Pizza in Brazil#Sweet pizzas

File:Campo de trigo brasileiro c.1898 por Hermann Meyer.jpg, {{circa|1898}}]]

Wheat only started being grown in reasonable quantities in Brazil in the latter part of the 18th century. Even then, its production was aimed at supplying the viceroyalty and the upper class, so common folk did not have easy access to it.{{ cite web | url=https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2020/01/24/sobre-o-trigo-o-pao-e-as-padeiras-no-seculo-19 | title=Sobre o trigo, o pão e as padeiras no século 19 | lang=pt-br | first=Joana | last=Monteleone | editor-first=Camila | editor-last=Maciel | website=Brasil de Fato | date=24 January 2020 | access-date=17 January 2025 }} Instead, baking was done mostly using {{lang|pt|mandioca}} or maize flour.

In 1808, along with the Portuguese court came the first bakers by trade.{{ cite book | url=https://www.editoraorigem.com.br/do-grao-ao-pao | title=Do grão ao pão : farinha de trigo : história da moagem no Brasil | lang=pt-br | first=Xavier | last=Bartaburu | publisher=Editora Origem | year=2016 | location=São Paulo | isbn=978-85-64444-10-2 | others=Photography by Lígia Fernandes, Karina Sechi and Valdemir Cunha | page=92 | access-date=18 January 2025 }} Brazil's wheat production, suffering from a rust that cut harvest yield by half, was insufficient for the population that had arrived.{{ cite magazine | url=https://www.revistas.unijui.edu.br/index.php/desenvolvimentoemquestao/article/view/91 | title=As Políticas Brasileiras de Fomento à Cultura do Trigo: uma revisão histórica | first1=Argemiro Luís | last1=Brum | first2=Cláudia Regina | last2=Heck | first3=Cristiano da Luz | last3=Lemes | doi=10.21527/2237-6453.2004.3.95-117 | magazine=Desenvolvimento em Questão | volume=2 | issue=3 | year=2004 | pages=95–117 | doi-broken-date=20 January 2025 | access-date=18 January 2025 }} In order to supply demand, wheat began to be imported from the United States and Russia soon afterwards.

This coincided with developments in the abolition of slavery in Brazil, which caused landowners to increasingly look to immigrants as a source of cheap labor to replace slaves.{{ cite web | url=https://www.emigrati.it/emigrazione/emibrasil.asp | title=Emigrazione Italiana in Brasile | lang=it | website=Associazione Internet degli Emigrati Italiani | first=Francesco Saverio | last=Alessio | year=2003 | access-date=20 January 2025 }} The largest share of those immigrants were Italian in origin.{{efn|Though some migrated before the unification of Italy.}} With many Italian Brazilians in the country and easy access to wheat, conditions were ideal for the emergence of pizza.

Pizza was sold as a street food in Brazil since at least the late 19th century.{{ cite web | url=https://www.estadao.com.br/paladar/comida/ha-cem-anos-ja-acabava-em-pizza/ | title=Há mais de 100 anos tudo já acabava em pizza | lang=pt-br | trans-title=Over 100 years ago everything already ended in pizza | first=Dias | last=Lopes | website=Estadão | date=30 September 2010 | access-date=12 January 2025 }}{{ cite web | url=https://veja.abril.com.br/coluna/dias-lopes/pizza-a-paulistana | title=Pizza à paulistana | lang=pt-br | first=Dias | last=Lopes | website=Veja | date=27 April 2019 | access-date=14 January 2025 | url-access=subscription }} Sellers would bake pizzas at home, then carry them on the streets in portable metal barrels fitted with burning coal at the bottom to keep them warm.

The first known Brazilian pizzeria was Carmino Corvino's Santa Genoveva, a cantina which opened in 1910 in the Brás district in the city of São Paulo.{{ cite book | title=Retalhos da Velha São Paulo | lang=pt-br | first=Geraldo Sesso | last=Junior | edition=2nd | year=1986 | publisher=OESP Gráfica/Editora Maltese | oclc=16261769 | ol=OL18054213M | pages=111–119, 123–127 }} It offered pizzas in four flavors: {{lang|it|mozzarella}}, {{lang|it|napolitana}}, {{lang|it|alice}} and {{lang|it|mezzo a mezzo}} (half alici, half mozzarella).

