Pepperoni, pineapple and tomato. Then I hit it with Aleppo pepper flakes and chow down.
I’m not sure it’s an answerable question. There are many, many good topping choices, and some toppings are good in some combinations, but not in others. And I like variety, so my best on any given day probably won’t be my best on the day before or after that.
Man… the beauty of pizza is that it can be different things when you need it to be.
I was in Italy last week and had pizza twice- first just a piece of “Roman style” pizza from a shop with eggplant and some hot pepper flakes. Crispy squares of goodness that were quite flavorful but didn’t fill me up.
Later in the trip I realized I hadn’t had any “proper” pizza so went out to the only place open on a Sunday I could walk to from my hotel: https://www.lorenzofortuna.it/
I ordered one of their pizzas (for 10 Euro): Yellow tomato sauce FLAVOURED WITH GARLIC, basil, mozzarella fior di latte, cooked ham from Aspromonte black pigs, basil.
… it was great. Definitely close to one of my default favorites: fresh cheese, basil, cured meat, tomato sauce.
Honestly, Pizza Margherita is the platonic ideal of pizza. If the pizza is really good, it doesn’t need any more toppings than that.
That said, I’m partial to feta, onions and mushrooms. It’s a great combo punch of salty, sweet and umami.
Moonrise, what area are you buying your pizzas?
Unanswerable question, for such diverse options it depends on the quality of ingredients and the skill of the kitchen.
My go to is sausage, spinach and mushroom and/or black olive with giardiniera. I keep at least three giardiniera in my pantry/fridge.
Mine starts with pesto sauce as the base (not tomato) and adds crumbled soft goat cheese, loads of spicy olives, walnut pieces (“other”) and topped with grated parmesan. I have never seen that combination in a restaurant.
If that’s crazy, perhaps we could be roommates at the loony bin. Seriously, I’m thinking I may stop at the store to get some anchovies on my way home tonight so I can make this wonderful-sounding combo soon.
Italian sausage anchovies jalapeño and pineapple
Basil, onion, sausage.
The ultimate pizza topping will include mushrooms and green olives. NOT black olives. Since the OP’s list of possible toppings included only “olives”, I must conclude that they, like 95% of the pizzerias outside of Chicago that I’ve encountered, have no idea that there’s a difference between black olives and green olives.
Apart from the obligatory mushrooms and green olives, there should be one meat; pepperoni or Italian sausage or even clams would work, but the meat isn’t as critical as the first two ingredients. Just keep your pineapple and anchovies away from my pizza.
One of my go-to pizzas for years has been pepperoni, mushrooms, ground beef, and green (never black!) olives. Don’t ask me how I landed on that combo, but it is delicious!
I find this thread inspiring and taste ful.
I find this thread dangerous.
This thread is the reason I spent part of today making pizza dough and sauce.
This thread is the reason my dinner – to be consumed momentarily – is a very thin crust pizza with sauce, mozzarella, Parmesan, pepperoni, mushrooms, onions, halved grape tomatoes, peppers, minced garlic and fresh basil.
Another night this thread will be the impetus for a dinner of a very thin crust pizza with diced chicken with pesto, Alfredo sauce, roasted garlic, artichoke hearts, mozzarella, Parmesan cheese, fresh basil and oregano. And maybe some sliced Kalamata olives.
Dangerous, I tell you!
Indeed. I had no idea that mushrooms would be so popular. They’re an immediate turn-off for me (on a pizza at least).
Really ? It’s not exactly popular but it’s an option I’ve often seen in Europe.
Yes, that wasn’t clear. I meant the sauce since some people prefer white pizza. But I now realize that many of you must have taken it to mean “additional pieces of tomatoes”, hence the surprisingly low score of that item in the poll.
Same for me.
I find that gorgonzola relaces it nicely. You get the creamy texture with an additional bit of funk on top.
Somewhere in Europe. Do you want to move here now ?
Wrong. I know there’s a difference but I wanted to include as many items as possible. And I hate both.
there’s a local place that has a BBQ chicken pizza that’s so spicy my eyes water … but here’s my normal dominos order (since Red Brick pizza went out locally about 15 years ago) chicken the BBQ sauce and I replace the red onions with mushrooms
I know this is likely to get me some hate, but I think mozzarella is kind of boring. I mean, I do appreciate the whole cheese pull thing it does so well, but I wouldn’t describe it as a tasty cheese. If I want to taste† the cheese on a pizza, I use whatever cheese I have to hand - which will usually be a mature cheddar, plus some grana padano or pecorino.
I don’t often have firm favourites in food, but I just recently discovered that a pizza combination I really like, and could be my favourite, is:
Tomato and herb sauce on the dough
A grated dusting of pecorino or grana padano or other hard cheese
A generous layer of sliced raw onions, broken up into shreds
A thin layer of cheese (probably cheddar)
Mushrooms (which I have already cooked to drive off the water)
Another layer of cheese
Something meaty - sausage of some sort, or spiced ground beef
(if there is any left) drops of the tomato sauce randomly across the top
I make this on a Detroit-style, thick-ish bread dough in a rectangular pan with sides.
† (and I concede there are doubtless cases where you don’t want a ‘cheesy’ flavour, but rather, just something ‘creamy’)
Egg??? What kind of MONSTER are you???
Lots of those other toppings don’t appeal to me, but at least they almost make sense.
I did not check strawberries / nutella, because while that might be dee-lishus on a dessert pizza, I truly hope you would not add those to the zola-gorgon/chorizo/tomatoey delight you describe. Someone mentioned balsamic vinegar, I think, which would also be nice on a dessert pizza.
There’s a NY-style pizza restaurant near us that has a chicken/vodka sauce pizza. It’s not the most pizza-y thing in the world, but it’s pretty darned tasty.
There are places for eggs (namely, as far away from me as possible, which is why my breakfast options at North American diners are severely limited), but pizza is not among them.
I mentioned balsamic syrup, on a pizza with chevre, prosciutto, and fig. It’s savory and sweet, and it’s delicious.
There are more flavors on heaven and earth than are dreamt of in a savory-only philosophy. 
Yummmmmm. That really sounds wonderful - and I’m not a big chevre fan.
I have a bottle of very, very fancy balsamic which is basically syrupy in texture - it’s the very high-end stuff that’s aged for oodles of time in Italy. That would be wonderful drizzled on what you describe.