Favorite pizza toppings

[Privateerkev]

Veggies have no place on pizza. (and for those who are going to bring up the tomato paste, tomatoes aren't vegetables.)

I always get the 'meat lovers' or 'pepperoni lovers'. Unfortunately, I'm starting to get heart-burn when I eat pizza so I've had to cut back...

-_-

[Proletariat]

Tomato, mozzarella, black olives, anchovy in summer (salt), artichoke in winter.

However, the crust and the drink to go with it are the most important aspects of a 'za. For me it is spumante all the way.

Hrmmm, sounds yummy. Gotta agree about the crust, for me it has to be paper thin crust. The Sicilian style served in NY and the Chicago thick slice taste like I'm biting into a doughy sponge. Wood fire charred, crispy thin 'za is the only way to go for me

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

pic swiped from someone on photobucket since imageshack has died out three times posting my own pic

Chorizo imo is something that sounds good for a little kick, but last time I had it on a slice was with a little feta and the combination was (no real surprise) far too overwhelming.

BTW is it just me or do capers sound like they ought to be a kind of fish? And, what is the point of capers anyway?

When I was younger I was surprised to found out capers weren't a fish or small animal or something too. I dunno what their point is but we need them for puttanesca so don't go throwing them out.

[Ice]

Chicken, Green Peppers, Onions, Black Olives, and some kind of rich cheese.

Mmm

[Husar]

I agree on thin crusts, I want to eat a piz', not bread.

Had a piz' tonno today, bought frozen but it was very tasty IMO.

[Craterus]

I'm with RJ and others.

'Za is just...

[Louis VI the Fat]

Relax. They are just taking the piz 'za think.

[King Henry V]

Devilled kidneys, on a layer of tomato, cheese (Cheddar and the Italian stuff), English mustard, lashings of Worcestershire sauce, with a fried egg on top. Delish.

[Beirut]

Devilled kidneys, on a layer of tomato, cheese (Cheddar and the Italian stuff), English mustard, lashings of Worcestershire sauce, with a fried egg on top. Delish.

You, sir, are the most particular of hedonists.


Tonight, pizza wise, is jumbo shrimp on nan bread with old cheddar and hot peppers.

And a really big beer.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Tonight, pizza wise, is jumbo shrimp on nan bread with old cheddar and hot peppers.

Bravo!

[Ice]

Devilled kidneys, on a layer of tomato, cheese (Cheddar and the Italian stuff), English mustard, lashings of Worcestershire sauce, with a fried egg on top. Delish.

[Whacker]

I will consume one of either A> mushrooms OR B> pepperoni. Everything else, blarg.

[LittleGrizzly]

I like lots of meat with my piz' cheese and extra cheese, BBQ sauce is an amazing addition to any piz' as well as chicken and pepperoni, bacons nice too!

[Devastatin Dave]

Gots to have shrooms baby!!! Lots and lots of shrooms!!!

[Caius]

Tomato Juice
Cheese
Heart of Palm.

Teh Pwnage.

[Proletariat]

Devilled kidneys, on a layer of tomato, cheese (Cheddar and the Italian stuff), English mustard, lashings of Worcestershire sauce, with a fried egg on top. Delish.

Tonight, pizza wise, is jumbo shrimp on nan bread with old cheddar and hot peppers.

What the ..hell? This isn't some 'throw the left overs on some unleavened bread' discussion! It's about 'za, and neither of these offerings qualify.

I can go haute with the toppings once in awhile but these suggestions are off the deep end. They belong in funky-fusion recipe collections and no where near any respected wood fire oven.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I was certain a pizza toppings thread so close to the backroom would turn into an all out flame war. I even stoked the flames a bit with an imbecilic nickname for pizza, yet this has been about as civil as can be for such an expression of individuality.

And Beirut! Shrimp + Cheddar?