File:Mister Pizza - Botafogo.JPG, in Rio de Janeiro]]

The United Pizzerias Association of Brazil (Associação Pizzarias Unidas do Brasil, APUBRA) annually publishes a study on pizzerias in the country. Their count, with data up to December 2020, puts the number of pizzerias in the country at 83,291.{{ cite periodical | url=https://apubra.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Estudo-de-mercado-Apubra.pdf | title=Estudo de Mercado: Crescimento das Pizzarias no Brasil | lang=pt-br | trans-title=Market Study: Growth of Pizzerias in Brazil | issue=1 | magazine=Associação Pizzarias Unidas do Brasil | date=July 2022 | access-date=12 January 2025 }} Though, due to the nature of the data made available by the government, the organization estimates their study covers only about 75% of the actual pizzerias in Brazil, so there should be around 110 thousand in reality. With about 41% of the country's population, the Southeast Region has the largest share of the country's pizzerias, with over 50%:

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Between the years of 1962 and 2007, a span of 45 years, Brazil saw around 10 thousand pizzerias open in the country. In contrast, in the 12 years between 2008 and 2020, over 73 thousand new pizzerias opened. In a 2018 report, the production of pizzas in Brazil was estimated at 1 million a day, with São Paulo accounting for about 572 thousand;{{ cite web | url=https://g1.globo.com/sp/sao-paulo/noticia/brasil-produz-1-milhao-de-pizzas-por-dia-estado-de-sp-consome-mais-da-metade.ghtml | title=Brasil produz 1 milhão de pizzas por dia; estado de SP consome mais da metade | lang=pt-br | first=Camila | last=Silva | website=G1 | date=10 July 2018 | access-date=13 January 2025 }} by 2023, that number had spiked to 3.8 million and 870 thousand, respectively.{{ cite web | url=https://apubra.org.br/brasil-produz-38-milhoes-de-pizzas-por-dia/ | title=Brasil produz 3,8 milhões de pizzas por dia e calabresa é a mais pedida | lang=pt-br | website=Associação Pizzarias Unidas do Brasil | date=12 July 2023 | access-date=14 January 2025 }}

Pizza is consumed habitually across socioeconomic groups in Brazil. In a 2003 study, groups from upper-middle, middle and lower-middle class all reported a pizza consumption of, on average, once every two weeks; this is contrast to, for example, chocolate, which was, on average, 10 times more frequent in the upper-middle class' consumption compared to the lower-middle class'.{{ cite journal | url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03670240390247797 | title=Social Status and Food Preference in Southern Brazil | first1=Kathryn S. | last1=Oths | first2=Adriana | last2=Carolo | first3=Jose Ernesto | last3=dos Santos | journal=Ecology of Food and Nutrition | volume=42 | issue=4–5 | pages=303–324 | year=2003 | doi=10.1080/03670240390247797 | pmid=22260175 | bibcode=2003EcoFN..42..303O | issn=0367-0244 | url-access=subscription | access-date=13 January 2025 }} In a study by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) to measure food consumption in Brazil in 2017–2018, researchers split the population between four income {{lang|la|strata}}. The average pizza consumption {{lang|la|per capita}} was 1.8, 4.9, 9.0 and 12.5 grams per day, from lowest to highest income, respectively.{{rp|p=58}}

Additionally, pizza is seemingly mostly an urban commodity. In the IBGE study for 2017–2018, the average pizza consumption {{lang|la|per capita}} in rural areas was 1.4 grams per day, in contrast to the 7.4 grams per day in urban areas.{{rp|p=38}}

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| caption1 = A {{lang|pt|linguiça calabresa}}, onions and olives pizza, filled to the brim with toppings, from Guarujá, São Paulo

