The Key To Brazilian Pizza Is A Subtle Spread Of Sauce

When it comes to culinary delights, Brazil is beloved for things like coxinhas, or chicken croquettes; pão de queijo, or Brazilian cheese puffs; brigadeiros, fudgey balls; and churrasco-grilled meat. But one of the Brazilian dishes you must try is more underrated and all the more special for that reason: Brazilian pizza. Pizza is such a universal favorite, and there's nothing more fun than discovering different kinds of pizza from countries around the world. Get ready to add Brazilian pizza to your list of things to try and also make at home.

Pizza comes down to dough, sauce, and cheese — plus a variety toppings. Regional interpretations will play with those proportions. What sets Brazilian pizza apart is that only a thin spread of sauce is used, because the toppings are the star of the show. In fact, the sauce won't be what American or Italian pizza-eaters are really used to at all. Instead of a sauce made with San Marzano canned tomatoes like you'd find on a margherita pie, Brazilian pizza-makers cook down fresh tomatoes with oregano and salt and then thinly swipe that across the dough. The reason for this is that they want to more prominently spotlight the cheese and the toppings. With its bright mix of acidity and sweetness, tomato sauce can steal the show — it's a primary flavor we're used to on American pizza, but it's more of a background player there for moisture and tying things together in Brazil. 

It might be hard to imagine a truly mouthwatering pizza dialing down on one of the most familiar, essential ingredients, but once you get to better know Brazilian pizza and its varieties, you'll not only understand, you'll wholeheartedly support the approach. Brazilian fixings are among the best of the world's most unconventional pizza toppings. Classics include calabresa, a Brazilian pork sausage; chicken; catupiry, a Brazilian cream cheese; and hearts of palm. So, think smoky, sweet, umami, creamy, rich, tangy — that's a lot for sauce to compete with, right? Here, it makes total sense for sauce to add that nice sweet, acidic moisture and provide a foundation for the toppings, along with the dough and also, of course, the cheese, which Brazilian pizza tends to go heavier on — they often even stuff the signature thin crusts with it.

Boiled eggs, broccoli, and stroganoff — a meaty, creamy blend of mushrooms and beef — also show up as Brazilian pizza toppings, along with corn, mashed potatoes, and raw tuna with onions. Pizza, in general, is wildly popular in Brazil — it arrived via Italian immigrants to the country in the 19th century, and today, Brazil's biggest city, São Paulo, comes in second only to New York City in how many pizzas people eat daily. Brazilians even make dessert pizzas, which obviously forgo the tomato sauce all together in favor of combos like cheese and guava paste or condensed milk, bananas, and cinnamon.