While many people are very familiar with the traditional pizza, there are an abundance of non-traditional pizzas that have rapidly gained in popularity due to the great taste and creative use of ingredients. Many of these pizzas have the same shape and roughly the same concept but the difference in ingredients can be astonishing. While a rose may still be a rose….a pizza may not always be the pizza you are familiar with…
The Italians and the Greeks may be due the bragging rights for introducing the pizza to the United States, the American culture has had great delight in transforming this dish into unique and regional taste sensation. Every country seems to be adding unique variety and style to this ever-popular dish. Some of these pizzas now bear little relation to their ancestors unless you count the fact that it is bread with delicious ingredients on top and is baked in an oven.
Today Americans and people of other countries order pizzas with crusts of different thicknesses and the crusts may be flavored with a variety of herbs and spices, including rosemary, thyme, and sage. These crusts may be filled with meats or cheeses and then topped with other ingredients that make them luscious double deckers.
Instead of pepperoni and sausage, customers are choosing chicken, bacon, ham, and pineapple as their favorite toppers for pizza. Taco pizza has been offered for more than 20 years and is still a crowd pleaser with legions of devoted fans. This selection of non-traditional pizza has taco sauce, which replaces the standard tomato sauce, and has ground beef or pork, onions, sour cream, avocados and cheese.
These ingredients may be baked on the crust in a traditional oven and then additional cheeses, chopped lettuce and tomatoes are added right before serving. While this pizza is definitely a challenge to eat without dropping some of the ingredients, it is one of the tastiest dishes you can find. Today, these types of pizzas are even offered at national chains as alternatives to the standard pizza choices.
Americanized versions of the traditional pizza will usually contain either vegetable oil or olive oil in the dough, and even this is not found in most traditional Italian pizzas. Many of these pizzas are made with dough that contains no oils. The deep-dish pizza dough has a healthy addition of oil to help it cook properly. Another difference in the more non-traditional pizzas is the fact that the dough is more similar to that from which bagels are created. This means that the flour has a lot of gluten, which allows for a large amount of stretching of the dough without any tearing being involved.
Some of the differences in toppings can be found in the following choices of ingredients.
• Instead of a homemade tomato base on the crust, there are other variations used. One of the more common sauces might be the tomato sauce, but there are also pesto sauces, Alf redo sauce, hot sauce, barbecue sauces, and even pizzas on which no sauce at all is used.
• Any type of cheese is fair game for a non-traditional pizza topping. Look for pizzas that combine provolone with mozzarella, parmesan, and cheddar.
• Vegans and vegetarians are not the only ones with a love for unusual pizza toppings. Some more unique pizza toppings are artichokes, asparagus, eggplant, olives, spinach, jalapenos, pineapples, freshly diced pears, and even chopped, ripe tomatoes.
• With meat choices, again the sky is the limit with choices for unusual but tasty pizzas. Shrimp, chicken, tuna, and even scallops have been used to create appealing and creative dishes.
You can find tomato pie pizzas in the Philly area of Pennsylvania. These are simply pizzas with sauce and seasonings that are baked to perfection in brick ovens.
Another non-traditional pizza choice is the upside down pizza pie. The cheese is on the bottom and the top of the pizza is covered with a delicious sauce. This creates a wonderful baked cheese crust and the pizza is a lot of fun for customers to eat.
In many Italian cities, pizza is a dish that is traditionally eaten with silverware, but for most people in other countries the only way to eat a pizza today is with your hands.
A New York tradition is pizza by the same name. A New York style pizza is large slices of a hand tossed pizza that will need to be folded or rolled in order that it can be eaten. Sicilian style pizza is a relatively thick crust pizza that is square in shape and is cut into squares for eating. You can even find a Long Island version of pizza called a “Grandma” that is square with a thin, crunchy crust and usually has diced or chopped tomatoes instead of the tomato sauce. The crust of the Grandma pizza usually has oils and spices for additional flavor.
White pizzas are those that only have garlic, butter, and cheeses on top of them, and they never have any tomato sauce.
In New England, customers are treated to Greek pizzas. These have crusts that are thick and chewy and they are baked in pans with deep sides. Olive oil is a common ingredient as a topping and is used to create the outer crispness of the crust. Many of these pizzas will have olives and feta cheese as basic ingredients.
Australian style pizzas usually utilize eggs, bacon, and mozzarella as the ingredients that top a standard pizza crust that is covered in tomato sauce. There may even be delicious, fresh prawns added to this taste delight. There are also some gourmet style Australian pizzas that may include dill, salmon, tuna, rocket, or bocconcini. Even kangaroo and emu meat have been additions to some of the Down-Under pizzas.
Dessert style pizzas are a great crowd favorite. These are pizza crusts that are topped with cinnamon, sugar and apple or pear filling. Some of these are even drizzled with icing before serving.
A Hawaiian pizza is a basic pizza crust with sauce, pineapple, Canadian ham, and mozzarella cheese. Some people will add bacon bits and diced tomatoes to this selection.
California style pizza has ingredients that are mostly produce of some type and the choices are generally less traditional in nature, such as sprouts, spinach, asparagus, and mushrooms.
Any combination of veggies can be used to create this figure friendly type of pizza.
Thai style pizza is another unique variety of pizza found today and this choice contains chicken, peanuts, sprouts, peanut sauce, and carrots.
The non-traditional pizzas can be found in almost any combination of meats, vegetables, or fruits. The base can be a more traditional pizza crust or French bread, bagels or English Muffing. Let your imagination and cooking traditions lead you to create your own personal pizza style.
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