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In Brazil, pizza is often consumed using cutlery, as opposed to with one's hands.{{ cite web | url=https://www.eater.com/22763501/pizza-eating-knife-fork-brazil | title=Why Eating Pizza With A Knife and Fork Is Sometimes Fine | lang=pt-br | first=Carla | last=Vianna | website=Eater | others=Illustrated by Nicole Medina | date=5 November 2021 | access-date=14 January 2025 }}{{ cite web | url=https://www.177milkstreet.com/2022/04/the-worlds-best-pizza-isnt-in-italy | title=The World's Best Pizza Isn't in Italy? | first=J.M. | last=Hirsch | website=Christopher Kimball's Milk Street | date=May–June 2022 | access-date=14 January 2025 }} Travel writer Carla Vianna justifies this cultural quirk by pointing at the kinds and quantities of pizza toppings in Brazil: the only way to eat a "pizza {{lang|pt|portuguesa}}" ({{lit|Portuguese pizza}}), a combo of cheese, hard-boiled eggs, onions, peas and ham without it falling apart, is by using utensils. Additionally, as Milk Street writer J. M. Hirsch puts it, in Brazil, pizza is "a fine dining, Sunday family dinner situation"; "sit down, not carry out". With those factors combined, fork and knife are usually a social expectation, as well as, pragmatically, a necessity. Nevertheless, pizza is also sold as a street food in Brazil, usually as a snack for beachgoers.{{ cite web | url=https://g1.globo.com/rj/regiao-dos-lagos/noticia/carrinho-de-pizza-pega-fogo-na-praia-do-pero-em-cabo-frio-no-rj.ghtml | title=Carrinho de pizza pega fogo na Praia do Peró, em Cabo Frio, no RJ | lang=pt-br | website= G1 | date=2018-02-12 | access-date=2025-03-03 }}{{ cite web | url=https://g1.globo.com/rj/regiao-dos-lagos/noticia/2022/04/16/carrinho-de-pizza-pega-fogo-na-praia-do-forte-em-cabo-frio-rj-video.ghtml | title=Carrinho de pizza pega fogo na Praia do Forte, em Cabo Frio, RJ | lang=pt-br | first=Rodrigo | last=Marinho | website= G1 | date=2022-04-16 | access-date=2025-03-03 }}{{ cite instagram | user=euler_ccosta | first=Euler | last=Costa | postid=DF0i1bWRFgD | title=Pizza do forno na praia | lang=pt-br | date=2025-02-08 | access-date=2025-03-03 }}

Pizzas are often ordered for a group of people to share, as opposed to each person eating separately. As such, a common option is ordering {{lang|pt|meio a meio}} ("half and half"): pizzas in which half the toppings are of one kind, and half are another.{{ cite web | url=https://la.eater.com/2022/7/19/23270182/sampas-brazilian-style-pizza-lomita-marina-del-rey-los-angeles | title=Take a Deep Dive Into the Wild Toppings of Brazilian Pizza | first=Bill | last=Esparza | others=Photos by Matthew Kang | website=Eater Los Angeles | date=19 July 2022 | access-date=14 January 2025 }} The halves are usually either both savory or both sweet, though not necessarily. Furthermore, some restaurants offer to cut the pizza into small squares or rhombuses instead of the traditional triangular slices. In Brazil, this is known as the {{lang|pt|[corte] à francesa}} ("French-style [cut]"),{{ cite web | url=https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=272220640521210 | title=Francesa ou fatia? | lang=pt-br | website=Pizzaria Velazza – Facebook | date=29 June 2020 | access-date=14 January 2025 }}{{ cite web | url=https://gironews.com/food-service/corte-a-francesa-45956/ | title=Domino's Apresenta Pizza Finíssima para o Verão | lang=pt-br | website=Giro News | date=14 December 2017 | access-date=14 January 2025 }} which internationally is referred to as the "Chicago cut", "party cut" or "tavern cut".{{ cite web | url=https://www.thedailymeal.com/1240581/the-brilliant-reason-chicago-thin-crust-pizza-is-cut-in-squares/ | title=The Brilliant Reason Chicago Thin Crust Pizza Is Cut In Squares | first=Angel | last=Albring | website=The Daily Meal | date=27 March 2023 | access-date=14 January 2025 }}