That sounds like such a disgusting pairing there must be something fantastic about it. You make your own nan?
PS. Set an extra place at the dinner table, I'm on my way

[GoreBag]

I've done some pretty stupid things with my mouth and pizza is no exception. The only topping I've had that I didn't like was the infamous anchovy. Shrimp, nacho chips, almonds, it's all good. I haven't yet managed to convince the guy taking my order to Skittles on my pizza, though. They all seem to think I'm joking.

Also important: Pepperoni under the cheese or on top?

[Adrian II]

nacho chips

[Martok]

Mushrooms
Italian sausage or Canadian bacon
Mushrooms
Green or black olives -- plain, I love the green ones more, but both are equally excellent on pizza
Mushrooms


I've also discovered I love chicken pizza. Who'd have thunk it?

[PBI]

I've done some pretty stupid things with my mouth and pizza is no exception. The only topping I've had that I didn't like was the infamous anchovy. Shrimp, nacho chips, almonds, it's all good. I haven't yet managed to convince the guy taking my order to Skittles on my pizza, though. They all seem to think I'm joking.

This is the advantage of making the pizza yourself, you can put whatever weird topping you like on it. I'm partial to gorgonzola myself, Skittles sound a little too extreme for me.

Oh and can someone please explain to me, Hawaiian pizza? What's pineapple doing on a pizza?

Also important: Pepperoni under the cheese or on top?

Pepperoni on the top. That's how you know the pizza is done, when the meat turns black and starts smoking.

[FactionHeir]

Oh and can someone please explain to me, Hawaiian pizza? What's pineapple doing on a pizza?

Never liked that either until I got to college and had to eat some more frozen pizzas. It was alright then within reason.

Pepperoni on the top. That's how you know the pizza is done, when the meat turns black and starts smoking.

When it turns black and starts smoking you know you may get cancer some time down the road if you eat it
Should be at best black around the edges, but not yet overly shriveled. Any more than that goes into the bin.

[PBI]

When it turns black and starts smoking you know you may get cancer some time down the road if you eat it

I know, I know. Although what others would call "burnt to cinders" I would call "done just right", I draw the line when starts smoking. But then I am cursed with the type of oven which leaves food cold and raw for forty minutes and then incinerates it in under a minute.

My point is, if it's under the cheese, it won't go crispy at all, which is no good at all.

[FactionHeir]

Try a lower temperature for longer then. That ensures it doesn't burn and is well cooked. Of course it won't make your food crispy that way...though you can turn it up higher for a few minutes at the end to try.

[rajpoot]

All right, lots of toppings listed now, it compelled me to check what a pizza actually was meant to be, the dictionary states :

Italian open pie made of thin bread dough spread with a spiced mixture of e.g. tomato sauce and cheese.

Anyway, moving on back to topic, can we talk pies now? what kinds of pizza base do people here like? I prefer a thick pie, crisp outside and soft and chewy inside.

[KukriKhan]

It's about the sauce and cheese on fresh bread. The ingredients and prep of that sauce base will make or break a 'za for me.

I'm all multi-cultural on toppings: whatever is the local, fresh speciality works for me. Therefore: pineapple in Hawai'i, seafood in Calif, beef product in Chicago, pork in Kansas City, cold-cuts in NYC, pickled kidneys in UK - all fine with me - as long as the base rocks to start with. There's little more dissappointing then taking a slice that 'looks' interesting, only to find on chewing that the base is merely a half-step up from ketchup with oregano added.

I wonder what kind of 'Chinese Pizza' will get served in Beijing to the Olympics tourists. Bean sprouts? Water chestnuts?

[Beirut]

What the ..hell? This isn't some 'throw the left overs on some unleavened bread' discussion! It's about 'za, and neither of these offerings qualify.

We all enjoy our own particular culinary perversions.

And Beirut! Shrimp + Cheddar?

I refer you to my previous sentence.

You make your own nan?

No, for though often baked, I bake not.

