Today I told myself I'd order something new, but in the end I went with my old standby:
Fried eggplant, spinach, minced garlic, roasted red peppers and ricotta.
Another one I'm fond of, (but rarely get) is bacon, pineapple and green peppers.
If I'm making pizza, then it's usually salami/hot sausage, mushroom, onions and peppers with some chili peppers or even pepperoncini and/or margherita (but only if I can get really good, fresh mozzarella and basil or good quality dried oregano).
Wow everybody here really likes some far out stuff. My Dad's side of the family can't stomach the thought of anything besides pepperoni on a pizza, and that's what I enjoy the most, though I secretly indulge in white pizza once in awhile. My Mom's side likes pepperoni and black olives, which I'm indifferent to.
I can understand that. But pizza is a fun food. If you can't play with pizza, what can you play with? Pepperoni people may also like: Salami, hot sopressata, chorizo, coppa, etc. Cured Italian meats are pretty dope, especially if you can get good ones. Here's a list.
zebra2 really needs to be a part of this pizza conversation. I posted some pics of a really great recent pizza outing I had. I will say that the "egg" is a great touch. Also, arugula and fresh cracked pepper. In college I worked at an italian restaurant in Missoula MT called "Zimmorino's" and they would put chunks of cream cheese on their pizza's if you requested it. -It was DAMN GOOD.
The first one sounds a bit similar to one I mentioned earlier in this thread: As far as I'm concerned, dates belong on pizza, especially with a strong savory element and some kind of goat cheese. So good. I've never thought to put the other combo together, but hey, I might have all those handy sometime. I'd give it a try for sure.There's a place out here called When Pigs Fly that sometimes does a slow roasted lamb with medjool dates, goat cheese and hot honey, that knocked my socks off.
I will try just about anything on a pizza--I've heard things about avocado on a pizza, and that sounds excellent. I'm a devoted believer in pineapple, especially with bacon, onions, or any type of fruit. There used to be a pizza place in Chicago called Bubamara that had about 80 toppings to choose from, but they closed down. Damn.
Check out lonesome pizza Their web site is hard to look at but I think they know this, all the pizzas have several different names they go by. You can get a 'normal pizza' or go for something like the Brigitte Nielsen - A middle eastern dream, a white pie with fresh mint, braised leg of lamb, artichoke and goat cheese. I've liked everything I've had from them. I mostly order from an italian place near my house. I get their house special, shredded pepperoni (it crisps nicely when thin cooked shredded) onion, black olive, mushroom, canadian bacon, spinach, feta and mozzarella. It seems kind of busy, but It's a pretty nice mix. When I make pizza at home I like to use half whole wheat flour, seem to give it a bit of crunch. I'll use leftover ingredients from other things or go very traditional.
Some of those pizzas look pretty good. The Brigitte Nielsen sounds the best to me though. There's a place out here called When Pigs Fly that sometimes does a slow roasted lamb with medjool dates, goat cheese and hot honey, that knocked my socks off. The last time I was in Oregon, my friend took me to Double Mountain Brewery for some pizza and some beer. I had a really awesome sausage pie there and some really great beer, too. Out of curiosity, do you guys get Allagash beer out there? I had a Curieux the other day that would've gone great with some pizza.
Do you use a pizza stone when you make pizza at home? That can help add crunchiness to pizza without making it very heavy or adding that cardboard taste that can occur when subbing whole wheat for AP or bread flour. On thing I tried recently was replacing the water in my dough recipe with buttermilk and letting the dough cold ferment for a week. Crunchy AND chewy with good hole structure. It got a decent char from the stone and came out kind of . . . glossy which was nice from a visual standpoint. Keep in mind though, that I use a modified ciabatta dough as my base, so the hydration is pretty high. I don't know if using buttermilk in a conventional pizza dough would work out well or at all, but it might be worth a try. Yes, three years later I still think about Hop Lava from Double Mountain. Oregon has a great beer (and wine) culture that I wish was present in New England. We're no slouches when it comes to microbrews, but it's just not on the same scale as it is on that side of the country. Allagash is some good shit though.
If you really wanted to, you could use these ingredients in an eggplant Parmesan, but swap out the parmigiano reggiano for ricotta. It's kind of a pain to fry eggplant, roast peppers AND wilt spinach, but if you like the long process of putting together complex dishes, then it can be fun. Of course, you can do it without frying, but then you're missing out on flavor and texture (at least on the top layer). Sometimes when I'm feeling lazy, I'll do it "deconstructed". I've only been to Toronto once recently, but it seemed like it was a place that would have at least a few places where you could ask for this combo. Anyway, if you're doing this yourself, I recommend putting a good white wine in the pan to wilt the spinach in. And maybe some lemon juice or zest or both, maybe with some thyme, but less lemon juice if you're adding thyme. It helps to cut the heaviness of the eggplant. Either way, you don't want to overpower the ricotta (that means not too much minced garlic too), which when eaten in the same bite as the eggplant, really makes this combination shine.
I usually stick with cheese or pepperoni pizzas, occasionally with long hot peppers. However, one thing that I picked up on in France that I really, really want to try is cracking an egg on a pizza towards the end of the cooking process. It's delicious, need to start trying that. I also enjoy a good margherita pizza, but I'm terrible at making them.