Three Layer Cake

The Modern Day Pizza and How to Eat It

In his backbite column in the May 2006 issue of Australian delicious., Alan Saunders, a British ex-pat living in Australia who is director of a popular Australian radio program, asks “What makes pizza authentic” .  His premise is that pizza (unfortunately) has become part of global cuisine, wrested from its traditional Italian home.  He supports this by citing, and simultaneously criticizing, global variants on ‘traditional’ Italian toppings.  The most egregious offenses?  Chicken tikka masala pizza sold in Indian restaurants run by Pakistanis, Hawaiian pizza, chicken teriyaki pizza, and in his opinion the worst of all, potato pizza.  To Saunders, not only has there been a coup de toppings, there’s even been outright defenestration of Italian table manners. He concludes:

Can you fold it?  A real pizza is meant to be a snack, not a meal.  This is street food, to be enjoyed on the hop, without a knife and fork, and without any accompaniments:  no salad, no sides and no baked beans, chips or any of the other stuff with which some people like to accompany their pizza.  In Italy, you and your mates go to a pizza place, you each tear off a bit and you fold it in two and eat it without a plate.

I don’t know where Alan Saunders got his Captain Caveman meets Lady and the Tramp idea of Italian pizza culture, but I’m pretty sure if I ever reached my hand out to tear a piece off of one of my friend’s pizzas here, I’d draw back a nub…or at the very least they’d crack the plate over my head (no matter how underdeveloped I may describe Italy, Italians do serve and eat their food on and from plates).  In the stand up places where you can eat the pizza as a 'snack', it is cut into small pieces which preclude tearing.  In pizzerie, well, your pizza is a meal, not a snack...

To further debunk the myths in Dr. Saunders’ essay, I am pretty sure that two of the best-selling pizzas in the pizza-by-the-slice place around the corner from where I used to live are the spicy mozzarella and potato pizza and the radicchio and tuna pizza (maybe with some mayonnaise mixed in), no tomato on either of these pizzas.  At the pizza place up the street from where we live now, they used to serve a pizza with asparagus, cherry tomatoes, and pecorino romano cheese.  My husband and I ate that particular pizza exclusively for 4 years, until the restaurant changed management and stopped serving it.  I wouldn’t attempt the radicchio and tuna pizza at home, but the other two are worth trying.  Here are two recipes that might get you close at home.

Pizza Dough Recipe  (link to recipe at upper right)

Asparagus, Pecorino, and Cherry Tomatoes pizza

• One pizza base (see link above for recipe )
  
• 75g mozzarella
• 3 asparagus per pizza
• 1 handful of cherry tomatoes (halved or cut into quarters)
• 60g of Pecorino Romano cheese in matchbook sized slices

Note:  The thinner the crust with this pizza, the better, but not so thin the toppings sog through.  The strength of this pizza lies in its toppings and the contrasting textures.  Alter the proportions according to your own tastes.

Potato and Mozzarella pizza

• 1 pizza base (see link above for recipe )
  
• 1 medium sized baking potato per pizza
• 100g mozzarella per pizza
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 1 handful of chopped flat-leaf parsley