Pizza Toppings: Simple/Elaborate, Traditional/Unusual

[Chris Hennes]

Well, it looks like summer is here for real this time, so I'm back out at the grill for tonight's pizza. I've actually never made a grilled pizza: I normally make a pan pizza, and just cook it on the grill. Tonight I decided to give an actual grilled pizza a try. I have a bit of work to do on the timing, but overall it was satisfactory.

 

[Chris Hennes]

Another grilled pizza, though this time in a pan - a pizza inspired by Reinhart's Perfect Pan Pizza book, with mozzarella and cheddar under crushed tomatoes, chopped grape tomatoes, black pepper, and red pepper flakes. Made thin enough that the crust is crispy most of the way through except at the very edges. 

 

[Chris Hennes]

Back to actual normal-person grilled pizza now. This one turned out better than my last: the crust was nice and crispy, with a bit of charring but not overkill.

 

[Chris Hennes]

Still making grilled pizza, and probably will be for a few months now: I think I've got the "grilled" part dialed in pretty well now, so I'm back to mucking around with the toppings. Normally when I am putting blue cheese on pizza I use Gorgonzola, but for tonight's I used Bayley Hazen. Wow. It's an amazing cheese no matter how it's served, and on pizza (accompanied by kalamata olives and toasted walnuts) it was fantastic. I put it on last, so it was probably on the heat for about a minute, which was perfect. It was just melting, but didn't disappear into the crust the way that sometimes blue cheese can if you give it too much time.

 

[Chris Hennes]

This one is straight out of Reinhart's American Pie: in the section he calls "Third-generation Neo-Neapolitan Pizza" he has a recipe for Onion Marmalade, Walnuts, and Blue Cheese pizza. I was a bit worried that the onions would be too sweet, but actually it ended up well-balanced, and quite delicious. This is the Bayley Hazen blue again, and I toasted the walnuts separately since this is a grilled pizza and the toppings don't get a lot of heat once they are on the pie.

 

[Paul Bacino]

The Gort Pizza!!

 

 

 

 niktoo baratta cheese and burger  ( well sounded good )  3 cheese/burger and sausage

 

 

 

 

 

[chileheadmike]

Traditional Margarita and not so traditional taco Pizza. 

[Chris Hennes]

Modernist neapolitan crust, olives, mozzarella di bufala, and a sauce of crushed tomatoes, silk chili flakes, black pepper, and olive oil. Baked in the oven, since it's a bit cooler today.

 

[Chris Hennes]

Tonight my impatience got the better of me: I was in a hurry, so didn't let the dough rise enough, or the oven preheat long enough. The crust was definitely substandard. For toppings, this is a quattro formaggi with mozarella di bufala, parmigiano, caciocavallo di bufala, and gorgonzola dolce. The sauce is a bechamel with a lot of red pepper flakes added. So, the taste was pretty good, though I think I used too much parmigiano, the balance was off a bit.

 

[Chris Hennes]

Tonight's pizza is a bechamel sauce with spinach, mozzarella di bufala, and ricotta. A bit of redemption after last night's sad attempt, this was delicious. The spinach was sauteed and then tossed with black pepper and red pepper flakes. The bechamel is the Modernist recipe.

 

 

 

[shain]

Mozzarella, figs, ricotta, aniseed, pepper, mint.

 

[shain]

Peaches, cream, mozzarella (fresh), basil, balsamic vinegar, vanilla, pepper.

 

[blue_dolphin]

A big thank you to @shain for the fig pizza idea!  

 

Figs, goat cheese and roasted balsamic onions with sage, black pepper 

Just a little mozzarella on the bottom to glue things in place!

[shain]

2 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

A big thank you to @shain for the fig pizza idea!  

 

Figs, goat cheese and roasted balsamic onions with sage, black pepper 

Just a little mozzarella on the bottom to glue things in place!

 

What a beauty

I love seeing how much variety and possiblities can single recipe concept take.

