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A taco (US: /ˈtɑːkoʊ/, UK: /ˈtækoʊ/, Spanish: [ˈtako]) is a traditional Mexican dish consisting of a small hand-sized corn- or wheat-based tortilla topped with a filling. The tortilla is then folded around the filling and eaten by hand. A taco can be made with a variety of fillings, including beef, pork, chicken, seafood, beans, vegetables, and cheese, and garnished with various condiments, such as salsa, guacamole, or sour cream, and vegetables, such as lettuce, coriander, onion, tomatoes, and chiles.^[1] Tacos are a common form of antojitos, or Mexican street food, which have spread around the world.^[2]

Tacos can be contrasted with similar foods such as burritos, which are often much larger and rolled rather than folded; taquitos, which are rolled and fried; or chalupas/tostadas, in which the tortilla is fried before filling.

Etymology

The origins of the taco are not precisely known, and etymologies for the culinary usage of the word are generally theoretical.^[3][4] Taco in the sense of a typical Mexican dish comprising a maize tortilla folded around food is just one of the meanings connoted by the word, according to the Real Academia Española, publisher of Diccionario de la Lengua Española.^[5] This meaning of the Spanish word “taco” is a Mexican innovation,^[4] but the word “taco” is used in other contexts to mean “wedge; wad, plug; billiard cue; blowpipe; ramrod; short, stocky person; [or] short, thick piece of wood.”^[5] The etymological origin of this sense of the word is Germanic and has cognates in other European languages, including the French word tache and the English word “tack”.^[6]

In Spain, the word “taco” can also be used in the context of tacos de jamón [es]: these are diced pieces of ham, or sometimes bits and shavings of ham leftover after a larger piece is sliced.^[7] They can be served on their own as tapas or street food, or can be added to other dishes such as salmorejo, omelettes, stews, empanadas, or melón con jamón [es].^[8][9][10]

According to one etymological theory, the culinary origin of the term “taco” in Mexico can be traced to its employment, among Mexican silver miners, as a term signifying “plug.” The miners used explosive charges in plug form, consisting of a paper wrapper and gunpowder filling.^[3]

Indigenous origins are also proposed. One possibility is that the word derives from the Nahuatl word tlahco, meaning “half” or “in the middle”,^[11] in the sense that food would be placed in the middle of a tortilla.^[12] Furthermore, dishes analogous to the taco were known to have existed in Pre-Columbian society—for example, the Nahuatl word tlaxcalli (a type of corn tortilla).^[11]

History

There is significant debate about the origins of the taco in Mexico, with some arguing that the taco predates the arrival of the Spanish in Mexico, since there is anthropological evidence that the indigenous people living in the lake region of the Valley of Mexico traditionally ate tacos filled with small fish.^[13] Writing at the time of the Spanish conquistadors, Bernal Díaz del Castillo documented the first taco feast enjoyed by Europeans, a meal which Hernán Cortés arranged for his captains in Coyoacán.^[14][15] Others argue that the advent of the taco is much more recent, with one of the more popular theories being that the taco was invented by silver miners in the 18th century.^[13]

One of the oldest mentions of the term taco comes from an 1836 cookbook —Nuevo y sencillo arte de cocina, reposteria y refrescos— by Antonia Carrillo; in a recipe for a rolled pork loin (lomo de cerdo enrollado), she instructs the readers to roll the loin like they would a “taco de tortilla” or tortilla taco.^[16]

Another mention of the word taco comes from the novel —El hombre de la situación (1861)— by Mexican writer Manuel Payno:^[17]

“They surrounded the father’s bed, and he, putting a pillow on his legs, which served as a table, began to give the example, and a pleasant gathering was formed, which was completed by the mother, who always entered last, waving with one hand (from right to left) a large cup of white atole, while with the other, she carried right to her mouth, a tortilla taco filled with a spread of red chile.

These instances disprove the theory that the first mention of the word “taco” in Mexico was in the 1891 novel Los bandidos de Río Frío by Manuel Payno.^[18]

It should also be noted that term taco was regional, specifically from Mexico City and surrounding areas, and that other regional names existed. In Guanajuato, Guerrero, Michoacán, and San Luis Potosí, the terms used were burrito and burro; while in Yucatán and Quintana Roo the term used was codzito (coçito).^[19][20][21] Due to the cultural influence of Mexico City, the term taco became the default, and terms like burrito and codzito, either became forgotten or evolved to mean something different in modern times.

