Strange Pizza Toppings

[kayb]

Pulled pork barbecue and pineapple on pizza is a thing in the Memphis area.

 

Of course, we also do barbecue spaghetti.

[Ann_T]

19 hours ago, Shelby said:

@Ann_T makes a wonderful looking pizza that has potatoes on it.  I think she calls it a Greek pizza?  Anyway, I've never tasted it, but it looks delicious and it was the first time I'd ever seen taters on pizza.

 

Thanks @Shelby.

14 hours ago, FauxPas said:

 

Had to go off and find examples of this and yes, you are right, it does indeed look delicious. I wonder how the topping is done on her Greek Potato Pizza. @Ann_T, how do you prepare the potatoes? Looks like feta cheese and sometimes kalamata olives and/or sun-dried tomatoes as well? 

https://forums.egullet.org/topic/155166-dinner-2017-part-6/?page=81&tab=comments#comment-2129128

 

 

@FauxPas,  The Greek Pizza is my son's favourite.   I've been making it this way since he was a kid and he is now 36.   The most requested pizza by all his friends. 

 

 

I use to roast the potato cubes, but now I just fry them the same way i would french fries.   He likes them cut into tiny cubes and likes lots on his pizza.   It is pretty simple. The russet potato cubes are fried, and then seasoned with fresh garlic, salt, pepper and oregano while still warm.    Just before they go on the pizza, I squeeze a lemon over them.    I use my regular pizza sauce, topped with fresh mozzarella, topped with the fried potatoes.    Sometimes I'll top with olives and feta, but most of the time Matt prefers it with just the potatoes.

 

 

[Ann_T]

I must confess to being more of a purist when it comes to pizza.   Except for the Greek (potato)  pizza, which I like, but really just make it for my son Matt, I only want traditional toppings on my pizza.

If I could only eat one pizza again for the rest of my life it would be and Italian sausage and mushroom pizza. 

 

[Auspicious]

Onions, black olives, and green peppers. Maybe mushrooms.

[Chris Hennes]

Meh, pizza is a flatbread. If it's good on bread, it's good on pizza. I'm making one from the New York Times tonight, roasted eggplant and ricotta. I've made this one before, it's pretty good. Lots of basil and chile flakes.

[Martin Fisher]

Tuna is a thing is Spain!

[Auspicious]

13 hours ago, Chris Hennes said:

Meh, pizza is a flatbread. If it's good on bread, it's good on pizza. I'm making one from the New York Times tonight, roasted eggplant and ricotta. I've made this one before, it's pretty good. Lots of basil and chile flakes.

 

I disagree. Flatbread (as sold in restaurants) is a way to charge more than something is worth.

[Duvel]

6 minutes ago, Auspicious said:

 

I disagree. Flatbread (as sold in restaurants) is a way to charge more than something is worth.

 

Maybe you go to the wrong restaurants 😉

[blue_dolphin]

26 minutes ago, Auspicious said:

 

I disagree. Flatbread (as sold in restaurants) is a way to charge more than something is worth.

 

I guess you could say that about many simple restaurant dishes.  Still, I'd love to try the flatbreads at the Green Zone, @Hassouni's new establishment in DC.

 

I've also enjoyed the flatbreads from this local bakery.  The first two would certainly work on a pizza.  I don't really care for chicken on pizza but even the third one wouldn't be out of place on a SoCal pizza.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BeeZee]

Heretics! Pizza is dough, tomato sauce/crushed tomatoes and mozz cheese! Although I enjoyed pizza with potato, I don't see it as "true pizza".

Flatbreads are good, but they aren't pizza. They always strike me as a bread based vehicle for various toppings, and are often overly complicated. Pizza is the true "whole is greater than the sum of its parts" marriage of simple components.

[TicTac]

So long as the shape is accurate, anything can go on a 'pizza'!

 

Some unique (but excellent) ingredients I have used:

 

Fried potatoes (so good on pizza - some excellent pepperoni and smoked cheese make for a tasty trio!)

 

Garlic Scape Paste

 

Garlic Scapes

 

Asparagus paste

 

Fava paste

 

Bacon jam

 

Zuccini flowers

 

The list goes on.....