Throughout Brazil, condiments such as ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise and olive oil are customarily added to pizza.{{ cite web | url=https://heyexplorer.com/pizza-in-brazil/ | title=Pizza in Brazil: Common Toppings, Famous Pizzerias & Fun Facts | first=Diego | last=Ortiz | website=Hey Explorer | date=8 April 2021 | access-date=14 January 2025 }}{{ cite web | url=https://bornagainbrazilian.wordpress.com/2012/02/24/brazilian-challenge-day-55-pizza-brazil-style/ | title=Brazilian Challenge Day 55: Pizza Brazil Style | first=Maggie | last=Foxhole | website=Born Again Brazilian | date=24 February 2012 | access-date=14 January 2025 }}{{ cite web | url=https://receitas.globo.com/regionais/rpc/especial-publicitario/paganini-gastronomia/azeite-de-oliva-extravirgem-na-pizza-antes-ou-depois-de-assada-a-ciencia-explica.ghtml | title=Azeite de oliva extravirgem na pizza: antes ou depois de assada? A ciência explica | lang=pt-br | website=RPC {{!}} Receitas | date=17 August 2023 | access-date=14 January 2025 }}

File:Pizza com spaghetti em rodízio de massas (Rio de Janeiro).jpg {{lang|pt|rodízio}} restaurant, a slice of pizza with a side of spaghetti, resembling Canadian pizza-ghetti]]

A common way to dine pizza in Brazil is at a {{lang|pt|rodízio}} restaurant. Such establishments are all-you-can-eat style, in which slices of pizza are served continuously by waiters and patrons decide which slices they wish to eat, and when to stop.

In these settings, uncommon flavors are more customary.{{ cite web | url=https://thebrazilbusiness.com/article/brazilian-pizza-styles | title=Brazilian Pizza Styles | first=Patrick | last=Bruha | website=The Brazil Business | date=29 September 2014 | access-date=14 January 2025 }} One can find pizzas with toppings such as french fries, chicken or beef stroganoff, hamburger patties with cheddar cheese and even Fettuccine Alfredo.{{ cite web | url=https://lojas.parme.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/bangu.pdf | title=Parmê Bangu – Cardápio | lang=pt-br | website=Parmê | pages=2–3 | date=5 July 2024 | access-date=14 January 2025 }}

{{see also|List of pizza varieties by country#Brazil}}

File:Pizza! One of São Paulo's best treats! (9691515439).jpg

Brazilian pizzas are considered "less conservative" than their Italian counterparts, which translates to a greater variety of toppings. As columnist Dias Lopes puts it, "in Brazil, there is no standard" for toppings when restaurants come up with them. Travel blogger Diego Ortiz states "virtually anything can go on pizza" in Brazil.

Due to the liberal amount of toppings, pizza in Brazil is also cooked at lower temperatures and at a slower pace than their Italian counterparts; Milk Street writer J. M. Hirsch describes "a relatively tepid {{convert|330|C|F}} for roughly 2½ minutes", in contrast to Naples' 60–90 seconds at {{convert|430|C|F}} to {{convert|480|C|F}}.

Plain mozzarella pizza – tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and dried oregano leaves – is one of the most ordered pizza varieties in Brazil, behind only {{lang|pt|pizza calabresa}}, which are topped with the {{lang|pt|linguiça calabresa}} (or "calabresa sausage"). The plain mozzarella pizza, while sold by itself, is also usually considered the base for every savory pizza, with few exceptions.{{ cite web | url=https://nucleo.jor.br/garimpo/pizza-de-calabresa-sem-queijo-e-com-cebola/ | title=Por que o Brasil odeia tanto a pizza de calabresa sem queijo? | lang=pt-br | trans-title=Why does Brazil hate the calabresa pizza with no cheese? | first=Rafael | last=Capanema | date=26 July 2022 | access-date=14 January 2025 }}

The {{lang|pt|pizza portuguesa}} ({{lit|Portuguese pizza}}), invented at some point in the 1950s or 60s, is the third most popular topping of choice in Brazil. It's usually ham, sliced onions, hard-boiled eggs and olives on top of the usual tomato sauce and mozzarella base. However, depending on the restaurant, it may also include peas, {{lang|pt|calabresa}} sausage, bell peppers, hearts of palm, portobello mushrooms (known as "champignon" in Brazil) and even cooked corn, while still being referred to as a Portuguese pizza.