In 2024, El Califa de León in Mexico City became the first taco stand to win a Michelin star.^[22]

Traditional variations

• Tacos al pastor (“shepherd style”), tacos de adobada, or tacos árabes (“arab tacos”) are made of thin pork steaks seasoned with adobo seasoning, then skewered and overlapped on one another on a vertical rotisserie cooked and flame-broiled as it spins like shawarma.^[23][24] This variation has roots in Mexico’s Lebanese immigrant population.^[25][26][27]
• Tacos de asador (“spit” or “grill” tacos) may be composed of any of the following: carne asada tacos; tacos de tripita (“tripe tacos”), grilled until crisp; and, chorizo asado (traditional Spanish-style sausage). Each type is served on two overlapped small tortillas and sometimes garnished with guacamole, salsa, onions, and cilantro (coriander leaf). Also, prepared on the grill is a sandwiched taco called mulita (“little mule”) made with meat served between two tortillas and garnished with Oaxaca style cheese. Mulita is used to describe these types of sandwiched tacos in the Northern States of Mexico while they are known as gringas in the Mexican south and are prepared using wheat flour tortillas. Tacos may also be served with salsa.^[23][24]
• Tacos de cabeza (“head tacos”), in which there is a flat punctured metal plate from which steam emerges to cook the head of the cow. These include: Cabeza, a serving of the muscles of the head; Sesos (“brains”); Lengua (“tongue”); Cachete (“cheeks”); Trompa (“lips”); and, Ojo (“eye”). Tortillas for these tacos are warmed on the same steaming plate for a different consistency. These tacos are typically served in pairs, and also include salsa, onion, and cilantro (coriander leaf) with occasional use of guacamole.^[23][24]
• Tacos de camarones (“shrimp tacos”) also originated in Baja California in Mexico. Grilled or fried shrimp are used, usually with the same accompaniments as fish tacos: lettuce or cabbage, pico de gallo, avocado and a sour cream or citrus/mayonnaise sauce, all placed on top of a corn or flour tortilla.^[23][24][28]
• Tacos de cazo (literally “bucket tacos”) for which a metal bowl filled with lard is typically used as a deep-fryer. Meats for these types of tacos typically include Tripa (“tripe”, usually from a pig instead of a cow, and can also refer to the intestines); Suadero (tender beef cuts), Carnitas and Buche (literally, “crop“, as in bird’s crop; or the esophagus of any animal^[29]).^[23][24]
• Tacos de lengua (beef tongue tacos),^[30] which are cooked in water with onions, garlic, and bay leaves for several hours until tender and soft, then sliced and sautéed in a small amount of oil. “It is said that unless a taquería offers tacos de lengua, it is not a real taquería.”^[31]

• Tacos de pescado (“fish tacos”) originated in Baja California in Mexico, where they consist of grilled or fried fish, lettuce or cabbage, pico de gallo, and a sour cream or citrus/mayonnaise sauce, all placed on top of a corn or flour tortilla. In the United States, they were first popularized by the Rubio’s fast-food chain, and remain most popular in California, Colorado, and Washington. In California, they are often found at street vendors, and a regional variation is to serve them with cabbage and coleslaw dressing on top.^[23][24]
• Tacos dorados (fried tacos; literally, “golden tacos”) called flautas (“flute“, because of the shape), or taquitos, for which the tortillas are filled with pre-cooked shredded chicken, beef or barbacoa, rolled into an elongated cylinder and deep-fried until crisp. They are sometimes cooked in a microwave oven or broiled.^[23][24]
• Tacos sudados (“sweaty tacos”) are made by filling soft tortillas with a spicy meat mixture, then placing them in a basket covered with cloth. The covering keeps the tacos warm and traps steam (“sweat”) which softens them.^[23][32]
• Tacos de birria (stewed meat tacos) are made with goat or beef roasted or stewed with spices and typically served with the broth from cooking the meat as a dipping sauce. Originating in the Mexican state of Jalisco, birria was mentioned in a 1925 Article in the El Paso Herald. The taqueria, El Remedio in San Antonio, began offering birria de res tacos in their current form in Texas in 2018. Offerings by taco stands in California and across the Southwest United States began occurring at about the same time.^[33][34]

As an accompaniment to tacos, many taco stands will serve whole or sliced red radishes, lime slices, salt, pickled or grilled chilis (hot peppers), and occasionally cucumber slices, or grilled cambray onions.

