Great pizza combinations

Cafe Society
1

I work in a restaurant where I’m in charge of all the pizzas that come out. I like to think that I make a pretty good one–ever since I took over the menu, we’ve been slowly and slowly building a reputation for the best pie in town and pizza sales have more than quadrupled. Not bad for a place that specializes in fish and steak.

Any ideas for good pizzas? I can whip up any special sauce, no problem, but if it uses marinara, that’s a big plus. My marinara is really, really awesome and I want any excuse I can to push more of it.

Lately, I’ve been doing a margharita pizza with blackened shrimp and feta cheese, but it hasn’t sold as well as I like, so I took it off the menu.

A couple of a other favorites are grilled zucchini, sausage, grilled portabellas and slightly sauteed onions in a calzone. The grilled zucchini is to die for, but this pizza isn’t going on the menu because it’s too similar to a couple of other specials we have and I don’t think it will sell that well.

There’s also the classic BBQ chicken, with barbecue sauce, chicken, cheddar/mozarella cheese, and onions ( jalepenos if I’m making it for myself).

Finally, I sell a pesto chicken pizza, which is pretty much just pesto sauce, mozarella, and grilled chicken. Personal variations include any combination of throwing on grilled portabellas, tomato slices, feta cheese, artichoke hearts, or onions.

But I’m running out of ideas. I’ve searched high and low, looking for ingredients we have, but I’ve just hit a creative brick wall. I’m bringing in reinforcements. Let’s hear it.

2

One of my favorite pizza combos is pesto, potato slices, and chunks of garlic. Yumyumyumyumyum!

3

I love white pizza with spinach and mushrooms – if you came up with some cool twist on that, I’d travel to Alabama for a good 'za.

4

Hmm. Sometimes when we have prime rib leftover from the night before, we’ll throw it on a pizza with some alfredo sauce. Is “white pizza” just a pizza with a cream sauce?

5

Yeah, alfredo or another white sauce – no tomatoes or tomato-based sauce.

6

My two favorite (thin crust) pizzas: pesto and shrimp (use the little ones like you usually get in cans, not the big cocktail style), and caper and anchovy. Both should feature a very thin layer of mild marinara, and a light dusting of mozzarella; neither should overpower the toppings.

Also, I had an absolutely fantastic pizza in Italy: crust dressed with olive oil and herbs, topped with mascarpone and a variety of prosciutto called speck (note, the Italian speck, not the German, which isn’t the same thing). It was heavenly, but I expect it’d be a tough sell for an American pizza parlor.

7

I once loved me some pizza that had bite-sized chunks of chicken tikka masala on it.

Smoked salmon and argula was nice once too.

8

The best pizza I have had was relatively simple.

A nice spicy marinara with some spicy pepperoni and pineapple.
I like to add feta and my SO like it with green olives.

The spice and the sweet is a thing of beauty.

9

Along with your white pizza, how about a “white trash” pizza? Sliced hot dogs and Kraft American cheese product slices?

10

Oh god, prosciutto. The most delicious cut of the pig, right between bacon and ham. How I love thee. But bringing back prosciutto will be a tough sell. The last couple times we tried it, we ended up with several pounds of unsold proscuitto we had to sneak into quiche to salvage.

Sounds like it depends on very, very high quality ingredients. The stuff we get is mass market stuff from Sysco, so I don’t think this pizza would work on the budget we’re keeping. But I might just bring my own ingredients from home and make that bad boy (we have a hickory fired stone oven, so it’s much better than at home).

Did I mention I love my job? You guys are kicking ass. Weird and wonderful or nice and traditional.

That’s the secret to my marinara. It’s a very intense sweetness of natural sugars from tomatoes and onions combined with raw sugar and slowly morphs into a spicy kick that leaves a clean taste in your mouth. Sweet and spicy is the way to go, IMHO.

Oooh. Hey guys, do you think if I threw in some jalapenos in my marinara it would work pretty well? I’ll keep the heat down (our second biggest seller of it is in a kid’s pasta dish), but I think that might really add something special.

One time, we ran out of italian sausage and my boss tried to substitute hot dog weenies. It, uh…did not work.

11

I like bread and butter pickles on pizza. Everyone I tell that too has the same reaction. They think it’s gross, then after I persuade them to try it, agree that it’s really good. So I suggest a bacon cheeseburger pizza, with ground beef (which I wouldn’t eat but am told is popular with the masses), bacon (ditto), tomato slices and bread and butter pickles.

12

Blue cheese and tomato slices is yummy…

13

Mango is a fun addition to pizza.

14

Can I have your marinara recipe pretty please?

Cheeseburger pizza reminded me of Taco Pizza - have you ever tried that?

Taco meat, refried beans, black olives, red onions, jack cheese, tomatoes.
On the side: salsa, sour cream, and lettuce

This one is from one of our local pizza joints, I’m not very experimental when it comes to pizza so I’ve never tried it but it does sound kind of good. Definitely different:

Dijon ricotta sauce, garlic, BBQ chicken, cashews, pineapple, mozzarella

One of their yummy vegetarian ones:

Spinach pesto, sundried tomatoes, mushrooms, roasted pine nuts and gruyere cheese

Basically, my advice would boil down to: 1) everything is better with fresh garlic; and 2) experiment with nuts.

15

Speaking of unusual – pear and gorgonzola is amazing.

16

I like Hawaiian, but only if pepperoni is also included (or even to the exclusion of ham.) The mild spice of the pepperoni perfectly accents the crispness of the pineapple. Ham is just too bland in comparison when pineapples are thrown on.

17

try white, bacon, spinach

18

Where I come from a white pizza is made with ricotta cheese instead of marinara, topped with mozzarella. It has other toppings like broccoli or spinach, similar to cavatelli & broccoli.
My boyfriend called me at work the other day to tell me he had a couple of slices of cheeseburger pizza. I was a bit :dubious: but he was raving that it was delicious. It was your basic tomato sauce and mozzarella with small hamburger patties (meatballs?) with american cheese melted over it. Hey, what can I say - give it a try.

19

My favorite homemade pizza has these ingredients:

Alfredo sauce
Sliced mushrooms, sauteed in butter and garlic
Spinach
Bacon bits
Thinly sliced roma tomatoes, or sun dried tomatoes
A mix of shredded mozzarrella and provolone

Pesto or marinara can be substitued for the alfredo, but if you use marinara, mix in a bit of grated parmesan, or (even better) some pecorino romano.

The bacon is the one critical ingredient in this. It somehow ties it all together.

20

I get an onion and pepperioni pizza that I really like. The onions are carmalized and really sweet.