This isn’t unusual at all. The tomatoes you find in the bin in the produce department are carefully bred to look bright, smooth, and shiny after sitting in the back of a truck for three days and two thousand miles. In other words, they’re bred to be sold, not to be eaten. Taste is an afterthought, way, way down on the priority list.
There’s about a month at the height of summer when local, fresh tomatoes are available, and make a superior marinara. Otherwise, the other eleven months out of the year, canned is the way to go. Not only is there no reason to be embarrassed to use canned, it’s actually the smarter option.
Ok, here’s one for you. I’m not sure what part of Alabama you are from but I know you have a gulf coast, some swamps, wild hogs, and presumably palm trees. How about a Bama Bayou Pizza!? Smoked Wild Boar, Hearts of Palm (fresh, if you can get em.), maybe some onions and garlic, and… well… the sauce I’m kind of running up against a wall… but I’m thinking a variation on a Jerk sauce would have some nice spicy overtones that would work well with the savory boar and bland hearts of palm. Either that, or maybe a BBQ sauce would work well.
I know it sounds a little gimmicky, but they are local foods to certain parts of your state, and using local foods as ingredients, and ultimately making something your own is what good food and food innovation is all about. The novelty factor is also a selling point and I’ll bet you’d be the goto place if it takes off. You’ll be the first and only, the standard, the original if you can come up with a tasty Bama pizza. When your competitors start making knockoffs you’ll know you got something.
There is also the case of your state foods. Peaches, Blackberries, and Pecans are Alabama’s official foods. That sounds like a perfect fruit pizza to me… Simple to macerate the peaches and berries; put em on a pizza crust with a sweet, cream cheese schmear; top with pecans and brown sugar.
For something a little more classic or nouvelle Italian, might I suggest a pizza with deepfried baby artichoke hearts cut in half, and layered alternately with thin slices of deepfried potato. Top with some chopped garlic, a good drizzle of EVOO, and a sprinkling of fresh grated Parmesan or Romano cheese just before you put it in the oven.
That’s because it was invented by Joe Whitey of Happy Joe’s fame back in the early 70s, and the chain had outlets in lots of the smaller towns in eastern Iowa & western Illinois. Mom used to work about a block from the original HJ’s in Davenport, so she’d bring home pizza at least once a week.
My favorite, then and now, was the Happy Joe’s special – Canadian bacon & sauerkraut. Every time I go back to Iowa, I get at least one.
Crust, blue cheese dressing (or ranch, if you’re making it for me), cheese, and chicken strips coated in buffalo sauce. Top with a wee bit of oregano, and garlic as desired.
Something we get from a local place for journal club “refreshments” if we’re lucky: alfredo sauce (with some kinda cheese?), diced fresh tomatoes, little bits of chicken and / or shrimp, and a touch of lemon juice just before eating. Yummy.
JRB
Edit: Maybe it’s not alfredo sauce. A white cream sauce with garlic and stuff, anyway.
Any of you want to help me with my crust? I’m looking for a thick, chewy crust with random bubbles. What I get is a thick, chewy crust with small uniform bubbles.
Shirley Corriher* taught me one thing already: I was making too dry of a dough. My last one was very soft and sticky and it was an improvement. Now I think it’s a matter of kneading and rising refinements.
*Outstanding book - I’m buying a copy as soon as this one goes back to the library.
This isn’t exotic, but I lurves it anyway: Canadian bacon* and tomato slices.
It was billed as the ‘Iditarod’ for a while here in my local independent pizza shop, but they changed it to ‘Yukon.’ I suspect no one knew what Iditarod meant.
Lately we’ve been getting Hawaiian Chicken Barbeque from Papa John’s, which we really like, by the way - the key is that instead of sauce it’s barbeque sauce, but they’ve been really stingy with it lately! Which sucks. But it’s barbeque sauce (tomato based), mozarella, pineapple, bacon, and chicken. When it’s good it’s awesome. Not very gourmet, but a crowd pleaser.
I love a good ham & cheese thin crust: prosciutto, swiss, a little grilled onion and roasted garlic, forget the sauce or maybe a bit of strong mustard. Or try a wee bit of charcoal ravaged skirt steak, marinated onion, fresh cilantro and either mojo or chimichurri as a sauce.
Have you tried it? I thought it was a terrible idea until a good (italian) friend of the family insisted I try it. The reason I don’t get them everytime is because no one else will eat them either. If I order anchovies I’m pretty much destined to eat the whole pie myself. Also, all of those ingredients are rather strong and will give you breath so bad the Doublemint Twins will slap you.
(Sausage) was for comparison only. I’m talking about a white gravy sauce…milk gravy, bechamel. I’m not saying that you couldn’t reinforce that bechemel with oh, say some parmesan, pepper, and or/asiago–as well as sausage. I am hesitant about the remoulade.
But yes, I think you are right about the sausage… one wants to enphasize the tart, creamy, and smoky-salty with this pizza. The sausage is overkill.