• Tacos made with a carnitas filling
• Grilled shrimp taco
• Tacos de suadero (grey) and chorizo (red) being prepared at a taco stand
• Barbacoa tacos
• Taco al pastor with guacamole

Non-traditional variations

Hard-shell tacos

Main article: Hard-shell taco

The hard-shell or crispy taco is a tradition that developed in the United States. This type of taco is typically served as a crisp-fried corn tortilla filled with seasoned ground beef, cheese, lettuce, and sometimes tomato, onion, salsa, sour cream, and avocado or guacamole.^[35] Such tacos are sold by restaurants and by fast food chains, while kits are readily available in most supermarkets. Hard shell tacos are sometimes known as tacos dorados (“golden tacos”) in Spanish,^[36] a name that they share with taquitos.

Various sources credit different individuals with the invention of the hard-shell taco, but some form of the dish likely predates all of them.^[36] Beginning from the early part of the twentieth century, various types of tacos became popular in the country, especially in Texas and California but also elsewhere.^[37] By the late 1930s, companies like Ashley Mexican Food and Absolute Mexican Foods were selling appliances and ingredients for cooking hard shell tacos, and the first patents for hard-shell taco cooking appliances were filed in the 1940s.^[36] The first cookbook to provide a recipe for the hard-shell taco was The Good Life: New Mexican food, written by Fabiola Cabeza de Baca Gilbert and published in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1949.^[38]

In the mid-1950s, Glen Bell opened Taco Tia, and began selling a simplified version of the tacos being sold by Mexican restaurants in San Bernardino, particularly the tacos dorados being sold at the Mitla Cafe, owned by Lucia and Salvador Rodriguez across the street from another of Bell’s restaurants.^[36] Over the next few years, Bell owned and operated a number of restaurants in southern California including four called El Taco.^[39] The tacos sold at Bell’s restaurants were many Anglo Americans’ first introduction to Mexican food.^[36] Bell sold the El Tacos to his partner and built the first Taco Bell in Downey in 1962. Kermit Becky, a former Los Angeles police officer, bought the first Taco Bell franchise from Glen Bell in 1964,^[39] and located it in Torrance. The company grew rapidly, and by 1967, the 100th restaurant opened at 400 South Brookhurst in Anaheim. In 1968, its first franchise location east of the Mississippi River opened in Springfield, Ohio.^[40]

• A hard-shell taco, made with a prefabricated shell
• Common ingredients for North American hard-shell tacos
• A crispy taco from a Sacramento, California, taquería

Soft-shell tacos

Traditionally, soft-shelled tacos referred to corn tortillas that were cooked to a softer state than a hard taco – usually by grilling or steaming. More recently, the term has come to include flour-tortilla-based tacos mostly from large manufacturers and restaurant chains. In this context, soft tacos are tacos made with wheat flour tortillas and filled with the same ingredients as a hard taco.^[41]

Breakfast taco

The breakfast taco, found in Tex-Mex cuisine, is a soft corn or flour tortilla filled with meat, eggs, or cheese, which can also contain other ingredients.^[42] Some have claimed that Austin, Texas, is the home of the breakfast taco.^[43] However, food writer and OC Weekly editor Gustavo Arellano responded that such a statement reflects a common trend of “whitewashed” foodways reporting, noting that predominantly Hispanic San Antonio, Texas, “never had to brag about its breakfast taco love—folks there just call it ‘breakfast’”.^[44]

Indian taco

Indian tacos, or Navajo tacos, are made using frybread instead of tortillas. They are commonly eaten at pow-wows, festivals, and other gatherings by and for indigenous people in the United States and Canada.^[45][46]

This kind of taco is not known to have been present before the arrival of Europeans in what is now the Southwestern United States. Navajo tradition indicates that frybread came into use in the 1860s when the government forced the tribe to relocate from their homeland in Arizona in a journey known as the Long Walk of the Navajo. It was made from ingredients given to them by the government to supplement their diet since the region could not support growing the agricultural commodities that had been previously used.^[47]

