History

Italian immigrants, many from Calabria, settled the Bixiga district of Bela Vista from the late 19th century, opening the family cantinas that still line Rua Treze de Maio. Neapolitan pizza travelled with them and changed shape in Sao Paulo's ovens: the crust stayed thin but the toppings grew heavier and more generous, built for sharing at a family table rather than eating solo. Speranza, baking since the Tarallo family opened its Rua Treze de Maio cantina, is often credited with the country's first Margherita pizza and remains a Bixiga landmark. Castelões, in Bras since 1924, represents the same immigrant wave's other pizza tradition, thin-sliced and wood-fired.

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Common allergens: Gluten, Dairy

Make it at home

Yield Serves 3 to 4Hands-on 30 minTotal 2 hrDifficulty Intermediate

Ingredients

  • 500g pizza flour (tipo 00 or bread flour)
  • 7g active dry yeast
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 10g salt
  • 300ml warm water
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 400g crushed San Marzano style tomatoes
  • 300g mozzarella, sliced
  • Fresh basil leaves
  • Grated parmesan, to finish

Method

  1. Dissolve yeast and sugar in the warm water, stand 10 minutes.
  2. Mix flour and salt, add the yeast water and olive oil, knead 10 minutes to a smooth, elastic dough. Cover and rise 1 hour, or overnight in the fridge for better flavour.
  3. Heat the oven as hot as it goes, with a pizza stone or upturned tray inside, for at least 30 minutes.
  4. Stretch the dough out on a floured surface into a round about 30cm across, leaving a slightly thicker rim.
  5. Spread crushed tomato to the edge, scatter mozzarella generously, and season with salt.
  6. Slide onto the hot stone and bake 8 to 12 minutes until the crust blisters and the cheese browns in spots. Finish with basil and parmesan.

Tip from the editors. Load the toppings generously and right to the rim; the Sao Paulo style is meant to feel full, not minimal.

Where to eat pizza paulistana

Pizza paulistana in São Paulo

Speranza Bixiga ★ 4.4

$$ ItalianBela Vista

Speranza Bixiga is the Tarallo family cantina in Sao Paulo credited with the capital's first Margherita pizza, still baked on Rua Treze de Maio.

TryPizza Margherita and Tortano

Directions

Castelões ★ 4.5

$$ ItalianBras

Castelões has baked its wood-fired pizza on Rua Jairo Gois in Sao Paulo's Bras district since 1924, now run by third-generation owner Fabio Donato.

TryPizza Casteloes (thin-sliced artisanal calabresa and mozzarella)

Directions

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