Every so often, the daily Google Doodle grabs my attention. I know that’s exactly why it has been created, hoping to lead me down a rabbit hole and maybe even learn something, and it works. Especially when it’s about pizza, as it was yesterday.
Spoiler alert… I like pizza. Many different kinds of pizza. Now the doodle yesterday was to commemorate the fact that in 2007, the culinary Art of Neapolitan ‘Pizzaiuolo’ was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Which seems to be a really long way of saying “pizza is really great.” It should be recognized as one of the high points of human achievement.
Pizza also seems to be one of those things that you can do yourself, but it takes forever to perfect. I’ve been working on it for a while now.
I started back in the day with the old boxed pizza mix. I have nothing against them, and I will admit to this day I still have the occasional craving for one. After experimenting with the kit variety, I started striking out on my own.
I have long struggled with the dough. I have tried many variations of dough recipes. All have left something to be desired. I have found one I keep going back to. In a James Beard cookbook I came across a recipe for pizza caccia nanza. This is not pizza. It’s actually an Italian flatbread that is coated with olive oil and has slivers of garlic stuck in it before you bake it. It is quite tasty on it’s own, and it seems to make a pretty good crust. But it also seems to make a very thick crust. Or I use too much yeast. Or I don’t prove it enough. Or I’m not making enough pizzas out of the recipe.
But pizza is one of those things you can top with pretty much anything. I’ve even used leftovers from Christmas dinner in the past. Coated the dough with gravy, then topped it with other various leftover items. It was okay, but really, it was just an open faced hot turkey sandwich. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Although I didn’t go with the cranberry sauce. It would probably work.
Because pretty much anything can go on a pizza. That’s the beauty of it. If you like something, you can likely put it on a pizza. So for you pineapple haters… just order a second pizza without the pineapple. There should be no boundaries with pizza.
I will admit, I did not play the game that was part of the doodle. I did spend a fair bit of time browsing the various pizza options they had pictured. They all looked pretty good. Although I am assuming that by “whole olives” they mean with the pits removed. Including the pits just seems a bit wrong. At least until the pandemic is over and we’re allowed to spit them at targets again.
I might be a day late, but here’s to pizza, in all it’s many topped glory.
And now I want one.