• A puffy taco
• A frybread taco
• A fish taco on frybread

Puffy tacos, taco kits, and tacodillas

Since at least 1978, a variation called the “puffy taco” has been popular. Henry’s Puffy Tacos, opened by Henry Lopez in San Antonio, Texas, claims to have invented the variation, in which uncooked corn tortillas (flattened balls of masa dough^[48]) are quickly fried in hot oil until they expand and become “puffy”.^[49][50] Fillings are similar to hard-shell versions. Restaurants offering this style of taco have since appeared in other Texas cities, as well as in California, where Henry’s brother, Arturo Lopez, opened Arturo’s Puffy Taco in Whittier, not long after Henry’s opened.^[51][52] Henry’s continues to thrive, managed by the family’s second generation.^[49]

Kits are available at grocery and convenience stores and usually consist of taco shells (corn tortillas already fried in a U-shape), seasoning mix and taco sauce. Commercial vendors for the home market also market soft taco kits with tortillas instead of taco shells.^[53][54]

The tacodilla contains melted cheese in between the two folded tortillas, thus resembling a quesadilla

Pizza^[a][1] is an Italian dish typically consisting of a flat base of leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomato, cheese, and other ingredients, baked at a high temperature, traditionally in a wood-fired oven.

The term pizza was first recorded in 997 AD, in a Latin manuscript from the southern Italian town of Gaeta, in Lazio, on the border with Campania.^[2] Raffaele Esposito is often credited for creating the modern pizza in Naples.^[3][4][5][6] In 2009, Neapolitan pizza^[7] was registered with the European Union as a traditional speciality guaranteed (TSG) dish. In 2017, the art of making Neapolitan pizza was included on UNESCO‘s list of intangible cultural heritage.^[8]

Pizza and its variants are among the most popular foods in the world. Pizza is sold at a variety of restaurants, including pizzerias (pizza specialty restaurants), Mediterranean restaurants, via delivery, and as street food.^[9] In Italy, pizza served in a restaurant is presented unsliced, and is eaten with the use of a knife and fork.^[10][11] In casual settings, however, it is typically cut into slices to be eaten while held in the hand. Pizza is also sold in grocery stores in a variety of forms, including frozen or as kits for self-assembly. Store-bought pizzas are then cooked using a home oven.

In 2017, the world pizza market was US$128 billion, and in the US it was $44 billion spread over 76,000 pizzerias.^[12] Overall, 13% of the US population aged two years and over consumed pizza on any given day.^[13]

Etymology

The oldest recorded usage of the word pizza is thought to be from May 997 CE, appearing in the Codex diplomaticus Caietanus, a notarial Latin document from the town of Gaeta, then still part of the Byzantine Empire.^[14] The text states that a tenant of certain property is to give the bishop of Gaeta duodecim pizze (lit. ’twelve pizzas’),^[15] a pork shoulder and kidney annually on Christmas Day, and twelve pizzas and a couple of chickens annually on Easter Sunday.^[16]

Suggested etymologies include:

• Byzantine Greek and Late Latin pitta > pizza, cf. Modern Greek pitta bread and the Apulia and Calabrian (then Byzantine Italy) pitta,^[17] a round flat bread baked in the oven at high temperature sometimes with toppings. The word pitta can in turn be traced to either Ancient Greek πικτή (pikte), ‘fermented pastry’, which in Latin became picta, or Ancient Greek πίσσα (pissa, Attic: πίττα, pitta), ‘pitch’,^[18][19] or πήτεα (pḗtea), ‘bran’ (πητίτης, pētítēs, ‘bran bread’).^[20]
• The Etymological Dictionary of the Italian Language explains it as coming from dialectal pinza, ‘clamp’, as in modern Italian pinze, ‘pliers, pincers, tongs, forceps’. Their origin is from Latin pinsere, ‘to pound, stamp’.^[21]
• The Lombardic word bizzo or pizzo, meaning ‘mouthful’ (related to the English words bit and bite), which was brought to Italy in the middle of the 6th century AD by the invading Lombards.^[2][22] The shift b→p could be explained by the High German consonant shift, and it has been noted in this connection that in German the word Imbiss means ‘snack’.

