As a Chicagoan, New Haven pizza is definitely on my bucket list. Rather than rank “best pizza” in my head, I have separate categories for various styles, because it’s not really fair to compare something like a Chicago tavern thin crust to a coal fire pie to a Neapolitan wood-fired brick oven to a Detroit style, etc. It’s not a competition. 
Though, I’m not sure what I would make of Altoona (hotel)-style pizza;
There’s a Chicago restaurant called Piece that has New Haven-style pizza, so you can get an idea of what it’s like.
I’ve been there a few times. Their clam and bacon is quite good. If that’s what New Haven really is like, I admit I will be slightly disappointed. The videos of New Haven pizzas look a lot better.
I like to mix a bit of gochujang into the tomato sauce for any kind of pizza - it’s really superb
At my favorite pizzeria, I’ve been getting the same combo for decades: sesame seed crust, topped with spinach, feta, and walnuts. The walnuts fill the same flavor niche as beef (greasy, deep flavor, texture) for me.
At home, I get to put whatever I want on my part of the pizza, so it’s kalamata olives, home-pickled red onions, feta, and walnuts. Lots and lots of flavor.
You might find thius interesting
Yeah, I grew up in Chicago (South Side) but moved away after college, which was…a while back. I return pretty frequently as most of my relatives still live there. But I don’t remember giardiniara being a pizza topping at all from when I was growing up (and I think I would have known as I liked it on other things). Maybe it’s something newer? Or maybe it just wasn’t offered at the handful of places that were go-tos for pizza when I was growing up.
FWIW, these are Chicagoans and fellow Chicago expats who look at me a bit askance when I suggest putting giardiniera on pizza. I think you’re right that most other people don’t know much about the stuff…
It may be a newer thing. I don’t know. But I’m in the Midway area and I just checked the menus of three places: Obbie’s, Falco’s, and Vito and Nick’s and all offer giardiniera as a topping. So do chains like Lou’s and Giordano’s. I don’t know for sure what it was like growing up, as I wouldn’t have looked out for giardiniera on the menu then.
Tell me more about this. Are you using a dry powder, or a paste? Is it spicy (as in, chili-hot) and if so, just a little, or a lot?
It’s my understanding that you can get gochujang either as powder or paste, and they are not interchangeable. I have some paste in a tube (bought in Korea on the advice of a local Korean who said it was the best) and don’t really know what to do with it. (I also have a square container with no English on it except “Korean seasoned soybean paste.” I don’t know if that’s going to be the same thing, or not.)
I just use the paste that comes in little rectangular tubs - this is the one I am using at the moment - it’s a sort of dark red sticky syrupy paste. Maybe a tablespoonful of it mixed into the amount of tomato-based sauce that will cover a medium-large pizza. It’s got a sort of funky-savoury-spicy-sweetness to it that works in a similar way to those dishes where anchovies are added for a robust savoury note, but where you can’t actually identify what it was that did the magic, in the finished dish
Thanks! Seems like my tub is different stuff, but the tube is probably similar. I’ll try adding some next time I make tomato sauce for pizza.
I’ve never seen it as a powder, just the stuff in the tub. Are you thinking of gochugaru, which is a coarse dried chile powder? “Gochujang” literally means “chili sauce.” It’s not uncommon to use both in a recipe.
Yes, you are right! I have gotten confused between the two.
I haven’t had giardiniera on pizza, but it sounds like it would be fantastic. I’ll have to give that a shot the next time we make pizza, since I’ve got a jar in the fridge anyway.
One time we had some leftover hamburger patties, and decided to make “cheeseburger pizza”, which was a regular pizza crust, a sauce made of ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise, chunks of burger patty, cheddar cheese, dill pickles, and some onions.
It was surprisingly delicious and very evocative of a cheeseburger. I wouldn’t have believed it, had I not actually prepared and eaten it.
As far as actual pizza toppings go, I still maintain that the very best pizza I’ve had was a tuna and onion one in Rome in the neighborhood somewhere between the Spanish Steps and the Via del Corso. It sounds kind of weird, but it worked.
Clearly in Italy, the birthplace of pizza, people in their right mind are disgusted by pineapple on pizza just like all decent upright citizens of any country are. Some food combinations just don’t work. Melted cheese on a pizza is fabulous, melted cheese on top of a plate of szechwan shrimp is disgusting. Pineapple is great in a variety of Polynesian dishes but doesn’t belong on pizza.
We make a “deconstructed cheeseburger salad” that is similar. A bed of lettuce, chopped up hamburger, onion, tomatoes, pickles, and a dressing of ketchup, mayo, and mustard. My gf made it originally as a way to have low carb hamburgers (no buns).
Back when Dominos was inedible in the 90s (they significantly improved), the only pizza of theirs I could stomach was the pineapple and ham pizza. It was in college, it was the 90s, anything went. I had never heard of the combo before, but it worked! I think pineapple works really well when contrasted with something cured and salty. Bacon or pepperoni works too. My 7-year-old daughter only eats pineapple pizza, and she is a clean slate uncluttered by culinary expectations and traditions. I confess, I don’t usually order it myself being more a sausage pizza guy and I don’t find pineapple and Italian sausage work as well together, but I’ll never decline a piece.
So sorry you had to endure that. Seriously, the sweet and salty combination of pineapple and ham works well in some dishes. I’m not eating pizza with pineapple on it myself, and never had to because it wasn’t a thing yet back when I was poor, but if you want to ruin an otherwise good pizza and then eat it I won’t stand in your way. I’d even make one for you if you wanted one. But I will still pointlessly insist with stubborn inflexibility of a cranky old man that it is inherently wrong and an affront to nature. Now if you will excuse me I have to go tie an onion to my belt.
Major update:
We went sightseeing today, two towns over, and stopped at a pizza place we knew nothing about. Surprised to find our White Pizza on the menu; got chicken on top. While we’re waiting for it to cook, I glance at the placard on their napkin dispenser and, lo and behold, they make pizzas New Haven style. Immediately thought of you. We were eating al fresco on their picnic table and when the young man brought it out, we wondered at the strange pattern used to cut the pie – it looked like a basket ball. They only serve up 12" pies, so half way through the first one, my wife phoned them and ordered a second. They were absolutely sublime. Crust so thin you could almost see through it, yet rigid enough, without being burnt, so the cheese, et al, wouldn’t slide off. Not floppy or soggy. Perfect crust. Great cheese/toppings. Really superb, all around. The puppa dog had several bites and slept like a baby all afternoon. Definitely going back for more.
Now, Mr. _Finn, a couple questions: is there some significance to only making 12" pies? Some trick of the trade that a 16" just couldn’t pull off? And the cutting pattern, que pasa? I had to fight my wife for the “bigger slices” and she’s a total savage when the pizza is this good (I held my own). And the crust: some special/different ingredient? Something seemed different – but better!
Well, I’m a convert and the best part is I don’t have to fly out of Savannah to Connecticut (state motto: “The middle ‘c’ is silent,”) for excellent pizza. Kudos!
And now – blow back from the Chicago/New York crowd!
You may begin.