Pizza is not really Italian. A lot of cultures have invented flatbread that you top with stuff before baking. It just happens that the Italian version of that got spread around widely. And then other cultures added their own flairs, one of which is pineapple, usually connected with a salty pork product like ham or Canadian bacon.
Here in California, that’s called Hawaiian style pizza, and I didn’t get it, myself, until I tried it and found it’s a pairing that works, usually with extra mozzarella cheese.
I don’t know that it’s actually Hawaiian even in style, though my wife’s family used to like going to Hawaiian-style fast food, which involves a lot of Spam (the Hormell kind), so there… may be a connection?
My parents’ generation, in the 1970s way dug anchovies on pizza which I found way too salty. I didn’t get it then, but I don’t see much in the way of anchovies on pizza now. So collective tastes may change with time.
It is Italian, but it’s not exclusively Italian. Turkish lahmacun (thin base, with a meaty sauce, is a good approximation of the Ur-Pizza, as are various Levantine flatbreads. One of my favorites is manaqish ma’a za’atar, which is a thin pizza-like base topped with olive oil and thyme.
It’s weird. I’m at an age where I wouldn’t mind to try out anchovies on pizza, but it’s become so out-of-style that either pizza places don’t carry it any more, or people are so repulsed by it that it’s hard to order with others sharing.
Meanwhile, I’ve always loved pineapple on pizza, and that one seemed to have stuck around as a topping longer.
Pizza is not really Italian. A lot of cultures have invented flatbread that you top with stuff before baking. It just happens that the Italian version of that got spread around widely. And then other cultures added their own flairs, one of which is pineapple, usually connected with a salty pork product like ham or Canadian bacon.
Here in California, that’s called Hawaiian style pizza, and I didn’t get it, myself, until I tried it and found it’s a pairing that works, usually with extra mozzarella cheese.
I don’t know that it’s actually Hawaiian even in style, though my wife’s family used to like going to Hawaiian-style fast food, which involves a lot of Spam (the Hormell kind), so there… may be a connection?
My parents’ generation, in the 1970s way dug anchovies on pizza which I found way too salty. I didn’t get it then, but I don’t see much in the way of anchovies on pizza now. So collective tastes may change with time.
It is Italian, but it’s not exclusively Italian. Turkish lahmacun (thin base, with a meaty sauce, is a good approximation of the Ur-Pizza, as are various Levantine flatbreads. One of my favorites is manaqish ma’a za’atar, which is a thin pizza-like base topped with olive oil and thyme.
It’s not–Hawaiian pizza was invented in Canada IIRC.
It’s weird. I’m at an age where I wouldn’t mind to try out anchovies on pizza, but it’s become so out-of-style that either pizza places don’t carry it any more, or people are so repulsed by it that it’s hard to order with others sharing.
Meanwhile, I’ve always loved pineapple on pizza, and that one seemed to have stuck around as a topping longer.
Anchovies on pizza are fantastic, especially in some Italian thin crust, say with black olives, onions, capers, artichoke…
The problem is that people use them as an ingredient, where they should be used as a seasoning, sparingly.