New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Your guide to pizza varieties around Connecticut
There are so many styles of pizza, trying to think of them all might make your brain overheat faster than a coal-fired oven. In fact, one pizza expert claims there are more than 30 variations.
Here, we focus on the main pizza styles served in Connecticut restaurants — sorry, fans of Chicago deep dish and Buffalo style — and roll out the key characteristics of each.
Neapolitan | Traditional
The progenitor pizza, this style originated in Naples in the late 18th century. An invention of the city’s poorer residents, the dish features fresh, simple, inexpensive and readily available ingredients such as basic dough and raw tomatoes.
Typically, pies are made with more sauce than cheese, leaving the center somewhat soggy, and necessitating a relatively small (10 to 12 inches) size.
Traditional toppings: Fresh mozzarella, Italian tomatoes, basil leaves, oregano and olive oil.
Baking method: Wood-fired oven, between 800 and 1,000 degrees, for no more than 90 seconds, resulting in a bubbly, moderately charred outer crust.
New Haven | Traditional
A Neapolitan variety originating around the Wooster Street neighborhood, New Haven apizza is thinner than New York style, has more of an oblong shape, and proudly features charred crust from the center to the edges.
Traditional toppings: Unlike Neapolitan and New York styles, New Haven pies do not come standard with “mootz.” If you want it, you better ask for it. Other toppings options are similar to New York style. Fresh littleneck clams arrive on the famous white clam pies.
Baking method: Traditionally baked in a coal-fired oven at
temperatures above 650 degrees.
New York |Traditional
When most people — especially non-Connecticans — think of pizza, this is likely what they picture. A descendant of Neapolitan pizza, New York style is thinner, bigger and can hold more toppings. The crust’s unique flavor is often attributed to the minerals in New York’s public water supply.
Traditional toppings:
In addition to tomato sauce and mozzarella, a New York slice can handle a greater variety of toppings, including meats, veggies and seafood, compared to its Neapolitan ancestor. Condiments like oregano, red pepper flakes and Parmesan cheese are often added.
Baking method: Some purists say these should be cooked in a wood- or coal-burning oven, but gas ovens are ubiquitous these days. Temperatures are a touch lower than Neapolitan.
Tavern/bar | Modern
Many Chicagoans will tell you this, not deep dish, is the true style loved by locals. In fact, it’s just about the opposite of deep dish, as the circular pie is extremely thin, with a cracker-crisp crust. Tavern slices are much smaller and are cut into squares or triangles, good for
sharing with a group over pints.
In Connecticut, tavern-style pies were popularized by Colony Grill, which began in Stamford, and have since expanded across the state and beyond, with its signature hot oil pies and triangular slices.
Other Connecticut pizza places have since followed suit, and you can find thin bar pies at an expanding number of eateries.
Traditional toppings:
Tomato sauce and mozzarella are often paired with one or two other toppings — fennel-seed sausage chunks are popular — as more might overwhelm the thin crust’s structural integrity.
Baking method: Coal and wood fires need not apply; tavern pies are crisped in deck ovens powered by gas or electricity.
Gourmet/California | Modern
Think New York or Neapolitan crust with defiantly nonstandard toppings. Invented in the Golden State around 1980, it formed the basis for the menu of the California Pizza Kitchen restaurants. Sometimes referred to as artisanal pizza, the style gave us barbecue chicken pizza.
Traditional toppings: It’s all about breaking free of tradition, and using fresh, premium items to come up with creative concoc