Pizza, Pizza and Pizza Again: A Short Guide to the Styles You'll Meet in Cyprus
One word, several very different breads. Here is how to tell them apart before you order.
Why every pizza is called pizza
Pizza is a word, not a recipe. In Cyprus you will see it on menus for a thin round disc, for a thick square cut from a tray, for a crisp sheet sold by weight, and for a deep pan version with a lot of cheese. All of them are pizza. None of them is trying to be the other.
The differences come from three things: the flour and water ratio, how long the dough is left to ferment, and how hot the oven is. A dough that rests for a couple of hours and bakes at a moderate temperature will never behave like a dough that rests for two days and meets a very hot floor. That is arithmetic, not opinion.
Neapolitan pizza is the one with a written rulebook. The Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana publishes its disciplinare at avpn.it, and the style is also registered in the European Union as a Traditional Speciality Guaranteed under Regulation (EU) No 97/2010. You can read both yourself.
What to look at when the plate lands
Look at the rim first. A Neapolitan pizza has a raised, airy edge with dark spots, and the middle stays soft enough that people often fold it. A Roman style disc is thin all the way across and cracks when you bend it. A tray pizza is a different creature again: taller, more open inside, cut with scissors or a knife.
Then look at how wet the centre is. Neapolitan pizza is not built to be crisp in the middle. If you were expecting a board you can hold flat in one hand, that is a different style, not a mistake in the kitchen.
Ours is the Neapolitan one. The dough is a biga, fermented 48 hours at 77 percent hydration. The tomatoes are San Marzano and the mozzarella is fior di latte, both from Italy. The oven is copper, gas fired, and runs at 400 degrees. Daniele, who was born in Naples in 1989, works it.
Come and find out which one you like
You do not have to know the names to order well. Sit down, say what you usually enjoy, and we will tell you what the dough is doing that evening. We are at 1 Aristotelous in Larnaca, open Tuesday to Sunday from 18:00 to 22:00, closed on Monday. There is a natural wine list too, and it changes.
Short answers
Q.Is one style better than another?
No. They are built for different results. A crisp thin disc and a soft Neapolitan base are both doing exactly what their dough was made to do.
Q.Why is the middle of a Neapolitan pizza soft?
Because of the high hydration and the short, very hot bake. The rim puffs and colours while the centre stays tender. Many people in Naples simply fold it.
Q.How do I ask about the style without sounding lost?
Ask how long the dough was fermented and how hot the oven is. Those two answers tell you more than any name on a menu, and nobody expects you to know them already.