A small pizza is sometimes called pizzetta.^[23] A person who makes pizza is known as a pizzaiolo.^[24]

The word pizza was borrowed from Italian into English in the 1930s; before it became well known, pizza was called “tomato pie” by English speakers. Some regional pizza variations still use the name tomato pie.^[25]

History

Main article: History of pizza

Records of pizza-like foods can be found throughout ancient history. In the 6th century BC, the Persian soldiers of the Achaemenid Empire during the rule of Darius the Great baked flatbreads with cheese and dates on top of their battle shields^[26][27] and the ancient Greeks supplemented their bread with oils, herbs, and cheese.^[28][29] An early reference to a pizza-like food occurs in the Aeneid, when Celaeno, queen of the Harpies, foretells that the Trojans would not find peace until they are forced by hunger to eat their tables (Book III). In Book VII, Aeneas and his men are served a meal that includes round cakes (such as pita bread) topped with cooked vegetables. When they eat the bread, they realize that these are the “tables” prophesied by Celaeno.^[30] In 2023, archeologists discovered a fresco in Pompeii appearing to depict a pizza-like dish among other foodstuffs and staples on a silver platter. Italy’s culture minister said it “may be a distant ancestor of the modern dish”.^[31][32] The first mention of the word pizza seemingly comes from a notarial document written in Latin and dating to 997 CE from Gaeta, demanding a payment of “twelve pizzas, a pork shoulder, and a pork kidney on Christmas Day, and 12 pizzas and a couple of chickens on Easter Day”.^[16]

Modern pizza evolved from similar flatbread dishes in Naples, Italy, in the 18th or early 19th century.^[33] Before that time, flatbread was often topped with ingredients such as garlic, salt, lard, and cheese. It is uncertain when tomatoes were first added and there are many conflicting claims,^[33] although it certainly could not have been before the 16th century and the Columbian Exchange. Pizza was sold from open-air stands and out of pizza bakeries until about 1830, when pizzerias in Naples started to have stanze with tables where clients could sit and eat their pizzas on the spot.^[34]

A popular legend holds that the archetypal pizza, pizza Margherita,^[35] was invented in 1889, when the Royal Palace of Capodimonte commissioned the Neapolitan pizzaiolo (‘pizza maker’) Raffaele Esposito to create a pizza in honor of the visiting Queen Margherita. Of the three different pizzas he created, the queen strongly preferred a pizza swathed in the colors of the Italian flag—red (tomato), white (mozzarella), and green (basil). Supposedly, this type of pizza was then named after the queen,^[36] with an official letter of recognition from the queen’s “head of service” remaining to this day on display in Esposito’s shop, now called the Pizzeria Brandi.^[37] Later research cast doubt on this legend, undermining the authenticity of the letter of recognition, pointing that no media of the period reported about the supposed visit and that both the story and name Margherita were first promoted in the 1930s–1940s.^[38][39]

Pizza was taken to the United States by Italian immigrants in the late 19th century^[40] and first appeared in areas where they concentrated. The country’s first pizzeria, Lombardi’s, opened in New York City in 1905.^[41] Italian Americans migrating from East to West brought the dish with them, and from there, the American version was exported to the rest of the world.^[42]

The Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (lit. ’True Neapolitan Pizza Association’) is a non-profit organization founded in 1984 with headquarters in Naples that aims to promote traditional Neapolitan pizza.^[43] In 2009, upon Italy’s request, Neapolitan pizza was registered with the European Union as a traditional speciality guaranteed (TSG) dish,^[44][45] and in 2017 the art of its making was included on UNESCO‘s list of intangible cultural heritage.^[8]

Preparation

Pizza is sold fresh or frozen, and whole or in portion-size slices. Methods have been developed to overcome challenges such as preventing the sauce from combining with the dough, and producing a crust that can be frozen and reheated without becoming rigid. There are frozen pizzas with raw ingredients and self-rising crusts.

In the US, another form of pizza is available from take and bake pizzerias. This pizza is assembled in the store, then sold unbaked to customers to bake in their own ovens. Some grocery stores sell fresh dough along with sauce and basic ingredients, to assemble at home before baking in an oven.

• Pizza preparation
• Pizza dough being kneaded before being left undisturbed and allowed time to proof
• Tossing pizza dough to stretch it
• An unbaked Neapolitan pizza on a metal peel, ready for the oven
• A wrapped, mass-produced frozen pizza to be baked at home

Baking

In restaurants, pizza can be baked in an oven with fire bricks above the heat source, an electric deck oven, a conveyor belt oven, or in traditional style in a wood or coal-fired brick oven. The pizza is slid into the oven on a long paddle, called “peel“, and baked directly on hot bricks, a screen (a round metal grate, typically aluminum), or whatever the oven surface is. Before use, a peel is typically sprinkled with cornmeal to allow the pizza to easily slide on and off it.^[46] When made at home, a pizza can be baked on a pizza stone in a regular oven to reproduce some of the heating effect of a brick oven. Cooking directly on a metal surface results in too rapid heat transfer to the crust, burning it.^[47] Some home chefs use a wood-fired pizza oven, usually installed outdoors. As in restaurants, these are often dome-shaped, as pizza ovens have been for centuries,^[48] in order to achieve even heat distribution. Another variation is grilled pizza, in which the pizza is baked directly on a barbecue grill. Some types, such as Sicilian pizza, are baked in a pan rather than directly on the bricks of the pizza oven.

