I've had some great pizza over the years, both in Italy and in the states. I've learned that no two pies are exactly alike. Florence has some of the best thin crusted pizzas but they're not the same as pizzas from Naples. Naples has the original, the absolute best pizza that I've ever had in my life. You can not beat the thin crust with homemade sauce and fresh bufala mozzarella with oregano... Simple yet delicious. My mouth is watering at the thought. The ingredients in all Italian pizzas are fresh and very often organic. The vegetable toppings pack a lot of flavor even before additional seasonings.
But that's not to say that I haven't found some wonderful pizza here in the U.S.A. Pizza here, however, is enormously different. The pies themselves are larger and the flavor and ingredient combinations are drastically different too. I think that American pizza, whether fast food, homemade or 5 star restaurant quality is generally more adventurous in its flavor pairings than most anything you'll find abroad. No Italian would dream of pputting pineapple or chicken or barbeque sauce onto a pizza.
Italians, I find, don't use their imaginations as much when it comes to food. They are so richly steeped in tradition that they don't often have to think outside of the box to get fantastic flavors and dishes. Here in the U.S.S we don't have the same kind of tried and true traditional mentality. We are a melting pot, a stew of traditions and cultures. As a result, our food tradition (at least on the east cost) we are often willing to play with our food, to combine one tradition with another. Pizza is delicious, so is BBQ, so let's combine them together and make a BBQ Chicken Pizza. Like Thai food? There are many places that will put Thai spicing and traditional ingredients onto a pizza. One tradition is not enough. We can combine and play and experiment until we have something new and delicious.
The original, the traditional will always be respected and will always have a place in our diets but it is fun to try the new and untested. In places like NYC, the unique and new is a challenge, it is something to be tried and enjoyed.
When my family makes pizza at home, we use the traditions that Grams shared with us but we also like to play around with sasonings with the sauce and vegetables that with use. Grams showed us the typical margherita and marinara pizzas. But after her long exposure to the United States, she came to appreciate stranger combinations and was willing to try some new things.
Pizza is probably one of my favorite foods and part of that is because it is such a versatile food. You can stick with the traditional or you can experiment with outlandish ingredients that somehow when combined and baked together, no longer seem so outlandish. There is literally nothing to love about pizza.
