation. At some point in the 1970s, struggling cooks managed to improvise a hearty street food they called zapiekanka, which involved cutting a baguette lengthwise and adding butter, cheese, and white mushrooms before toasting it golden brown and adding ketchup to taste. 

Decades later, this modest treat can be found in towns and cities across Poland and especially in Krakow, where it is served at the Plac Nowy roundhouse. Perhaps the most tempting thing about zapiekanka is how easy it is — it's a great substitute for an expensive, mediocre takeout meal.