Most restaurants use standard and purpose-built pizza preparation tables to assemble their pizzas. Mass production of pizza by chains can be completely automated.

• Pizza baking
• Pizzas baking in a traditional wood-fired brick oven
• A pizza being removed with a wooden peel
• A pizza Margherita
• Charred crust on a pizza Margherita, an acceptable trait in artisanal pizza
• Pizza grilling on an outdoor gas range

Crust

The bottom of the pizza, called the “crust”, may vary widely according to style—thin as in a typical hand-tossed Neapolitan pizza or thick as in a deep-dish Chicago-style. It is traditionally plain, but may also be seasoned with garlic or herbs, or stuffed with cheese. The outer edge of the pizza is sometimes referred to as the cornicione.^[49] Some pizza dough contains sugar, to help its yeast rise and enhance browning of the crust.^[50]

Cheese

Mozzarella is commonly used on pizza, with the buffalo mozzarella produced in the surroundings of Naples.^[51] Other cheeses are also used, particularly burrata, Gorgonzola, provolone, pecorino romano, ricotta, and scamorza. Less expensive processed cheeses or cheese analogues have been developed for mass-market pizzas to produce desirable qualities such as browning, melting, stretchiness, consistent fat and moisture content, and stable shelf life. This quest to create the ideal and economical pizza cheese has involved many studies and experiments analyzing the impact of vegetable oil, manufacturing and culture processes, denatured whey proteins, and other changes in manufacture. In 1997, it was estimated that annual production of pizza cheese was 1 million metric tons (1,100,000 short tons) in the US and 100,000 metric tons (110,000 short tons) in Europe.^[52]

Varieties and styles

Main article: List of pizza varieties by country

A great number of pizza varieties exist, defined by the choice of toppings and sometimes also crust. There are also several styles of pizza, defined by their preparation method. The following lists feature only the notable ones.

Varieties

Image	Name	Characteristic ingredients	Origin	First attested	Notes
	Pizza Margherita	Tomatoes, mozzarella, basil.	Naples, Italy	June 1889	The archetypical Neapolitan pizza.
	Pizza marinara	Tomato sauce, olive oil, oregano, garlic. No cheese.	Naples, Italy	1734	One of the oldest Neapolitan pizza.
	Pizza capricciosa	Ham, mushrooms, artichokes, egg.	Rome, Lazio, Italy	1937	Similar to pizza quattro stagioni, but with toppings mixed rather than separated.
	Pizza quattro formaggi	Prepared using four types of cheese (Italian: [ˈkwattro forˈmaddʒi], ‘four cheeses’): mozzarella, Gorgonzola and two others depending on the region.	Lazio, Italy	Its origins are not clearly documented, but it is believed to originate from the Lazio region at the beginning of the 18th century.[53]
	Pizza quattro stagioni	Artichokes, mushroom, ham, tomatoes.	Campania, Italy		The toppings are separated by quarter, representing the cycle of the seasons.
	Seafood pizza	Seafood, such as fish, shellfish or squid.	Italy		Subvarieties include pizza ai frutti di mare (no cheese) and pizza pescatore (with mussels or squid).

Styles

Image	Name	Characteristics	Origin	First attested
	Calzone	Pizza folded in half turnover-style.	Naples, Italy	1700s
	Deep fried pizza (pizza fritta)	The pizza is deep fried (cooked in oil) instead of baked.	Naples, Italy
	Pizzetta	Small pizza served as an hors d’oeuvre or snack.	Italy
	California-style pizza	Distinguished by the use of non-traditional ingredients, especially varieties of fresh produce.	California, U.S.	1980
	Chicago-style pizza	Baked in a pan with a high edge that holds in a thick layer of toppings. The crust is sometimes stuffed with cheese or other ingredients.	Chicago, U.S.	c. 1940s
	Colorado-style pizza	Made with a characteristically thick, braided crust topped with heavy amounts of sauce and cheese. It is traditionally served by the pound, with a side of honey as a condiment.	Colorado, U.S.	1973
	Detroit-style pizza	The cheese is spread to the edges and caramelizes against the high-sided heavyweight rectangular pan, giving the crust a lacy, crispy edge.	Detroit, U.S.	1946
	New York–style pizza	Neapolitan-derived pizza with a characteristic thin foldable crust.	New York metropolitan area (and beyond)	Early 1900s
	St. Louis–style pizza	The style has a thin cracker-like crust made without yeast, generally uses Provel cheese, and is cut into squares or rectangles instead of wedges.	St. Louis, U.S.	1945

