Many people ask: “What makes Neapolitan Pizza different from American Pizza?

Well, not only is the crust thinner, but the quality of ingredients is obvious. American pizza relies on heavily spiced sauce, tons of salt, and massive amounts of cheese full of preservatives for it’s taste.
An authentic Neopolitan pizza, on the other hand, involves a much more subtle blend of flavors. Margherita pizza, Italian pizza in its basic, pure form, Is made of Italian grown tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil, and a little bit of virgin olive oil. That’s it!

Not just any pizza can be truly labeled as “Neapolitan style,” or after the style of Naples, Italy.  In fact, not many pizzas qualify for this honor.  Terra Mia is a member of the Verace Pizza Napoletana (VPN) Association, which dictates whether or not a pizza can really be considered “Neapolitan style.”  Some of these stringent rules include: the use of a wood-burning oven, specific ingredients (special Italian wheat flour, natural Neapolitan yeast, salt, and water), and proper technique (dough kneaded by hand or low-speed mixer, no rolling pin used, crust at least 1/8 an inch thick, etc.).  Terra Mia meets all these requirements and thus is qualified to make authentic, Neapolitan style pizzas for the residents of the Wasatch Front!

Grease vs. Olive Oil
If you see something that looks suspiciously like grease on your pizza, do not be deceived!  There’s no need to grab your napkin to soak up all the excess grease.  Why?  Because it’s not grease at all!  We top our basic pizza, the Margherita, with extra virgin olive oil, which has many health benefits (in spite of looking like the typical grease found pooled on so many traditional American pizzas). You may not know that Italian pizza is significantly healthier than traditional American “Chicago Style” pizza, in part due to the absence of lots of grease.  So the next time we deliver a pizza to your table, you can view it calmly with an educated eye – no need for a panic attack (or a heart attack either)!

Some other facts about the Margherita pizza:

The Margherita pizza was named after Queen Margherita of Savoy, who was queen in Italy from 1878 to 1900.
In 1889 when Queen Margherita and King Umberto went on a trip to visit Naples, they were greeted with a special pizza made just for her. This pizza was made by Raffaele Esposito. He used the tomato, basil, and cheese to represent the colors of the Italian Flag! This also happened to be the first time cheese was ever added to pizza!

Did you know that an entire Margherita pizza contains less calories than one sliceof a Costco cheese pizza?  Now that’s something you can feel good about!

A truly authentic Neapolitan pizza

People have said that happiness is not just an emotion, but also a state of mind. There are things that make us happy, but in most cases we must choose happiness. I think this quote sums it up nicely.

“When I was in Piazza di Spagna, in Rome, I watched (along with others) how many locals came to drink water from the fountain there. The people beside me said to each other “Oh my goodness, how disgusting, people just drink water from anywhere,” while the whole time, I was thinking “Oh my goodness, how wonderful, people can drink water from anywhere.” We can be in the exact same place, looking at the exact same thing, but see that thing in a completely different way. You can go around the world, and go to all the beautiful places, but never be happy, because happiness is something that you bring inside of you, it is not where you are or what you are looking at, but it is how you are and how you look at.”
― C. JoyBell C.

Delicious or disgusting?

Dessert you can feel good about!

Gelato is essentially Italian ice cream. In Italian, “gelato” means “frozen,” and the plural of gelato is gelati.  Many people think gelato is made with or from gelatin, but that is a common misconception.  The basic ingredients are milk, sugar, and flavorings.

In America, a frozen dessert has to have at least 10% butter fat to be labeled “ice cream;” most ice cream actually has 18-20% butter fat.  Gelato, on the other hand, does not have that high or specific of requirements and, thus, is healthier than ice cream.  Typical cream-based gelato contains from 4-8% fat, and the water-based fruit gelato flavors such pineapple, lemon, mango, and watermelon (among others) have zero grams of fat!

Recent studies have shown that the human body is able to metabolize gelato better than ice cream!

Our gelato is made on-site daily!  Our specially-trained employees begin the process of making the gelato at 8 a.m. each morning so all the different flavors will be ready when Terra Mia opens at 11 a.m.

We make 25 different gelato flavors, but only 12 of them are out at any given time.  We rotate them daily, so make sure you come back to try our entire assortment of refreshing flavors!

So many delicious pizzas come to life in this oven!

Our Oven: Did You Know…?

The oven was purchased and shipped from Italy in early 2009; its travel to Orem, Utah was interrupted with many unexpected delays and problems.  It had to be shipped by boat from the Naples factory because the roads were too small for a semi truck to fit on them.  Once it arrived in New York, U.S. Customs held it up for two extra weeks to inspect it.  Finally the oven arrived in Orem, where it was unloaded in a warehouse until it was ready to be installed in the restaurant.  When installation time arrived, the first forklift we used tipped over when we were attempting to move the oven!  It’s no less than 6,000 pounds – and there is only one forklift in the entire state of Utah that is strong enough to lift it!

After using the one 6,000 pound forklift to move the oven to the restaurant site, we attempted to move it inside.  According to the promised dimensions, the oven should have fit through the front doors of the restaurant with ½” to spare, but since it was handmade some variability had crept in; the oven was now too big to fit through by a mere ¼”.  We ended up tearing apart the front entrance to get the oven inside!

As you now know, our oven has a little more history behind it than one might first suspect!

More Fun Facts About Our Oven!

Our wood-burning, brick oven can heat up to 1000° F.

Our oven can cook about three pizzas per minute, with an hourly capacity of 180 pizzas, and a daily capacity of up to 2,160 pizzas!

The oven was handmade by Ditta G. Acunto – known as best brick oven maker in world, and stationed in Naples.  Ditta Acunto has been making ovens for generations and their expertise is world-renowned.

We only use oak and cherry wood in our brick oven to ensure the best-tasting pizza ever!

The oven is made of brick, mortar, concrete, and rebar.

We hope you enjoyed learning about our amazing brick oven!

Another interesting thought on happiness for you: “If you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing double dahlias in his garden. He will not be searching for happiness as if it were a collar button that has rolled under the radiator”– W. Beran Wolfe. So, all you happy men and women: what do *you* do that brings you happiness?

We started a weight loss trial period, please inquire in the restaurant for more information…ciao!!

Are you getting in the Thanksgiving mood yet? We certainly are, because pumpkin gelato season starts today — yummm! If you didn’t try it last year, don’t miss out again.