 

 

[Beebs]

When I was in college, the campus pizza place's most popular offering was baked potato pizza. Potato, cheddar, green onions, bacon - soooo good!

 

Pineapple on pizza is weird & not tasty. Except for this one neighbourhood joint that does it with hot pickled banana peppers.

 

I'll eat almost anything on pizza, but liuzhou's pics of the local pizza...gak!...that's so far out there, it's not even in our solar system anymore.

[Auspicious]

5 hours ago, BeeZee said:

Heretics! Pizza is dough, tomato sauce/crushed tomatoes and mozz cheese! Although I enjoyed pizza with potato, I don't see it as "true pizza".

Flatbreads are good, but they aren't pizza. They always strike me as a bread based vehicle for various toppings, and are often overly complicated. Pizza is the true "whole is greater than the sum of its parts" marriage of simple components.

 

Agreed. Some toppings are okay: peppers, olives, onions, mushrooms, pepperoni, sausage. Maybe ground beef if there is a power failure and you're in a bind. I may have missed some options but NOT pineapple or Canadian bacon.

 

From a culinary point of view pizzas are flatbreads but not all flatbreads are pizza. Stick tomato sauce on a pita and it is still not a pizza (all thumbs are fingers but not all fingers are thumbs). From a restaurant menu point of view flatbreads are not pizza (toes).

[gulfporter]

When we first began visiting Mexico in 2006 I did my best to learn "food" words first.  Quite proudly one night in San Miguel de Allende I phoned in a pizza order, un grande con salchicha, correctly translating sausage.

 

Well......salchicha on a pizza in Mexico turned out to be hot dogs.  Not crisped up or blackened or grilled or even fried....just warmish thick rounds of sliced, cheap hot dogs.

 

FFWD 10+ years and nowadays most MXN pizza menus include topping listing for both salchicha and another for salchicha Italiano.  

 

All orders of pizza still come with ketchup packets 😝

 

 

Edited August 27, 2018 by gulfporter (log)

[Shelby]

3 minutes ago, gulfporter said:

All orders of pizza still come with ketchup packets 😝

  I've never heard of that!  Do people dip the pizza into the ketchup or spread it on top?

[Nancy in Pátzcuaro]

Yes, Mexicans put ketchup on their pizzas, along with sliced pickled jalapenos, and mustard. Plain ol' yellow mustard. Normal toppings--hawaiian (though that's not normal in my book), Italian, pepperoni, plain cheese--but ketchup and mustard liberally applied. Yikes!

 

Nancy in Patzcuaro

[lindag]

26 minutes ago, Nancy in Pátzcuaro said:

Yes, Mexicans put ketchup on their pizzas, along with sliced pickled jalapenos, and mustard. Plain ol' yellow mustard. Normal toppings--hawaiian (though that's not normal in my book), Italian, pepperoni, plain cheese--but ketchup and mustard liberally applied. Yikes!

 

Nancy in Patzcuaro

urk 

[Lisa Shock]

Ok, I understand the pickled jalapenos, sort of. Although, IMO, fresh slices baked on top would be far better. I myself have quite a fondness for green chile as a pizza topping and as part of topping a lasagna. There's just something about hot, browned, bubbly mozzarella cheese and green chiles together that makes me very happy.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

I'm a big fan of fresh! jalapeno slices on pizza as well. I do not like the pickled very much, and have even been known to bring my own baggie of finely chopped fresh jalapeno to add to salsa at Mexican restaurants. I used to pickle jalapenos when I grew them because it was the only way to enjoy them during the winter. Still, I much prefer them fresh.

 

Sometimes I can enjoy an Hawaiian pizza. This had the higher fat content, that makes it better to me. I was making it sort of frequently and my husband enjoyed it too. These were made with leftover Easter ham. It's not something I order at pizzerias, though. Those usually involve very lean deli ham, and just don't taste very good to me.

 

As far as the Asian obsession for corn on pizza, while I love good corn and I love good pizza, corn on pizza is about the weirdest idea I have encountered. 

[MetsFan5]

I’ve never understood the flatbread craze. It just seems like a random marriage of ingredients on a subpar bread, at least in the NYC metro area. 