By region of origin

Italy

Authentic Neapolitan pizza (Italian: pizza napoletana) is made with San Marzano tomatoes, grown on the volcanic plains south of Mount Vesuvius, and either mozzarella di bufala campana, made with milk from water buffalo raised in the marshlands of Campania and Lazio,^[55] or fior di latte.^[56] Buffalo mozzarella is protected with its own European protected designation of origin (PDO).^[55] Other traditional pizzas include pizza marinara, supposedly the most ancient tomato-topped pizza,^[57] pizza capricciosa, which is prepared with mozzarella cheese, baked ham, mushroom, artichoke, and tomato.^[58]

A popular variant of pizza in Italy is Sicilian pizza (locally called sfincione or sfinciuni),^[59][60] a thick-crust or deep-dish pizza originating during the 17th century in Sicily: it is essentially a focaccia that is typically topped with tomato sauce and other ingredients. Until the 1860s, sfincione was the type of pizza usually consumed in Sicily, especially in the Western portion of the island.^[61] Other variations of pizzas are also found in other regions of Italy, for example pizza al padellino or pizza al tegamino, a small-sized, thick-crust, deep-dish pizza typically served in Turin, Piedmont.^[62][63][64]

United States

Main article: Pizza in the United States

The first pizzeria in the US was opened in New York City’s Little Italy in 1905.^[65] Common toppings for pizza in the United States include anchovies, ground beef, chicken, ham, mushrooms, olives, onions, peppers, pepperoni, pineapple, salami, sausage, spinach, steak, and tomatoes. Distinct regional types developed in the 20th century, including Buffalo,^[66] California, Chicago, Detroit, Greek, New Haven, New York, and St. Louis styles.^[67] These regional variations include deep-dish, stuffed, pockets, turnovers, rolled, and pizza-on-a-stick, each with seemingly limitless combinations of sauce and toppings.

Thirteen percent of the United States population consumes pizza on any given day.^[68] Pizza chains such as Domino’s Pizza, Pizza Hut, and Papa John’s, pizzas from take and bake pizzerias, and chilled or frozen pizzas from supermarkets make pizza readily available nationwide.

Argentina

Main article: Argentine pizza

Argentine pizza is a mainstay of the country’s cuisine,^[69] especially of its capital Buenos Aires, where it is regarded as a cultural heritage and icon of the city.^[70][71][72] Argentina is the country with the most pizzerias per inhabitant in the world and, although they are consumed throughout the country, the highest concentration of pizzerias and customers is Buenos Aires, the city with the highest consumption of pizzas in the world (estimated in 2015 to be 14 million per year).^[73] As such, the city has been considered as one of the world capitals of pizza.^[71][73] The dish was introduced to Buenos Aires in the late 19th century with the massive Italian immigration, as part of a broader great European immigration wave to the country.^[71] Thus, around the same time that the iconic pizza Margherita^[74] was being invented in Italy, pizza were already being cooked in the Argentine capital.^[75] The impoverished Italian immigrants that arrived to the city transformed the originally modest dish into a much more hefty meal, motivated by the abundance of food in Argentina.^[73][76] In the 1930s, pizza was cemented as a cultural icon in Buenos Aires, with the new pizzerias becoming a central space for sociability for the working class people who flocked to the city.^[76][75]

The most characteristic style of Argentine pizza—which almost all the classic pizzerias in Buenos Aires specialize in—is the so-called pizza de molde (Spanish for ‘pizza in the pan’), characterized by having a “thick, spongy base and elevated bready crust”.^[71] This style, which today^[when?] is identified as the typical style of Argentine pizza—characterized by a thick crust and a large amount of cheese—arose when impoverished Italian immigrants found a greater abundance of food in then-prosperous Argentina, which motivated them to transform the originally modest dish into a much more hefty meal suitable for a main course.^[73][76] The name pizza de molde emerged because there were no pizza ovens in the city, so bakers resorted to baking them in pans.^[77] Since they used bakery plates, Argentine pizzas were initially square or rectangular, a format associated with the 1920s that is still maintained in some classic pizzerias, especially for vegetable pizzas, fugazzetas or fugazzas.^[77]

