Pizza cutter

A pizza cutter (or pizza wheel) is a utensil that is used to cut pizzas. The use of a pizza cutter instead of a standard knife avoids the dislodging of loose toppings through the back-and-forth motion of the blade typical of a knife. Pizza cutters press their blade down vertically instead.

There are two main types of pizza cutters. The most common uses a wheel that rotates in a circle while a person moves the cutter in a direction that they would like to cut the pizza. The other type is a large curved knife called a mezzaluna (Italian for "half moon"), which is rocked back and forth to cut the pizza. These two types of pizza cutters come in many different sizes. Many people might use the wheel pizza cutter for other things, including craft work. Some types of mezzalunas (particularly the double-bladed type) are often used to mince herbs or chop vegetables. It was invented in 1708 by Silvio Pacitti.