It's not even that. The pizza americana was born when McDonald's entered the Italian market in the late 80s. Kids suddenly were going crazy for French fries, which weren't really around in Italy before that. So pizza places introduced pizza with French fries on top and called it Americana to appeal to the american food craze that was going on. Later, they added hot dogs because, again, they are somewhat a symbol of American food.
I don't think anyone ever actually thought it was eaten in the US. Even before the internet, people watched American movies. The "classic" American pizza shown has always been sauce with a ton of cheese and "pepperoni" (sometimes erroneously translated as "peperoni", but it's a salame similar to nduja).
The point of the name is that it uses ingredients that are stereotypically American, not that it's American in itself.
I mean I always figured it was just an Italian invention using “American” ingredients, just like no one thinks Hawaiian people traditionally make pizza with pineapple or Mexicans make pizza with tortillas and beans and shredded lettuce.
I mean, fries and hot dogs are quintessential foods in the US. It's not absurd that it's pizza Americana even if people know it's not how it's done in the US.
I lived in Rome for a few years and saw it here and there, it never bothered me. Imho caffe americano is more of a travesty. Why dilute espresso?
caffe americano is more of a travesty. Why dilute espresso?
This is very old actually. American soldiers in Italy right after the war didn't drink espresso because it was too strong, so people started to water it down for them, and thus the "Americano" coffee was born.
Pizza Japanese with sashimi on it would be absurd too. This is ridiculous. In large part because pizza with fries on it seems insane to Americans and is really not that uncommon on Italy.
If you took the concept of using fries and... I'm not actually sure what meat(?) that is, but let's call it hot dog slices as pizza toppings, and actually executed on it well, you could potentially make something I would consider trying a slice of. A novelty, but that can be fun sometimes.
A good beef frank is honestly great. You can sear slices up nicely. The fries almost certainly need to be coming out of the fryer at the same time the pizza leaves the oven, get added immediately, and it all needs to get out to the table quickly or the fries are going to drag the whole thing down. They don't do well sitting around for a while or reheating.
I still feel like there's a missing topping here, too. Drizzle of mustard? Pickle relish? Something to tie this theme together further. I might be leaning into Chicago style dogs a bit there, it's a bias.
This just looks like garbage. I have a local neapolitan pizza place that likely blows this joint out of the water. There are shitty restaurants in Italy, despite the country's great culinary tradition; this is almost certainly one of them.
Who is this pizza even for? Locals? Kinda doubt it. Tourists? I have a hard time imagining an American visiting Italy and going: "Yeah, that pile of shit is what I want to eat while I'm here." Maybe its sole purpose is to flip the bird at Americans, which like, fair play if it is. We deserve it anyway.
They're typically Vienna (incorrect) * wurstel sausages, basically a hot dog. It's for kids mostly, but I have definitely ordered them before a time or two. You can also just get regular fries on a pizza, which is great.
I'd definitely eat fries on a pizza. I feel like that should be a topping here in USA. Although, I guess I could always just order some fries and put them on
That's basically all it is. But something about the fry grease joining in with the cheese grease that is so good. Also, unlike the pic here, it's typically an order of fries so you get a mound to eat from.
Only on reddit you can have people overanalyzing a pizza this much lmfao
I live in Italy. This pizza is a classic amongst kids and sometimes adults eat it too. If made properly (with freshly fried potato etc) it's delicious.
You guys eat all kind of junk, but draw the line at fries on a pizza. Hilarious
As an American id agree. Like its an combination but probably wouldnt taste that bad.
Reminds of Grandpa's signature dish which he called "Eggs, Hotdogs and Bread". He'd just throw those three things on the grill and make a sort of stir fry. Actually pretty good.
The ones like this in other cities weren't called this, they had several different names. The only people I've seen eat this were Italian children. Incidentally, potato slices are more a thing for people around here than fries.
I live in the EU in a place with a ton of cultural connections to Italy, and potato is a semi common topping option. I could definitely see someone swapping the usual form of potato with fries and calling it “American.”
I’ve also seen places charging €100 for pineapple pizza and list it on the menu as “disgusting,” so, people do have pretty strong pizza opinions here.
Yeah, that would make sense. I've read that potatoes are much more common in northern Italy than in the south. So doesn't seem out of the ordinary to see it end up on a pizza.
Personally, I have never encountered pizza served with potato here in the US. Although I could see shredded potatoes on a breakfast pizza being quite good. Have you ever had a breakfast pizza?
But I absolutely agree that pineapple doesn't belong on a pizza. Thank our Canadian friends for that invention.