Another very popular topping in Brazil is {{lang|pt|frango com requeijão}} ("chicken with requeijão"), known also with the brand name, {{lang|pt|frango com catupiry}} ("chicken with Catupiry"), a simple shredded chicken pizza with requeijão streaks. It is rumored to have been created in the 1970s when a representative of the Catupiry brand suggested its use in a pizza.

Requeijão has been widely used with toppings other than chicken, such as ham or pepperoni – the latter making what is sometimes called a {{lang|pt|catuperoni}} (Catupiry + pepperoni) pizza.{{ cite web | url=https://forneriaoriginal.com/cardapio/pizza/catuperoni.html | title=Pizza Catuperoni | lang=pt-br | website=Forneria Original | access-date=20 January 2025 }}

File:Pizza Hut Brasil - pepperoni e requeijão.png|Catuperoni pizza from a Pizza Hut in Brazil

File:Pizza de presunto e requeijão.png|Ham and requeijão pizza

File:Pizzas de frango com catupiry e margherita (Rio de Janeiro).jpg|{{lang|pt|Frango com catupiry}} pizza and a Brazilian interpretation of a Margherita pizza

File:Pizza calabresa com catupiry e napolitana, borda recheada (Rio de Janeiro).jpg|Half {{lang|pt|calabresa com catupiry}}, half {{lang|pt|napolitana}} (tomatoes with parmesan) pizza with a stuffed soft crust

File:Pizza quatro estações do Zona Sul (Rio de Janeiro).jpg|Unusual four-flavored pizza ("four seasons") served at a supermarket in Rio de Janeiro

São Paulo differs from the rest of the country when it comes to {{lang|pt|pizza calabresa}} (with "calabresa sausage"): {{lang|pt|paulistas}}, those who live in the city, believe a true {{lang|pt|pizza calabresa}} should not contain cheese. The recipe in the city is usually dough, tomato sauce, calabresa and sliced onions. Outside São Paulo, this may be considered strange and surprising, as savory pizzas, regardless of toppings, are expected to start with a base of dough, tomato sauce and mozzarella.{{ cite web | url=https://revistapegn.globo.com/Banco-de-ideias/Alimentacao/noticia/2021/07/chefs-do-rio-e-sp-divergem-muito-pouco-ou-nada-de-queijo-na-pizza.html | title=Chefs do Rio e SP divergem: Muito, pouco ou nada de queijo na pizza? | lang=pt-br | website=Pequenas Empresas & Grandes Negócios | date=9 July 2021 | access-date=14 January 2025 }}

While controversial to some, sweet pizzas are very common in Brazil. One common topping choice is {{lang|pt|Romeu e Julieta}}, a combination of cheese and {{lang|pt|goiabada}} (sometimes translated as "guava paste").

Bananas are also a very common sweet pizza topping, sometimes atop mozzarella (though with no tomato sauce), and usually paired with chocolate, dulce de leche, condensed milk or cinnamon and sugar.

Finally, chocolate pizzas are a family on its own. Melted chocolate, be it milk or white chocolate, is spread on the dough as a sort of "sauce". This is then topped with pretty much anything – strawberries, shredded coconut, chocolate sprinkles, M&M's, crushed Kit Kats, brownies and even ice cream scoops.

File:Pizza de calabresa, ovo, cebola e azeitona e de chocolate com confete (Rio de Janeiro).jpg|Chocolate spread with M&M-like confections (usually called {{lang|pt|confetes}} in Brazil) is a very common sweet topping combination

File:Pizza quadrada de Nutella com amêndoas (São Paulo).jpg|Nutella sprinkled with sliced and toasted almonds on a square pizza in São Paulo

File:Pizza de rabanada com chocolate branco (Rio de Janeiro).jpg|Unusual french toast ({{lang|pt|rabanada}}) and white chocolate pizza

File:Pizza de banana nevada (Rio de Janeiro).jpg|{{lang|pt|Banana nevada}} ({{lit|snowy banana}}; mozzarella, banana slices, white chocolate) pizza being served at a {{lang|pt|rodízio}} restaurant

File:Pizzas de churros e abacaxi nevado (Rio de Janeiro).jpg|Churros (dulce de leche, sugar and cinnamon) and {{lang|pt|abacaxi nevado}} ({{lit|snowy pineapple}}; mozzarella, pineapple cubes, white chocolate) slices

