The classic Neapolitan pizza of fresh mozzarella, bright red tomatoes, aromatic basil and extra virgin olive oil is also called Pizza Margherita, which has a legendary history. Neapolitan pizza is a flat style of pizza made with tomatoes and mozzarella cheese. However, it cannot be just any tomato or any piece of mozzarella to claim the protection status of pizza, only specific products will serve. According to the rules proposed by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, authentic Neapolitan pizza dough consists of wheat flour, natural Neapolitan yeast or brewer's yeast, salt and water.
Both Neapolitan pizza and New York-style pizza dough are two of the most popular types of pizza; and both also have very distinctive qualities and characteristics. So what is Neapolitan-style pizza? Born in the city of Naples (therefore Neapolitan), in the fertile land of Campania under Mount Vesuvius, this pizza has the status of “Guaranteed Traditional Specialty”, which means that it must be prepared precisely in order to be called Neapolitan pizza. They thought that a real Neapolitan-style pizza had to meet very specific requirements, and that's how the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana was born. While the Americans and the British call the entire pizza base “the crust”, technically the dough, at least for Italians, refers only to the outermost edge of the pizza base.
Neapolitan pizza has a protected status granted by the Italian Standards Organization managed by the Associazione Vera Pizza Napoletana (AVPN). It is said that Americans want their pizza to look like Pizza Napoletana and to use the same high-quality ingredients, but they also want it to be crispy, which is contrary to traditional Neapolitan standards.