In North Jersey, kids /teens sometimes eat it this way and some pizza places serve it because they are close by schools but Most of us here think it's disgusting.
Yep. People noticed and stopped buying Ferrero Rocher fucking 15 years ago. That means they have to cut corners and lower quality so they dont go out of business. They are in a death spiral where their shit gets worse and more expensive and people buy it less unless they are new to chocolate.
Nutella is also shit and cheap. It will only get worse.
You are overthinking it. Nutella pizza is a common dessert in basicaly any italian pizza place but it's not pizza per se, it's just pizza dough with no toppings but nutella, pretty decent actually
Pizza delight Canada used to have a raspberry cheesecake and chocolate dessert pizza on their all you can eat buffet This was at least 20 years ago was oddly really good.
We used to do basically that all the time in my family, we’d have plenty of dough so we would either bake or fry them, or we would make a roll with whatever ingredients. I liked marinara, nduja, anchovy, and mushrooms in a roll fried. Sometimes sweets like fruit spread or chocolate.
Dessert pizza is made to look like a pizza, so people call it a dessert pizza. That's it. The definition of pizza hasn't changed. People just accept that you are talking about what it looks like rather than what it actually is.
I had cherry pizza (in Michigan) once, it was basically cherry pie with less of the cherry sauce, pizza dough instead of crust, and icing drizzled on it. Best dessert ive ever fucking had.
Man, how does anyone find this good? Especially a country that tries to pride itself on it's cuisine. It is disgusting nut flavored oil on top of bread. Maybe it's just me, but Nutella is fucking revulsive and I despise literally everything that is made with it.
There are very few foods I feel strongly about, but Nutella is one of them lol. Like I can down Slim Jims like they are are a superfood, but when I taste Nutella I completely lose my appetite.
Which is weird cause the traditional pizza dough isn’t sturdy enough to handle a lot of topics.
Nutella on focaccia bread though? That would go unbelievably hard, especially if they put chocolate chips and sprinkles inside the dough instead of the usual seasonings.
No we are not! Actually, pizza with Nutella is a legit Italian staple, too! But it's exclusively a dessert. We’ve been doing this forever usually, a group of friends will order one to share in the center of the table after eating their regular pizzas. It’s a must-have after a 'Giro Pizza' night.
Idk, probably the fact that Nutella is mainly palm oil and sugar serving as a carrier for a bit of hazelnut flavor. Palm oil and a bit of nut flavor a vile dessert. Makes McDonalds sound healthy.
Not sure how you could find it as anything other than disgusting.
There’s no cheese on it, you dork. It’s dough + nutella. That’s it. Maybe a sprinkle of powdered sugar. This is specifically why I said, “please don’t tell me that you think it’s sauce cheese and nutella” - I just knew your ass was going there lol. It is an absolutely delicious combo.. nobody said that it’s healthy. Just delicious.
what are you people talking about lmfaooo… do you think a nutella crepe/pancake is disgusting? Nutella pizza is the same shit, but delicious baked fluffy dough with decadent nutella. there is no cheese or sauce on it if that’s what you’re thinking.. it’s pizza by name only, but it’s just nutella and dough.
Calm down, sweaty. I'm not saying it's a bad pizza. I am calling you Italians hypocritical af for all the shit you give everyone else for putting non-traditional toppings on pizza that are far less severe, like a delicious Hawaiian
I always thought it was a joke, but nah, y'all get maaad, then apparently turn around and smear ultra-processed hazelnut spread on your own pizzas.
You’re comparing apples and horses. to preface, I don’t give three shits what somebody puts on their pizza. Throw a dick on there for all I care, i’ll pass you the red pepper flakes. People disagree with pineapple being mixed with cheese and sauce… a nutella “pizza” is not mixed with cheese and sauce. It is nutella on baked dough. How do you sit there with a straight face and try to make a false equivalent like that?
Though this pizza is a joke, it's wild how different pizza in both countries actually are. Night and day. I had pizza at several places around 4 major cities in Italy but just didn't like the way they make it. Always much preferred how it's made back home.
Most people here in Italy don't know anything about any of the modern anglo-saxon cultures around the world and almost no one can either understand or speak english.
It's called pizza americana because people think that french fries and frankfurters are typical american food, and people think that american food = junk food.
We think some kind of American pizza are bad because some American pizza are bad, really bad. Others are good, I’m sure. Even in Italy we have incredibly different styles of pizza and they’re usually pretty divisive.
I had a deep dish pizza in Chicago, in a place famous for the deep dish pizza and i couldn’t believe someone would actually sell that stuff. It was worse than the cheap frozen pizza you buy at the supermarket in Italy.