PS. Set an extra place at the dinner table, I'm on my way[/SPOIL]

Tempt me not, dear lady, Mrs. Beirut is out of town for three days and my morality rests fragile indeed.

[Tamur]

What a great thread! My favourite is chicken, black and garbanzo beans, and lots of garam masala with a little extra cumin. Mmmm... some very interesting toppings - GoreBag wins on the *yick* factor.

I'd definitely have to disagree about the thin crust though. We make our own about once a week, and the crust is the best part - flour, salt, sugar, yeast, kneaded till it's nice and elastic, rolled out thin with room to grow, plopped on a pan smothered in extra virgin olive oil, and topped with, as KukriKhan says, whatever happens to be fresh that day, baked at 235 C for about ten minutes... what's on top makes a difference, but I could just eat the bread and be perfectly happy.

[King Henry V]

What the ..hell? This isn't some 'throw the left overs on some unleavened bread' discussion! It's about 'za, and neither of these offerings qualify.

I can go haute with the toppings once in awhile but these suggestions are off the deep end. They belong in funky-fusion recipe collections and no where near any respected wood fire oven.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I was certain a pizza toppings thread so close to the backroom would turn into an all out flame war. I even stoked the flames a bit with an imbecilic nickname for pizza, yet this has been about as civil as can be for such an expression of individuality.

And Beirut! Shrimp + Cheddar?

That sounds like such a disgusting pairing there must be something fantastic about it. You make your own nan?
PS. Set an extra place at the dinner table, I'm on my way

In my defence for such a seemingly unusual dish, I must point out that the origins of the pizza lie in a simple piece of bread covered in whatever poor Neapolitans could get their hands on, such as tomato, anchovies, herbs and later cheese. It was this same principle that I applied when I returned one morning from a party that went on far longer than I had originally anticipated, and feeling a bit under the weather and in need of substantial nourishment, and also in view of time (9 o'clock), I decided to make a breakfast style pizza, by simply taking the pizza from the fridge and using whatever was at hand. After that and a few hours sleep, yours truly was feeling decidedly better!

You, sir, are the most particular of hedonists.


Tonight, pizza wise, is jumbo shrimp on nan bread with old cheddar and hot peppers.

And a really big beer.

I say, I think it would be an excellent idea if we started a restaurant together? What do you think? Take the culinary world by storm!

[Kralizec]

An ideal pizza has:

-onions (plenty of them)
-olives (green or black, just not with pits!)
-mozarella
-bacon

Optionals: artichok (sp?), mushrooms, spinach, salami

I don't usually eat seafood but sometimes I induldge in tuna. I hate pinapple.

[PBI]

I'd definitely have to disagree about the thin crust though. We make our own about once a week, and the crust is the best part - flour, salt, sugar, yeast, kneaded till it's nice and elastic, rolled out thin with room to grow, plopped on a pan smothered in extra virgin olive oil, and topped with, as KukriKhan says, whatever happens to be fresh that day, baked at 235 C for about ten minutes... what's on top makes a difference, but I could just eat the bread and be perfectly happy.

Definitely getting the base right is the most important part. With really good freshly made dough you can pretty much put anything on top (well, maybe not some of the more "exotic" combinations suggested in this thread) and it'll taste good. Plus if you decide you don't fancy pizza you can always bake it into bread instead. And most importantly you get the smell of cooking pizza which is almost as nice as eating it.

I tend to go for a dab of olive oil in the dough itself rather than on the pan, guess it probably amounts to the same thing in the end. Never tried adding sugar, how much do you add?

Try a lower temperature for longer then.

Don't you find the base doesn't cook properly then? I was taught to believe that pizza needs a hot oven.

[Tamur]

Never tried adding sugar, how much do you add?

Oh... enough to make the yeast happy while proofing. We're usually in a bloody hurry Depending on the time of year (it is bitter cold here in January) about a tablespoon or a bit more per crust (7.5 dl flour)