In Brazil, {{lang|pt|borda recheada}} (stuffed crust) is a common add-on option when purchasing pizzas. They are sometimes offered in different shapes, apart from the traditional folded dough, such as soft buns, bow ties, and twisted or star-shaped dough.{{ cite web | url=https://www.folhadelondrina.com.br/colunistas/fabio-luporini/o-sucesso-da-borda-recheada-3219053e.html | title=O sucesso da borda recheada | lang=pt-br | first=Fábio | last=Luporini | website={{ill|Folha de Londrina|pt}} | date=29 July 2022 | access-date=20 January 2025 }}

The filling can be savory or sweet, ranging from {{lang|pt|requeijão}}, cheddar, Gorgonzola to dulce de leche and milk or white chocolate. This is sometimes used as a built-in dessert: ordering a savory pizza with a sweet-filled stuffed crust to be eaten afterwards.

Stuffed crust is thought to have been introduced to Brazilian pizzas in the late 1990s, at first exclusively filled with {{lang|pt|requeijão}}, after a pizzeria owner devised it as a solution to the issue of many customers not eating the crusts.{{ cite web | url=https://exame.com/pme/o-rei-das-pizzas-sente-o-calor/ | title=O rei das pizzas sente o calor | lang=pt-br | first=Tom | last=Cardoso | website=Exame | date=24 November 2016 | access-date=20 January 2025 }}

A pizzeria in Dourados went viral in early 2024 after posting a video of its stuffed crust-only pizza, a strip of stuffed crust coiled into a pizza shape.{{ cite web | url=https://revistapegn.globo.com/redes-sociais/noticia/2024/02/pizza-feita-so-de-borda-viraliza-e-faz-vendas-crescerem-20percent.ghtml | title=Pizza feita só de borda viraliza e faz vendas crescerem 20% | lang=pt-br | first=Carina | last=Brito | website=Pequenas Empresas & Grandes Negócios | date=29 February 2024 | access-date=20 January 2025 }} {{subscription required}}{{ cite web | url=https://www.terra.com.br/vida-e-estilo/degusta/pizza-feita-so-de-borda-viraliza-nas-redes-sociais-e-ultrapassa-23-milhoes-de-visualizacoes,a8f1ab55521aff3bac1fc85fa75cf36e6yyuz4h1.html | title=Pizza feita só de borda viraliza nas redes sociais e ultrapassa 2,3 milhões de visualizações | lang=pt-br | website=Terra | date=1 March 2024 | access-date=20 January 2025 }} The establishment has been selling this option for about a decade, and offers sweet and savory fillings, such as {{lang|pt|requeijão}}, Nutella and Ferrero Rocher.

File:Pizza Margherita com borda de pãozinho recheada.png|Brazilian interpretation of a Margherita pizza with requeijão-filled "soft bun" crust

File:Pizza Hut Brasil - pepperoni, brasileira e borda.png|Half pepperoni, half Brazilian (ham, olives and requeijão) pizza with cream cheese-filled seasoned bun crust, from Pizza Hut

File:Pizza de brownie com borda de doce de leite.jpg|Chocolate brownie and dulce de leche pizza, with dulce de leche-filled soft crust

To "end in pizza" ("{{lang|pt|acabar}}" or "{{lang|pt|terminar em pizza}}"), sometimes "everything ends in pizza", is a common expression in Brazilian Portuguese indicating that something came to an end without any meaningful results, or that a crime (often corruption) went unpunished.{{ cite web | url=https://michaelis.uol.com.br/moderno-portugues/busca/portugues-brasileiro/pizza | title=Pizza {{!}} Michaelis On-line | lang=pt-br | website=Michaelis | access-date=12 January 2025 }} Its origin was purportedly tracked down to a football dispute from the 1960s which fizzled out after the squabblers went to a pizzeria; this was reported with the headline "Palmeiras' crisis ended in pizza" ("{{lang|pt|Crise do Palmeiras terminou em pizza}}").

• Brazilian cuisine
• List of pizza varieties by country
• History of pizza

{{Noteslist}}

{{Commons category-inline|Pizzas in Brazil}}

Brazil

Category:Food and drink in Brazil