pizza with lemon slices and smoked mozzarella

Pizza is a centuries old snack although 2,000 years ago it looked more like a flatbread with olive oil and cheese. Hard to believe, though, that tomatoes introduced to Europe from the Americas in the 1600's were considered poisonous by the locals. It wasn't until the 1700's when the Napolese added tomatoes to their flatbread; the birthplace of pizza.

If you're like me and experiment with different toppings, you open up a whole new pizza world. If you're Italian, the thought of placing fruit on a pizza is sacrilege but hear me out. I'm not proposing ham and pineapple which, by the way, I enjoyed in my younger days. However, taste buds do mature and the thought of that combination makes me shudder. Rather, what I am suggesting is to keep an open mind to toppings that may seem like strange bedfellows. Consider, for example, how nicely pear and blue cheese go together. These two toppings are lovely on a pizza. Or how about a Turkish meat pizza (aka pide or lahmacun) with minced lamb, eggplant and red pepper. A cracked egg in the middle of a quattro stagioni pizza is another delicious topping before it heads to the oven. The key to making a scrumptious pizza, is to not overpower the base with many toppings. This will result in a soggy middle. Also keep in mind that the base does not always need to be smothered in a tomato sauce. Some of my most memorable pizzas did not include it.

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