How To Make Every Style Of Pizza: 10 Essential Recipes Slideshow

To make these pies at home, you need the proper recipes. As with the foundation for any pizza pie, the right crust recipe determines the successful outcome of your homemade pie. For a deep-dish pie, you you'll want to follow this recipe for Chicago Deep-Dish Pizza dough. With a traditional New York-style pie, the dough needs more of a stretch to it, like in this recipe for chewy pizza dough.

As for topping selection, there are many directions to go, from sauceless pizza bianca to classic pizza Margherita. High-quality olive oil is essential for a pizza bianca, but for your traditional pies, homemade tomato sauce with fresh herbs and the perfect balance of garlic, acidic tomatoes, and fresh herbs will show the dough you labored over kneading and stretching the respect it deserves.

Here are 10 classic pizza styles from the raved about New York and Chicago deep dish style pizzas to the lesser known St. Louis and Grandma styles, and more. 

What makes the bar pie so special? Its two-stage cooking process. First, the pie is slid onto an oiled pan to cook in a very hot oven, usually gas. Once the thin crust is lightly fried, the pizza is slid off the pan and directly onto the grate or floor of the gas oven to continue crisping. You can mimic this delicious pizza-style at home by using this simple New York-style pizza dough recipe, but swap the bread flour for all-purpose for a more tender crust. 

Invention and popularization of the single-serve California-style pizza is credited to Ed LaDou (at Wolfgang Puck's Spago) and Chez Panisse who both started making this thin-crust style pizza in 1980.  California-style pizza is often baked in a wood burning oven and topped with fresh ingredients typical of California cuisine. To make a California-style pizza at home similar to the pizzas found originally at Chez Panisse and Spago try this recipe for a single serving pizza with an egg on it.

Invention and popularization of the single-serve California-style pizza is credited to Ed LaDou (at Wolfgang Puck's Spago) and Chez Panisse who both started making this thin-crust style pizza in 1980.  California-style pizza is often baked in a wood burning oven and topped with fresh ingredients typical of California cuisine. To make a California-style pizza at home similar to the pizzas found originally at Chez Panisse and Spago try this recipe for a single serving pizza with an egg on it.

While grandma pies might look like your typical Sicilian square pie, their shape is pretty much all they have in common. The grandma pie is a Long Island original. The dough is proofed for a short amount of time, giving it its denser crust than Sicilian, then the bottom is crisped with lots of extra-virgin olive oil. The pie is topped with stewed tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, and whatever other toppings you fancy. To make your own grandma-style pie at home, follow this recipe for Sicilian pizza dough, only instead of leaving it to rise for two hours, let it rise for about 40 minutes.

George Germon put grilled pizza on the map over 30 years ago at Al Forno in Providence, Rhode Island. Since then, many chefs have gone on to mimic his grill-marked pizza style. To make this delicious pizza on your grill at home try this recipe for "The Verduran" Pizza.

Neapolitan pizza — the original, invented in Naples in the early nineteenth century — should have a thin crust made from a stretchy dough of wheat flour, yeast, salt, and water. The dough is kneaded until smooth and elastic, and when finally baked, it is cooked for a mere minute to minute in a half in a searing hot oven. If you want to try this Italian specialty at home, this Margherita Pizza recipe will bring the smells and flavors of Italy right into your kitchen. 

This twist on Neapolitan pizza is locally referred to as apizza. If you are in the mood for New Haven-style pizza then there is nothing quite like the original, Frank Pepe Pizzeria — whose pie placed number one in our 101 Best Pizzas in America 2015.  The classic New Haven pie is a Neapolitan-style crust sprinkled with oregano, coated in tomato sauce, and topped with grated pecorino cheese. To try this classic pie at home, follow this simple recipe for a Neapolitan pizza crust, and top it with a fresh tomato sauce and grated cheese.

New York pizza is large and hand-tossed, and slices are easily folded in half. New Yorkers and tourists still flock to Lombardi's — the first pizzeria in America, closed in 1984 for a decade, but now going strong again. The East Coast's most famous pizza was born in coal ovens, but to mimic this classic pizza style at home all you need is a quality dough made with bread flour for the right amount of chew and crunch, a piping hot oven, and plenty of toppings.

This classic, square-shaped pie is made with yeast dough that is allowed to rise for a long period of time, usually about two hours. The focaccia-like base is then topped with tomatoes, cheese, and other toppings. If you want to try this Sicilian-specialty at home our recipe for Sfincione di San Giovanni or Sicilian Christmas Pie is topped with a rich flavorful sauce that will please family and friends alike.

This mid-Western classic pie's crust doesn't use yeast, producing a super thin, crispy crust that resembles a cracker. The crust is then topped with a tomato sauce, heavily seasoned with oregano, and Provel cheese, or a blend of processed Swiss, provolone, and mozzarella cheese. To make this pizza at home, try this similar recipe for Thin-Crust Stovetop Pizza.