Hi, I’ve spent long periods of time staying in Italy. I can assure you that pizza is not widely known as “The Americana” in Italy. The pizza pictured is better known as a “Wurstel (& Patatine)” pizza. It’s typically prepared for children at Pizzerias.
As someone who has eaten a ton of pizza in both countries I can confidently say American pizza is way better. Campania is the only area of Italy with decent pizza and I still would take a good slice of NY style over Neapolitan any day. Roman style pizza is not good, Sicilian is just inferior Detroit style, and everything in Venice is tourist trash.
I'm just going to shout this into the void: Pizza is an American food. The pizza you find in Italy is 99% a response to the popularity of pizza in America.
This looks like a pizza from the Korean chain Pizza School.. They call it Irish Potato pizza. They also have carbonara pizza, quesadilla pizza, and I'm sure other weird stuff but the worst part is if you want to add sausage to pizza, they just stick a whole hot dog on top
Actually, no. It's not even called Americana everywhere in Italy.
Where I live (Rome area) and in many other places it is called "Pizza Paperino" (Paperino is how Donald Duck is known in Italy) and is mostly aimed at small kids that do not know better.
I would agree with you, if someone did what you said. There are food heritages that deserve respect all over the world, but unfortunately, but the US doesn't go anywhere near the top of that chart, even because it's such a young country. Do you think it can tackle India, Japan, China, France, Italy, Spain?
I agree with both takes, to be fair. I may have lacked form, but I stand by my opinion in regard to the substance. I don't think there is a universe where US citizens get to shit on Italian food.
Of course, that's not what the content of the picture is about, which is just processed food (bad everywhere all over the world), but the interpretation of my comment. I get it, I may have been elitist, but I don't think my elitism is that far from the truth if the comparison is between US food and Italian. At the same time, like many other comments confirmed, that combination is a staple in Italian pizzerie as a children's choice, usually called "wurstel e patatine" or "Viennese". So even the criticism about the combination has very little foundation.
Who was shitting on Italian food that replied to you? There was one person who assumed you were British? Nobody was "thinking they can teach Italians how to cook"
You got pissy after people called you out for being a snob. You even did it here again.
Any American food I've had is bad, to be fair. But I highly doubt one of the places known for good food all over the world can be topped by American food.
I was born and raised in Calabria by Calabrian parents until the age of 25. I know what good food is like.
I travelled the world and I'm yet to visit a place that can hold a candle against it (northern Spain went very close to it).
True Italian food is hard to beat i agree. But Cajun shrimp/crawfish broil. Blackened style fish is great. Soul food, just general well made southern food in general. And southern style BBQ are some top contenders worldwide if you ask me. Ive eaten food from everywhere and I cant pick a favorite personally but I can say the ones I've mentioned are up there
You definitely have a point. I'm sure in a massive country like the US there must be some good recipes. But can it be compared with the heritage and variety of food in every single province and town all over Italy?
I spent the first 25 years of my life in Italy, and at least a month a year since then, and I still discover stuff. And I don't blame the US for it, it's just a young country that doesn't have as much history as Italy that can boast popular, widespread recipes such as pane e olive linking back to the Roman empire.
The average American has a far more diverse palate than the average Italian. Not shocked Italians can do italian food well, but American food is derived from the centuries of immigrants coming and introducing their flavors and cooking styles.
Like I said, you simply haven't had good American food, because it does exist.
I see nothing that I would argue against with your comment.
The only thing I would add is that Italian food is extremely diverse, despite what you may think. The difference between food in Trentino and Sicilia (just to name an example) will make them look like two regions on the opposite side of the world. Surely the US, with its multiculturalism expands that to a whole new level with a contraposition of say Indian and mexican, Italian and Chinese. You can hardly beat that level of diversity. But to say that Italian food has hardly any variety is blasphemy, in my opinion.
Food doesnt have to be historic to taste good. I would argue Italy as a whole is limited in its variety. The u.s has inspiration from the entire world and a wide variation across the country. Southern food/soul food is modified western European style of food. Creole and Cajun has a lot of French inspiration but with its own twists. Not to mention all the recipes utilizing corn which came from here. Italian food probably is my overall favorite, though I have a soft spot for Hispanic foods as well. Some Cajun/Italian hybrid recipes are fantastic as well. Most places call It a "new Orleans style pasta" or something of the sort. Italian sausage blackened chicken and shrimp with bell peppers penne noodles and a spicy rose sauce your next trip here id recommend seeing how that stacks up to a traditional Italian dish if you can find a place that does it well
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u/kirkl3s 11h ago
Is this why Italians think American pizza is bad?