Other styles of Argentine pizza include the iconic fugazza and its derivative fugazzeta or fugazza con queso (a terminology that varies depending on the pizzeria),^[71] or the pizza de cancha or canchera (a cheese-less variant).^[78] Most pizza menus include standard flavor combinations, including the traditional plain mozzarella, nicknamed “muza” or “musa“; the napolitana or “napo“, with “cheese, sliced tomatoes, garlic, dried oregano and a few green olives”, not to be confused with Neapolitan pizza;^[71] calabresa, with slices of longaniza;^[79] jamon y morrones, with sliced ham and roasted bell peppers;^[71] as well as versions with provolone, with anchovies,^[79] with hearts of palm, or with chopped hard boiled egg.^[71] A typical custom that is unique to Buenos Aires is to accompany pizza with fainá, a pancake made from chickpea flour.^[80]

Dessert pizza

The terms dessert pizza and sweet pizza are used for a variety of dishes resembling a pizza, including chocolate pizza and fruit pizza.^[81][82] Some are based on a traditional yeast dough pizza base,^[83] while others have a cookie-like base^[84] and resemble a traditional pizza solely in having a flat round shape with a distinct base and topping. Some pizza restaurants offer dessert pizzas.^[85][86]

Nutrition

Some pizzas mass-produced by American pizza chains have been criticized as having an unhealthy balance of ingredients. Pizza can be high in salt and fat, and is high in calories. The USDA reports an average sodium content of 5,100 mg per 14 in (36 cm) pizza in fast food chains.^[87][88][89]

Similar dishes

• Calzone and stromboli are similar dishes that are often made of pizza dough folded (calzone) or rolled (stromboli) around a filling.
• Coca is a similar dish consumed mainly in Catalonia and neighboring regions, but that has extended to other areas in Spain, and to Algeria. There are sweet and savory versions.
• Farinata or cecina is a Ligurian (farinata) and Tuscan (cecina) regional dish.^[90] It is often baked in a brick oven, and typically weighed and sold by the slice.
• Flammekueche is a food speciality of the Alsace region.
• Focaccia is a flat leavened oven-baked Italian bread, similar in style and texture to pizza; in some places, it is called pizza bianca (lit. ’white pizza’).^[91]
• Garlic fingers is an Atlantic Canadian dish, similar to a pizza in shape and size, and made with similar dough. It is garnished with melted butter, garlic, cheese, and sometimes bacon.
• İçli pide, or simply pide, is a Turkish dish, similar to a pizza in being made of wheat-based dough topped with tomato, cheese, and other ingredients, and usually formed in a boat-like shape.
• Khachapuri is a Georgian cheese-filled bread.
• Lahmacun is a Middle Eastern flatbread topped with minced meat; the base is very thin, and the layer of meat often includes chopped vegetables.^[92]
• Manakish is a Levantine flatbread dish.
• Matzah pizza is a Jewish pizza dish.
• Panzerotti are similar to calzones, but fried rather than baked.
• Pastrmalija is a bread pie made from dough and meat. It is usually oval-shaped with chopped meat on top of it.
• Piadina is a thin Italian flatbread, typically prepared in the Romagna historical region.
• Pissaladière is similar to an Italian pizza, with a slightly thicker crust and a topping of cooked onions, anchovies, and olives.
• Pizza bagel is a bagel with toppings similar to that of traditional pizzas.
• Okonomiyaki, often referred to as “Japanese pizza”, is a Japanese dish cooked on a hotplate.^[93]
• Pizza cake is a multiple-layer pizza.
• Pizza rolls are a frozen snack product.
• Pizza strips is a tomato pie of Italian-American origin.
• Wähe is a Swiss type of tart.
• Zanzibar pizza is a street food served in Stone Town, Zanzibar, Tanzania. It uses a dough much thinner than pizza dough, almost like filo dough, filled with minced beef, onions, and an egg, similar to Moroccan basṭīla.^[94]
• Zwiebelkuchen is a German onion tart, often baked with diced bacon and caraway seeds.