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Comment by riffraff | Hacker News Reader

In Italy there's a bunch of things called "pizza" which are not round flat bread.

Consider the pizza di Pasqua (dough with liquor, chocolate, cheese, +20cm tall), pizza alla pala (1.5m long), pizza sbattuta (sponge cake), pizza in teglia (rectangular and cut in square slices), and many more.

Could be related to pita, and I would not argue every culture on earth made flat round dough and put stuff on it, but it's a very large family.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizza_di_Pasqua

https://www.tasteatlas.com/pizza-alla-pala

https://blog.giallozafferano.it/inventaricette/pizza-sbattut...

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I have in front of me a reprint of Pellegrino Artusi's famous "la Scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene" (1891). It has a recipe for "Pizza alla napoletana" (recipe #609) which is a shortcrust filled with a cream of "ricotta, sweet almonds, sugar, lemon peel or vanilla, milk", about which he comments "... a me sembra che questo riesca un dolce di gusto squisito" - a dessert of exquisite taste.

He mentions two other pizze: "Pizza a libretti" and "Pizza gravida", both of them sweet. "Our" pizza is completely absent.

It is intriguing that the above 19th century "pizza" recipe is called alla napoletana given that Wikipedia states that "... modern pizza evolved from similar flatbread dishes in Naples, Italy, in the 18th or early 19th century."

Dessert pizza. The past truly is a foreign country.

Although I guess fry dough is basically dessert pizza if you think about it.

> In Italy there's a bunch of things called "pizza" which are not round flat bread.

True, although the canonical/widespread pizza is the round/flat one.

I've never heard of "Pizza di Pasqua" and "Pizza sbattuta" in Italy (I don't doubt they exist, but they must be very uncommon).

Pizza in teglia is common, at least in certain parts of Italy; I believe it's generally sold in bakeries rather than in pizzerias (restaurants).

Pizza alla pala is not so common in Italy, at least in restaurants (not that I remember). In other countries is very common in takeaways.

There's also a type of pizza that is round but thick, and with lower-quality toppings. I can't find any reference to it; it's somewhat widespread over Italy, but considered a "lesser pizza" :)

If you look at historical sources, what is called pizza, in i.e. Scampi's "Opera Nova" is more of a pie, that may be open or closed, sweet or savoury, and may not even have flour dough, but say almond flour

> There's also a type of pizza that is round but thick,

do you mean 'pizzetta'?

This is an example: https://imgur.com/a/PQlxEXc (not sure why Imgur tags it as mature).

I've found this type of pizza both in the north and in the south. The overall quality is consideraly lower, starting from the cheese, which is not mozzarella (I believe they use provola, which is cheaper).

oh god... that dough looks more like frozen pizza, apart from in some tourist traps I have never seen it served seriously in my area

I just want to add this because i think it’s interesting, but the word pasqua (Easter) actually comes from Passover. Also Passover in Italian is Pasqua ebraica.

>Passover in Italian is Pasqua ebraica

Funny, in Romanian, Pasqua(spelled Pasca) is a sweet bread Easter dish.

Pizza inferiore that you allude to without reference - this is the one often often found entombed in a cardboard box?

And delivered in 30 minutes or your next one is free?

In Berkshire County Massachusetts

> In Italy there's a bunch of things called "pizza" which are not round flat bread.

In certain regions of Southern Italy, the word 'pizza' also refers to a part of the male anatomy which is not flat.

Edit: feels good to be downvoted by people with socially acceptable sense of humor

Is "I will put my pizza in your oven" also a joke there ?

I know there are several versions of Pizza di Pasqua, but the one I'm more familiar with (and the one you link to) is made with cheese and is to be eaten on Easter breakfast with salami.

the one from my home town (Cerveteri, RM) is generally _mildly_ sweet with no cheese but eaten the same way on the same occasion :)

But in some families/bakeries it is done with Strega liquor or Alchermes liquor[0], and it's also good. It's only the one with chocolate bits[1], which I find heretical since you can't eat it with salty stuff :D

[0] like this https://blog.giallozafferano.it/dolcissimamentez/pizza-di-pa...

[1] https://www.ricettedellanonna.net/pizza-di-pasqua/

Etymology wise it’s a thing and loads of cultures around the Mediterranean have some similar words: https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/πίτα#Ancient_Greek

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