Homemade pizza... toppings

[BIGRED]

We are making homemade pizza for dinner. We've got a lot of different tastes so we are making a lot of pizza! I love meat and lots of it (cheese too). The wife likes lots of vegetables on hers. Do you make homemade pizza? What are your toppings?

 

[Urban Homestead]

I prefer Pizza Hut pizza over the homemade stuff because I like their crust better. I usually just get a supreme pizza, but I'll add spinach to make it seem healthier. So how did your pizza turn out, @BIGRED?

 

[Holii]

I love pizza, homemade or from a pizzeria.
@Urban Homestead ... I don't like Pizza Hut pizza but I love their breadsticks.
When we make homemade pizza we also make a few. I love veggies, tons of mushrooms and slices of tomatoes. I also love crumbled up sausage and pepperoni.

 

[jjp8182]

Have a wide variety .....perhaps the most unusual is using poppy seed dressing as the sauce, chicken (or turkey) as the meat, and spinach (or a mix of young/tender greens),black olives, and whatever else I' think would compliment the taste. Then that's all topped with a mix of shredded Italian-style cheeses (mozzarella, provolone, romano, parmesan fontina, and asiago) that's sold as a premixed bag in the Kroger store brand.

The other thing I'll do with pizzas based on more traditional red sauces is use ground beef or ground bison in place of ground pork as the primary meat. Those will usually be combined with a failry traditional mix of veggies like: onions, a mix of bell peppers (red, orange, yellow, green),black olives, mushrooms, etc. and topped with shredded mozzarella and sharp cheddar (or whatever other shredded cheese is in the fridge).

Can't remember if I've done any using either taco sauce or BBQ sauce .... though I think either would work. I may have to make -or remake- one using each at some point in the future as I can imagine both could turn out rather tasty (as I'm writing getting vague recollections of doing one with taco sauce that also was topped with crushed tortilla chips? or taco shells?)

 

[BIGRED]

Wow jjp! Now that was some detail and quite a variation. I have tried pizza with BBQ sauce once. It was horrible to me! I don't like white pizza either. I love pizza sauce so I don't really vary from that.

 

[jjp8182]

yeah, I can understand that as I've had some commercially made/sold pizzas that used BBQ sauce and come to the same conclusion. However, with the variety of BBQ sauces and meats I've had I suspect it was the particular BBQ sauce (and the amount) they used along with the combination/quality of other toppings as I've also had some fairly good pizzas that used BBQ sauce (usually very, very lightly) in place of the usual red sauces (a little BBQ sauce can go a long, long way).

...which is why I prefer to make a lot of my own food as it leaves me in control of what flavors and variations I'm getting -- and if something goes astray in a bad way (which is pretty rare at this point) I look at as a learning experience for future variations as even the ones that go astray tend to have a few good things about them (it's very rare anything turns out so bad that it's just best forgotten or completely avoided).

Some times even a variation in how the topping/ingredient was prepared prior to being put into the dish can change the taste. For example, fire-roasted corn or tomatoes (neither of which I recall having on a pizza ...yet) can change the taste of dish from the usual flavors of corn or tomatoes.... same with fire-roasted peppers. Likewise with the onions, put them on a pizza fresh vs. sauteed to translucent (or just short of translucent) -- or even leaving them uncooked/unbaked altogether. I've had some pizzas where the onions were either raw or barely cooked/heated and close to raw - and with the type of onion used it actually wasn't as bad as it may sound.

I figure when it comes to cooking "playing with my food" isn't such a bad thing as long as the results are edible & it's become extremely rare that they aren't. ...if anything at this point it's more likely to draw people into the kitchen to find out what the delicious smells are..... ? (have had to smack a few fingers a time or two as well) ? .....

The biggest problems I generally have with recipes I find seems to come from people trying to be a bit "too fancy" with lots of spices, too much of a very strong flavor - or worse too many strong flavors that don't complement each other in some way .... I tend to keep things relatively simple and let the ingredients stand for themselves. In fact I'll use plain old ketchup or unseasoned tomato sauces for a pizza sauce - that topped with some coarsely chopped toppings mixed with a ground meat that's been browned, and blanketed with a layer of cheese is my usual "pizza" (ends up being about an 1" to 1.5" thick & generally best eaten with a fork).

Might just be me though....

 

[BIGRED]

I agree with you on the whole store bought/pizzeria made pizza. I haven't ever tried to make my own with BBQ sauce. We do have at least five different BBQ sauce open in our fridge. We like a variety!
I'm with you on spices too. Sometimes people over spice their food and it's awful. Or they use the wrong combination of spices and it's horrible!