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Pizza Toppings: Simple/Elaborate, Traditional/Unusual


stagis

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We're making pizza tonight, and the typical question comes up - what to put on it?

Here's what we actually made tonight (after raiding the fridge and pantry):

prosciutto, dried apricots, roasted red peppers, and a small amount of mozarella and parmesan. Drizzled with olive oil and some fresh ground pepper at serving.

Good! :smile:

Is it unusual to like to drink milk with pizza? I've always liked that...

I know a man who gave up smoking, drinking, sex, and rich food. He was healthy right up to the day he killed himself. - Johnny Carson
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I'm very much traditional with my toppings, rarely moving away from fresh tomato sauce with olive oil, basil, and mozzarella. If I'm feeling adventurous, I'll throw diced pancetta into the mix. I like crusts to be very thin, bubbly, and slightly charred. Old world baby.

R. Jason Coulston

jason@popcling.com

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The traditional 4, or do you have a personal favourite?

Gorgonzola, Parmesean, Mozarella and Ricotta (can use goat cheese too).

Do not expect INTJs to actually care about how you view them. They already know that they are arrogant bastards with a morbid sense of humor. Telling them the obvious accomplishes nothing.

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The key is that for any type of pizza crust, there is one correct maximum volume of toppings. You can make it all one type, or you can mix and match, but if you exceed that volume, the pizza will come out overloaded, soggy, and difficult to get off the peel and out of the oven again. This correct quantity is often smaller than you would think, especially for thin crust pizzas.

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I find you can cram a surprisingly big load o'toppings on a thin crust pizza if you pre-bake it - slap the dough on the stone, poke the bubbles as they rise, just leave it on for a minute or two, pull it off and FLIP IT OVER so the toppings go on the side that was just on the stone.

Works great. This is a fab thread - I've tried many of these ideas myself, but one of my personal faves is a seafood pizza - base of either my own pesto (no pine nuts - I freeze it, just basil, olive oil and massive amounts of garlic) or Alfredo sauce (made extra thick) topped with very thinly sliced red onion, some roasted red pepper, and shrimp that have been lightly sauteed in garlic and butter. Grind a little black pepper over, throw on a minimum of mozza or fontina...hella good.

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For yesterday's Pie Potluck, I made a "pizza" on a base of plain paratha. The toppings were (in order of application):

- Indian "tomato pickle" (somewhat spicy) for the sauce;

- homemade piperade (sauteed red and green bell peppers, onion, and garlic)

- crumbled manouri cheese (Greek, sort of a cross between feta and ricotta salata).

(I forgot the curry leaves that I had meant to add. :sad: )

Pretty damn good, if I say so myself!

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add Bacon. everything tastes better with bacon.

Do not expect INTJs to actually care about how you view them. They already know that they are arrogant bastards with a morbid sense of humor. Telling them the obvious accomplishes nothing.

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I find you can cram a surprisingly big load o'toppings on a thin crust pizza if you pre-bake it - slap the dough on the stone, poke the bubbles as they rise, just leave it on for a minute or two, pull it off and FLIP IT OVER so the toppings go on the side that was just on the stone.

Works great.

If your goal is to cram ever more toppings on a pizza, I suppose.

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I find you can cram a surprisingly big load o'toppings on a thin crust pizza if you pre-bake it - slap the dough on the stone, poke the bubbles as they rise, just leave it on for a minute or two, pull it off and FLIP IT OVER so the toppings go on the side that was just on the stone.

Works great.

If your goal is to cram ever more toppings on a pizza, I suppose.

you say that like it's a bad thing! :biggrin:

I'm assuming you mean that a lightly topped pizza can be a thing of beauty - I do agree - but in the event you're in the mood to go nuts, this method will keep the crust from being soggy.

re: "everything tastes better with bacon" - amen, brother! :cool:

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i love to make white pizza (out it's always a disappointment - too greasy, not crisp enough - but i live in seattle - my pizza expectations are low)

when i do it myself - sometimes with pre-bought self-tossed dough, sometimes with lavash - i used olive oil, garlic, salt, chili flakes and fontina. so good.

sometimes i'll add kalamata olives and thinly sliced onion.

from overheard in new york:

Kid #1: Paper beats rock. BAM! Your rock is blowed up!

Kid #2: "Bam" doesn't blow up, "bam" makes it spicy. Now I got a SPICY ROCK! You can't defeat that!

--6 Train

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I love cooked onions on pizza. On a red-sauced one, I often go with sauteed onions and roasted peppers, with mozerella or provolone.

I made a sauceless one the other day with a bed of lightly caramalized onions cooked with fresh thyme, kalamata olives, with crumbled feta tossed on near the end, just so it heated and softened rather than melted into oblivion.

In the summer I'll sometimes do a smear of basil pesto, onions, kalamata or nicoise olives, and anchovies. A sprinkle of parm-reg is nice, but not necessary.

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Springtime in the Pacific Northwest Pizza:

tomato sauce and mozzarella + smoked salmon + red onion + asparagus

Ripoff of Niebaum-Coppola pizza:

No sauce: bake crust blind with olive oil and parmesan. When it comes out, throw proscuitto and arugula (neither cooked) on top so that the greens wilt a bit. Can drizzle more EVOO and/or lemon juice on top. Fresh black pepper and maybe a little sea salt, depending on saltiness of your proscuitto.

agnolottigirl

~~~~~~~~~~~

"They eat the dainty food of famous chefs with the same pleasure with which they devour gross peasant dishes, mostly composed of garlic and tomatoes, or fisherman's octopus and shrimps, fried in heavily scented olive oil on a little deserted beach."-- Luigi Barzini, The Italians

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My boyfriend, Shawn, has a specialty that he makes for us...

Using Trader Joe's Middle Eastern Flatbread, he rubs it with a bit of olive oil to start.

Toppers include sautéed mushrooms and spinach, roasted garlic, kalamata olives, goat cheese, fresh basil, and then a bit of parmigiano reggiano.

Grilled under the broiler until the cheeses melt.

A great appetizer...

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Smoked duck breast, carmelized red onion, baby spinach leaves, asiago cheese.  A light pesto on the bottom.

Jake;

This sounds really good (big fan of duck in any shape, form or fashion). Do you smoke the duck breast yourself, or buy it already smoked? And the pesto is a basil one, I assume?

THW

"My only regret in life is that I did not drink more Champagne." John Maynard Keynes

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For those that haven't braved making your own dough, you might want to give it a try. It's really the simplest bread recipe you can imagine. It comes together quickly and acts lovely by comparison to anything store-bought, including "fresh" dough. It's more pliable, relaxed, and can be rolled very thin for the lovliest of thin-crusted pizzas, which in my opinion is the only way to go.

Just use the well-method, warm water, yeast, sugar, salt and olive oil. A totally basic recipe that can be found just about anywhere online you search. You don't even need to let it rise if you don't feel inclined to do so or if you're thin on time. Once you figure out the technique, you'll wonder why the term "Boboli" was ever in your vocabulary.

R. Jason Coulston

jason@popcling.com

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i love to make white pizza (out it's always a disappointment - too greasy, not crisp enough - but i live in seattle - my pizza expectations are low)

:hmmm: I don't know about that comment... What about Pegasus, Pagliacci and for white pizza, Tulio's!

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