Pizza Toppings: Simple/Elaborate, Traditional/Unusual

[NulloModo]

Oh wow, I totally forgot two of the best bizarre pizzas ever:

Marshmallow pizza -

Start by making a basic cheese pizza (crust, sauce, cheese) and just toss a bag of marshmallows (well, the marshmallows, not the actual bag) on top before baking. The marshmallows will brown and carmelize just as the pizza finishes, and the flavors blend wonderfully, this is seriously one of the best pizzas I have ever had.

Garbage Pizza -

Inspired by the 'garbage fries' at a local eatery, man are those good:

Make a pizza and put onto it: Sauce, cheese, fries, canned chilie, nacho cheese sauce (velveeta), jalepenos, bacon crumbles, salsa, black beans, and well, whatever else you want. Bake it, then top with fresh guacamole, sour cream, mustard, mayo, dill pickle chips, more salsa, and whatever the hell else you like. This is super messey, but actually pretty good.

[Daniel]

OK.. Marshmallow pizza will most likely be made this evening.. Going out to dinner so sounds like a perfect dessert.. What would you suggest, the large guys or the mini's. And what wine would you serve with this.. hehe.. kidding with that

[bushey]

I sometimes add some whole wheat pastry flour to the dough, which seems to work really well. I usually make a variation on the Spago pizza dough from James McNair's book: add in honey, olive oil (about 2 tbs each) and coarse salt. Makes a short, almost pastry-like dough.

Feta cheese tossed with oregano and mint, topped with mixed peppers sauteed in evoo and garlic.

Instead of tomato sauce, try BBQ sauce and top with diced, cooked chicken, monterey jack and cilantro.

The marshmallow pizza sounds..........intriguing........if I could only get past the idea of tomato sauce and marshmallows .

[Carlovski]

My housemates make one with supermarket pizza bases (deep pan) topped with copious amounts of Heinz BBQ sauce, grated commercial mild cheddar, bacon, and sausages. I find that quite unusual (It's also quite impressively nasty - but hey, they like it)

[NulloModo]

I believe we used your basic large marshmallows for it. We didn't actually bake it, we went to a local chain (Peace-a-Pizza) which is known for bizarre pizzas, wanting something bizarre. We had recently watched the Ninja Turtles movie where I believe they order a marshmallow pizza, so we asked them if they would bake a bag of marshmallows onto a cheese pizza if we brought them in, they said yes, and it was good, very good. The sauce and marshmallows actually go oddly well together, it is bizarre, but it works.

[amccomb]

I put leftovers on my pizzas. Curried chicken with curry sauce as the base is good, stri fry with tofu using a stir fry sauce as the base, thinly sliced beef with carmelized onions and blue cheese, alfredo sauce with roasted rosemary potatoes....pretty much anythiiing goes. I've even done a gumbo pizza that was great. My husband's favorite is pesto, mushrooms, spinach, and feta cheese.

[ludja]

OK.. Marshmallow pizza will most likely be made this evening.. Going out to dinner so sounds like a perfect dessert.. What would you suggest, the large guys or the mini's.  And what wine would you serve with this.. hehe.. kidding with that

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please report, I have to admit this combo is straining my imagination...

(not that I don't believe nullomodo, but it would be interesting to have a second opinion on this... )

[Jason Perlow]

Sichuan Chicken Pizza. I don't recall exactly how it was done, but instead of tomato sauce, it was a base of hoisin sauce, mozzarella on top, with sliced scallions, shredded cooked chicken (cooked in a brown sauce with lots of ginger), drizzles of oyster sauce, julienned carrot and chinese chile peppers, drizzled sesame oil.

Here's a recipe for a Hoisin Pizza that sounds similar:

http://www.thatsmyhome.com/mainstreetdeli/hoipiz.htm

Another Asian-style pizza:

http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/getrecipe.zsp?id=33440

[Basilgirl]

Alfredo sauce, chicken, red onion, fontina, garlic - sort of like the Roasted Garlic Chicken pizza at CPK

[pam claughton]

Okay a few ideas here.

First of all, can't beat a Hawaiian, ham and pineapple, though you can improve it by using proscuitto. :)

Years ago, I ate at Spago in LA and had the most delicious pizza ever, and then was beyond excited to find the recipe for the pizza in the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous cookbook.....great pizza dough recipe there, using honey, and salt. and the topping is diced chicken, cilantro, jalapeno, and monterey jack cheese. You can make it as spicy as you like, and it's a great combo.

Two other excellent ones come from a local chain here, Bertucci's The Sporky, features chunks of Italian sausage, and dollops of ricotta, along with the usual pizza sauce and mozzarella.

But my favorite there is the lemon cream brocolli and cheese. It's a white pizza with a lemon alfredo sauce, cheese, chopped broccoli and chicken. Yum.

Pam

[EdS]

You probably wouldn't think to look in the Japan forum for wild pizza ideas so here is a link.

[saskanuck]

Marinara sauce, spicy chicken, sun-dried tomatoes, baby spinach leaves, roasted garlic and mozzarella/cheddar on top.

