I've been buying those pre-fab pizza crusts lately and topping them myself in the search for the ultimate pizza. I've already decided two things: The bread has to be thin and crispy. I rub it with herbed olive oil for flavor. The tomato sauce has to be brushed on, not ladled on. It ain't spaghetti, its pizza and its a bread dish. Good cheese all over, but not too thick. Toppings not diced, but bite sized. I dislike the style with giant slices of toppings. They pull the cheese off. I still haven't decided whether I like the cheese under the toppings or over it. The cheese toasts better when its on top, but I like the meat toppings well browned too. I'm still looking for the ultimate topping combination. I'm not into the sweep-the-kitchen type of "supreme" pizza. It's just too much. A friend calls these 12-ingredient disasters a "garbage" pizza, which she loves, but which I think is very descriptive. Right now I'm liking four combinations: italian sausauge, black olive and mushroom hamburger, pepperoni, white onion, mushroom, and jalapeno canadian bacon, red onion, bell pepper, and pineapple Pepperoni, salami, white onion, green pepper, and anchovie So, give me some new combinations to try out.
Combos 1, 2 & 4 sound good. Pineapple has no business being anywhere near a pizza. It borders on sacrilege.
Try a good BBQ sauce instead of marinara sometime. One of the best slices I ever had: in NYC, a buffalo chicken pizza with ranch dressing instead of tomato sauce. Fricking delicious.
I would eat pineapple on a pizza if the crust was made of cake and the marinara sauce was made of chocolate.
I had buffalo chicken pizza at CiCi's a few weeks ago, and it was great. Buffalo sauce instead of marinara, diced chicken, and light cheese. For normal pizzas, I like pretty normal toppings. My favorite combos are: Pepperoni, onions, mushrooms Sausage, onions, bellpepper Hamburger, onions, black olives, jalapenos
your food memory is impeccable. i can do most toppings minus black olives and hairy minnows. ive even learned to not hate mushrooms. i also hate undercooked pizza. pizza hut has good pizza for a delivery place if its cooked but they seem to have a problem with it most times. i guess they figure since it takes 3 hours for delivery it will cook along the way. ive also begun to like the chicago deep dish style or the really thin crust. like red mentioned its more about the crust i think than everything else for me. unless they turn it into a spaghetti and add way too much sauce then its ruined regardless. i like basic toppings pretty much with extra cheese.
i have been doing some experimenting as well, and agree with red's conclusions for the most part. less is more when to comes to sauce. use fresh mozzarella, the kind that comes in balls at the deli. and dont' shred it, just lay it down in slices. fresh tomatoes are overlooked, but are as good a pizza topping as there is. fewer toppings is generally better, and meats are better than vegetables, with the fresh tomatoes being a notable exception. pineapple is 100% terrible, and people who put it on pizza are scoundrels.
never even thought about the tomato angle. i eat homegrown tomatoes like apples during the summer so im sure it would make it a lot better. pineapples are an absolute travesty in anything other than dessert or ham. And im not convinced i necessarily think they make ham better but everyone does it so i dont know the difference.
Hey, I'm going to try the slices thing. Sounds like a good way to get consistent thin cheese like I like it. Pineapple is great with ham and canadian bacon is much like ham. I should try sliced ham and pineapple some time. You coonasses are too used to cajun-style pig roasts. A hawaiian pig roast has tons of pineapple and its pretty tasty. Even picadilly serves glazed ham with pineapple. Try it sometime. I'm surprised no one has suggested some exotic toppings like boudin, artichoke heart, sauteed garlic, and leeks. I've tried hot sausage, but it is really greasy.