[blue_dolphin]

A while back, I made this recipe for Country Ham-Wrapped and Roasted Peaches from Deep Run Roots:

Peach wedges get wrapped in thin slices of smoked country ham (I subbed prosciutto) and roasted.  They're served on gingered goat cheese (goat cheese, buttermilk & grated, fresh ginger) with a drizzle of balsamic honey and a sprinkle of sweet & spicy pecans. Very decadent.

 

With inspiration from @shain's peach pizza above, I decided to pizza-fy this recipe today:

to fi

 

I layered the gingered goat cheese mixture over the dough, sprinkled with a little mozzarella and the sliced peaches:

 

Topped with pepperoni (subbing for the country ham or prosciutto)

 

Baked:

I added the pecans and drizzle of balsamic honey after baking.  

Edited August 24, 2020 by blue_dolphin
to fix photo (log)

[kayb]

Damn, but that looks wonderful!

 

[Chris Hennes]

This is the first batch of dough I've made with the Caputo (red bag) -- up to this point I'd just been using the King Arthur I normally use for bread. Alas, I also used cornmeal to prevent sticking (I normally just use flour), so that's one variable too many: the crust was certainly decent, but I need to practice with it a bit to get it dialed in, I think. Toppings are just low-moisture mozzarella, basil, and whole grape tomatoes blitzed in the food processor with some salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.

 

[shain]

Bechamel, artichoke, rosemary. After baking - toasted pistachio, parmesan, lemon zest, pepper.

 

[blue_dolphin]

Cauliflower and tomato chutney pizza

I slathered a healthy spoonful of tomato chutney over the dough before topping with par-cooked cauliflower that had been tossed with a garlic and red chili-infused olive oil and a mix of cheddar and mozzarella. 

I wasn't sure about this so I only made a small pie and intended to use the rest of the dough for a pepperoni pizza but it works so I made another, just the same 🙃 

[Rou222]

wow I've never even heard about pizza with peaches! looks wonderful

definitely gonna try to cook it next weekend

 

I guess pineapple pizza is not going to be my fav pizza afterwards, haha

[TdeV]

Hello @Rou222, welcome to eGullet.

My best pizza (to date) was goat cheese, peaches, fresh sage, with some mozzarella sprinkled on the top.

Edited October 14, 2020 by TdeV
Edited to add: and garlic, of course! (log)

[shain]

14 hours ago, Rou222 said:

I guess pineapple pizza is not going to be my fav pizza afterwards, haha

 

I'm not a fan of pineapple pizza with tomatoe sauce (I don't hatie it, but I'd prefer a plain slice anytime). However, I never thought of trying it on a white pizza until now. Mozzarella, pineapple, fresh chilies and a sprinkle of five spice. Might need something else to add moisture.

[Rou222]

10 hours ago, TdeV said:

Hello @Rou222, welcome to eGullet.

My best pizza (to date) was goat cheese, peaches, fresh sage, with some mozzarella sprinkled on the top.

that sound delicious! 

[Rou222]

8 hours ago, shain said:

 

I'm not a fan of pineapple pizza with tomatoe sauce (I don't hatie it, but I'd prefer a plain slice anytime). However, I never thought of trying it on a white pizza until now. Mozzarella, pineapple, fresh chilies and a sprinkle of five spice. Might need something else to add moisture.

yeah, I agree. Tomato sauce isn't the right choice. There are so many to choose from today... I personally like it with a blue cheese sauce.  

[teonzo]

12 hours ago, shain said:

I'm not a fan of pineapple pizza with tomatoe sauce (I don't hatie it, but I'd prefer a plain slice anytime). However, I never thought of trying it on a white pizza until now. Mozzarella, pineapple, fresh chilies and a sprinkle of five spice. Might need something else to add moisture.

 

Coconut cream for the moisture, I would go with rosemary instead of five spice.

 

 

 

Teo