Argentine pizza, also known as Porteño-style pizza (Spanish: pizza porteña, i.e., Buenos Aires-style pizza), is a mainstay of the country's cuisine, especially of its capital Buenos Aires, where it is regarded as a cultural heritage and icon of the city.Pizzerías de valor patrimonial de Buenos Aires (2008), p. 11 Argentina is the country with the most pizzerias per inhabitant in the world and, although they are consumed throughout the country, the highest concentration of pizzerias and customers is in Buenos Aires, the city with the highest consumption of pizzas in the world (estimated in 2015 to be 14 million per year). As such, the city has been considered one of the world capitals of pizza.
Pizza was introduced to Buenos Aires in the late 19th century with a marked influx of Italian immigration, as part of a broader European immigration wave to the country. Thus, around the same time that the pizza Margherita was being invented in Italy, pizzas were already being cooked in the Argentine capital. The impoverished Italian immigrants who arrived in the city transformed the originally modest dish into a hefty meal, motivated by the abundance of food in Argentina. In the 1930s, pizza was cemented in Buenos Aires culture, with the new pizzerias becoming a central space for sociability for the working-class people who flocked to the city.
A typical custom is to accompany pizza with fainá, a pancake made from chickpea flour.
Characteristics and variants
Traditional styles of pizza
The most characteristic style of Argentine pizza—which almost all the classic pizzerias in Buenos Aires specialize in—is the so-called pizza al molde (Spanish for 'pan style pizza'), characterized by having a "thick, spongy base and elevated bready crust". Writing for Saveur in 2016, Allie Lazar defined the pizza al molde style: [It] consists of a high-rising alta masa (high dough), generally reaching at least 2 cm, or a media masa (half dough) coming in at around 1.5 cm in height, and cooked in... yes, a pan. It's similar to focaccia bread in which both the crust and inner dough have the same thick, spongy texture. When made right, the base has a sturdy crunch and the top overflows with a small amount of sauce and a lot of bubbling cheese that dreamily crisps at the bottom of the pan. Because pizza al molde is so thick and cheesy, the average eater only consumes about two slices.
Another of the most typical styles of pizza in the country is the so-called pizza a la piedra (piedra meaning 'stone' in Spanish), which began to become popular in the mid-1970s and especially in the 1980s. Unlike the pizza al molde, this pizza is characterized by a thin, crispy, and crumb-free crust, and is baked directly on the base of a stone oven and not in a pan (hence its name). According to Lazar: Made in a wood-fired or a gas oven, this lighter slice comes out with a crispy thin crust that is slightly chewy. A good amount of tomato sauce is spread on top, along with a healthy helping of cheese and fresh toppings. Many consider this type of pizza to be more modern, and pizzerias have adapted their original concept to add this style to its repertoire.
Most pizza menus include standard flavor combinations, including the traditional plain mozzarella, nicknamed muza or musa; the napolitana or napo, with "cheese, sliced tomatoes, garlic, dried oregano and a few green olives", not to be confused with Neapolitan pizza; calabresa, with slices of longaniza; jamon y morrones, with sliced ham and roasted bell peppers; as well as versions with provolone, with anchovies, with hearts of palm, or with chopped hard-boiled egg.
A unique tradition from Buenos Aires is to eat pizza alongside fainá (known in Italy as farinata), a baked pancake made of chickpea flour, a custom that also spread to Uruguay due to its close cultural ties to the city. Like pizza, fainá was introduced by Italian immigrants, particularly the Genoese that settled in La Boca, and the combination of both dishes probably developed in that working-class neighborhood in the early 20th century. According to Amy Booth of the BBC, the "subtle, creamy texture of the fainá softens the acidity of the tomato sauce and moderates the greasy tang of the cheese".
Fugazza and fugazzeta
Within the category of pizza al molde, other local creations include the fugazza and its derivatives fugazza con queso or americana, a terminology that varies depending on the pizzeria, and fugazzeta. The fugazza—named after fugassa, the Genoese word for focaccia—is a cheese-less pizza, consisting of a disk of dough topped with onions, oregano and grains of salt; the fugazza con queso () is the same with added mozzarella on top. Fugazzeta consists of two discs of pizza dough with cheese in the middle and onion on top, hence its original name. According to Lazar, fugazza con queso or fugazza americana is a fugazza with "an added mozzarella cheese-bonus on top", while the original fugazzeta is "stuffed with an obscene dose of queso cuartirolo (a local version of the Italian quartirolo Lombardo) and covered in sweet, soft onions".
The origin of fugazzeta is attributed to Juan Banchero, son of Genoese baker Agustín Banchero, who transformed the family business into one of the first pizzerias in the Buenos Aires, Banchero, which is still in operation. According to legend, Juan Banchero "tried to save [his father's] dry, sub-par fugassa alla genovese (Genoese focaccia) by slicing it down the middle and stuffing it with cheese". Regarding the correct terminology for this creation, researcher Jorge D'Agostini explained, "Strictly speaking, it is a fugazzeta, because the fugazza is a disk of dough with onion on top. I think that the confusion or the different ways of calling the pizzas has to do with the changes and transformations that the recipes had here. Banchero added cheese, that's why they called it fugazza con queso when what they serve is fugazzeta." Today, this Argentine pizza is regarded as an icon of Buenos Aires and Argentine cuisine.