Mmm.

[rooftop1000]

we have done pizza making parties, i just make bowls of veggies and meats and cheeses and let everyone go wild ...

but my latest fave was sauteed onion. crispy garlic chips. raw scallions, split shrimp, mozz, romano cheese, and the oil from crisping the garlic slices

[Jason Perlow]

We decided to make "Thai Chicken Pizza" tonight from RecipeZaar:

Thai Chicken Pizza (Click)

Filling of leftover pulled chicken, peanut sauce, scallions and sesame seeds

Spreading the Boboli with Peanut Sauce

Topping with cheese (mozzarella and monterey jack) and slivers of hot pepper (the chicken is under the cheese)

Just out of the oven, garnished with Cilantro, Shredded Carrot, Scallions and Sesame Seeds

Money Shot

[Rachel Perlow]

The Thai Chicken Pizza was excellent. Unfortunately the recipe has ingredients listed which aren't in the instructions. I've posted a review to the recipe so that others might figure out what to do with the scallions and sesame seeds.

[RETREVR]

This is good: Bleu cheese, carmelized onions(confit if you insist), and pear.

Shaved Meatballs, along with other toppings is good(peperoncini matches well).

Chopped meatballs are good also, but different than the shaved.

Smoked duck is good.

My favorite:

Luigis pizza with their house made sausage and pepperoni. Just cannot be beat.

[bakerboy]

I ran a pizza shop for 4 years and you can see some odd stuff and get some odd requests. The "garbage" pizza would be thrown together occasionally by my coworkers which was a horrible amalgamation of god knows what. My personal favorite was a white pizza with garlic, olive oil, mozzarella, onion confit, goat cheese, and fresh thyme. this was drizzled with a bit of honey as soon as it came out of the oven. The very same people who would make and eat the "garbage" pizza would not taste my onion and goat cheese pizza. "eeewww, goat cheese" Some odd requests were: peanut butter and jelly pizza, hot dog pizza(scatter sliced dogs on the pie), and a double bacon chicken alfredo, probably the most unhealthy thing i've ever served.

[morela]

Pickeled fiddleheads & Serrano ham.

And a very light shaving of morels.

[Chufi]

Best topping I ever made myself was accidentally (with leftovers):

chunks of roast butternut squash

slices of portobello mushroom

big chunks of soft goats cheese

sprinkled with rucola when it came out of the oven.

The best one from one of my favorite Amsterdam restaurants:

a mascarpone truffle sauce, lightly smoked ham, parmesan, rucola. Ohh that is soooo good.

[slkinsey]

Another good one, not entirely unorthodox but unusual to some, is a scattering of fig preserve and gorgonzola, then some lightly dressed ruccola when it comes out of the oven.

[pam claughton]

We decided to make "Thai Chicken Pizza" tonight from RecipeZaar.

Thai Chicken Pizza (Click)

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Wow, I can practically taste that Thai Chicken Pizza, it looks amazing.

Pam

[Daniel]

Start by making a basic cheese pizza (crust, sauce, cheese) and just toss a bag of marshmallows (well, the marshmallows, not the actual bag) on top before baking.  The marshmallows will brown and carmelize  just as the pizza finishes, and the flavors blend wonderfully, this is seriously one of the best pizzas I have ever had.

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While waiting for tonights dinner to cook, i thought it would be a good idea to try this marshmallow pizza.. Using the Todd English Pizza dough recipe i started to make your norma margarita. I then reluctantly placed a whole buch of mini marshmallows on top.. After trying it I was surprised at how good it tasted.. The marshmallow added a real sweetness to the pizza. It mixed well with the cheese.. It was almost like eating dessert and an entree at the same time... Very interesting. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Syrah]

- Any kind of shellfish.  Brush the crust with evoo; place some raw seafood about the crust (clams, mussels, bay scallops, shrimp & calamari are all winners -- you could even do it with lobster); perhaps a tiny sprinkle of chopped garlic; bake in the oven; dust with parsley, sea salt and crushed red pepper.  It's important that the crust be thin and the oven set up to fully bake the pizza in no more than 3-4 minutes, lest the seafood overcook.  It's important the seafood be raw so the juices cook into the crust.

I am confused.. When you say crust you are refferring to the entire top of the pizza.. Or actually just around the edges.

As mentioned above, you want the entire pizza (bottom and edge crust) to cook in 3-4 minutes so that the seafood does not overcook... (i.e. if the pizza took 10 minutes to cook the seafood would be rubbery!)

You could parbake the crust surely?? 5 - 10 minutes then add the seafood yes??

[rgruby]

Around the Pesaro Italy area they make a pizza called the Rossini (for the composer who was born there) that includes mayonnaise among its toppings.

I never tried one, but it seemed rather popular.

Cheers,

Geoff Ruby

[Daniel]

I am looking for that Rossinni recipe.. I am very interested in learning about it.. The guy seemed to be a character.. Rumor has it one of the only times the guy has cried was when he dropped a truffled stuffed turkey he was having for lunch over the side of his boat.