The Largest Round Pizza Ever Made Was as Wide as 1.5 Baseball Fields

A pizza prepared by NIPfood enterprise in 2012 wouldn't have fit in a cardboard box—or a delivery van, for that matter. Covering a surface area greater than 13,580 square feet, the Italian pie—dubbed “Ottavia”—still holds the Guinness World Record for largest round pizza in the world.

A team led by pizza chain mogul Dovilio Nardi put together the cheesy monstrosity in Rome, Italy, on December 13, 2012. It stretched more than 130 feet across, or about the length of 1½ baseball fields. The pizza consisted of 19,800 pounds of flour; 10,000 pounds of tomato sauce; 8800 pounds of mozzarella cheese; 1488 pounds of margarine; 551 pounds of rock salt; 220 pounds of lettuce; and 55 pounds of vinegar, adding up to a 51,257-pound pie. The dough had to be baked in more than 5000 batches over a 48-hour period.

In addition to its size, the pizza was made more impressive by the fact that it was 100 percent gluten-free. The record-breaking cooking event was organized by the gluten-free food company Dr. Schar. Prior to breaking a world record, Dovilio Nardi had launched a celiac-friendly pizza restaurant in Italy.

The name “Ottavia” comes from the Roman word for “eighth son”—a nod to the Roman emperor Octavian Augustus. Nearly a decade after its creation, Ottavia remains the largest round pizza ever made—gluten-free or otherwise. But there are longer rectangular pies on record, including this skinny, mile-long pizza baked in 2016.