Pizza de cancha or pizza canchera
Another variant of Buenos Aires origin is the pizza de cancha, also known as pizza canchera, of the media masa type. As it is a cheese-less pizza, it has been described as an "oddball" and a "total anomaly, debunking everything we know to be true about Argentine pizza". The pizza de cancha is "covered in a red sauce and heavily seasoned with garlic, onion, and non-spicy red pepper flakes, similar to what you would find in bakeries across southern Italy". It was invented by Oscar Vianini, founder of the pizzeria Angelín, one of the oldest traditional pizzerias in Buenos Aires that still operate and well-known in its neighborhood, Villa Crespo.
Viniani sold slices of this pizza on the street outside the Atlanta Club stadium when there was a game, hence its name (cancha, meaning 'soccer field' or 'stadium' in Argentina). There are other versions that claim that the pizza de cancha was created in another stadium, including the ones belonging to Argentinos Juniors or Boca Juniors. The pizza was also known as pizza de tacho (Spanish for "bin"), alluding to the metal container in which they were carried stacked by street vendors.Pizzerías de valor patrimonial de Buenos Aires (2008), p. 37 It is typically larger in diameter than other Argentine pizzas, as this originally allowed street vendors to sell more slices.Pizzerías de valor patrimonial de Buenos Aires (2008), p. 228
Other styles available in the country Other styles of pizza besides the Argentine have become popular in Buenos Aires, such as New York-style pizza, Neapolitan pizza (and hybrids of this style with the Argentine one), or grilled pizza (Spanish: pizza a la parrilla). In 2022, Ti Amo, a pizzeria specializing in the Neapolitan style located in the city of Adrogué, Buenos Aires Province, was chosen as one of the 50 best in the world according to the Italian guide 50 Top Pizza, which each year chooses the 100 most outstanding in the sector globally. Ti Amo once again appeared as one of the best pizzerias in the world according to The Best Pizza Awards 2023, with another pizzeria in the country also appearing: Eléctrica, from Buenos Aires, which offers a contemporary style of pizza.
History
1870–1930: origins in Italian immigration
The history of Argentine pizza is strongly linked to the history of the city of Buenos Aires. The dish was introduced to the country in the late 19th century by Italian immigrants, particularly those of Genoese origin, who arrived in Buenos Aires and mostly settled in the lower-class port neighborhood of La Boca. Between the late 19th and the early 20th centuries, Buenos Aires was the site of a broader European immigration wave, becoming a large cosmopolitan city and changing the customs of its inhabitants. Around 3 million Italians arrived at the port of Buenos Aires between 1870 and 1920, which represents almost two-thirds of the total immigration of the period. As a result, Italian immigration radically altered Argentine culture, especially that of the city, and its influence can be found in aspects such as its language or its cuisine. Pizza as known today—with risen dough, tomato sauce and sometimes cheese, since it was very expensive—began to be sold as a lower-class street food in Naples in the 19th century; the term had been for centuries a generic name in the region for different types of flat doughs with condiments or fillings. There were sweet and savory versions of pizza, as attested by the book La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene (1891) by Pellegrino Artusi, although it was the latter that traveled to Argentina and became popular.
It is not known exactly when or how pizza arrived from Naples in Buenos Aires. Writing about the origins of the dish in the Argentine capital, historian Horacio Julio Spinetto notes that the first documented cases involve the Neapolitan immigrant Nicola Vaccarezza, who made the first fainá of the country in his pizza oven in La Boca in 1882,Pizzerías de valor patrimonial de Buenos Aires (2008), p. 33 and Ricardo Ravadero, a Genoese immigrant who dedicated himself to the street sale of pizzas, which he stacked inside a metal bin that he mounted on wooden trestles.Pizzerías de valor patrimonial de Buenos Aires (2008), p. 34 Nevertheless, La Nación pointed out in 2023 that the Vaccarezza story is apocryphal and actually arose from a fictional story published in the 1990s, and since then has been wrongly cited in books and numerous newspaper articles, which over time changed the fainá of the story into pizza.
La Nación noted that although "there is no evidence to support [the Vaccarezza] story, neither in the fainá version nor in the pizza version [...], the initial story is correct in one thing: in Buenos Aires, the fainá was sold first." By 1893, this dish was sold on the streets of La Boca and in the store of Genoese immigrant Santo Battifora. When Battifora returned to Genoa, he left the business in the hands of his brother-in-law, Antonio Piccardo, better known as "Tuñín", who made it grow and gain recognition under that name. Also in 1893, Genoese immigrant Agustín Banchero opened his bakery in La Boca where, according to legend, he later created the fugazza con queso. In 1896, journalist Marcos Arredondo reported that the street sale of fainá in La Boca "was already a classic". Fainá later began to be sold in the Mercado del Abasto and in the Paseo de Julio (current Alem avenue).