  Since I live in that area, ultimately I judge pizza as a plain pie. I can appreciate a well made margarita pie, but I generally just prefer a plain pie. If I’m in the mood for toppings, it’s mushrooms, black olives and Italian sausage crumbles. 

 

  And no, pizza is not meant to be dipped into any type of dressing or sauce. The best pizza to me is the simplest. 

 

 A fresh out of the pizza oven,  with goey melting cheese and the tang of a well made tomato sauce pizza is the best. And now I am craving one! 

[gfweb]

I contend that pizza toppings must add grease to t he pizza. So fruit is out.

 

And putting random stuff on pizza dough doesn't make it a pizza any more than any topping put on spaghetti makes it a bolognese.

 

 

[gulfporter]

13 hours ago, Nancy in Pátzcuaro said:

Yes, Mexicans put ketchup on their pizzas, along with sliced pickled jalapenos, and mustard. Plain ol' yellow mustard. Normal toppings--hawaiian (though that's not normal in my book), Italian, pepperoni, plain cheese--but ketchup and mustard liberally applied. Yikes!

 

Nancy in Patzcuaro

We don't see mustard used with pizza here....many things in MX are local.  Yes to pickled jalapenos....I have asked for raw jalapenos but never found a place that had them.  Same with hamburguesas.....always pickled.  On hamburguesas, yes mustard used by the locals and LOTS of it. 

[gulfporter]

11 hours ago, Lisa Shock said:

Ok, I understand the pickled jalapenos, sort of. Although, IMO, fresh slices baked on top would be far better. I myself have quite a fondness for green chile as a pizza topping and as part of topping a lasagna. There's just something about hot, browned, bubbly mozzarella cheese and green chiles together that makes me very happy.

On our first trip to New Mexico in the early 1980s we found ourselves outside Los Alamos (great museum BTW), in a hurry and hungry and saw a Pizza Hut.  Any port in a storm.  Well, they offered Hatch chilies as a topping....our first taste of them.  Blown away is putting it mildly.

 

When I made pizza in Arizona I always topped with roasted Hatch chilies (or other green chilies) as there were chili roasters set up outside a few grocery stores in Douglas and Sierra Vista nearly year round.  

[Beebs]

A local pizza chain has recently started offering macaroni pizza (garlic sauce, cheese) and hot dog pizza (honey mustard drizzle).

 

Some of the Chinese bake shops here make something they call a "pizza bun". It's a bun with ketchup, corn, cheese. Some have chopped up bell peppers, or sliced hot dog weiners. Usually a mayo drizzle. They're not bad...just weird in a strangely compelling way.

[Katie Meadow]

Frankly (and unfortunately)  it isn't hard to imagine all kinds of horrid pizza toppings. There are people who combine things that I wouldn't even eat separately. Growing up in New York a million years ago there were not a lot of choices. I didn't taste "Hawaiian" pizza until I moved to CA in the '70's. I would say pineapple and ham on pizza is settled law. I actually like fresh pineapple on pizza, with or without ham, but the fruit needs to be nice and tart and, of course, fresh. Pineapple and tomato can be an appealing combo when the balance is right. A pineapple pizza can be made exotic with thai basil and it can be fun, but if the pineapple is canned and ham is too sweet I would agree it is dreadful.

 

Until recently I thought corn on pizza was just plain weird, but recently we made a corn zucchini pizza with fabulous farmers' market produce and I'm hooked. The recipe called for pickled jalapeños, but I subbed fresh roasted poblanos and that was perfect. If I had pickled peppers I would try them, but I almost always have roasted green chiles around.

 

I am not a vegetarian, but I don't usually want meat on pizza. Given a choice of a margherita or a pepperoni I would opt for the former. One of my top vegetables for pizza is radicchio, sautéed first with some garlic. In tomato season radicchio and tomato slices make a great pizza. The idea of chicken on pizza is very peculiar to me. Clam pizza however, is another story: I could eat that red or white and be very happy as long as the clams were fresh and tender. 

 

Several things I never want on a pizza as long as I live: cheddar cheese, mayonnaise in a any form, and spam. And there's plenty more.