RECIPE: Pizza, The New Sandwich & Salad?
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Pizza has come a long way from what we think of as its origins: crust, tomato sauce and cheese. There are cheeseless pizzas, dessert pizzas, duck confit pizzas, tuna sashimi wasabi pizzas and just about anything you can put on a piece of flatbread.
In fact, food historians agree that the origin of pizza was not Italy, but Greece. While flatbread was topped with other foods since it was first grilled on a hot rock in prehistoric times, ancient Greeks turned the process into an art. They topped a round flatbread (plankuntos) with stew, thick broth, meat, vegetables and/or fruit. The result was a thrifty, convenient and tasty meal for the working man and his family, requiring no additional plates or utensils. (Injera, the Ethiopian flatbread, is still used for this purpose and is a mainstay of Ethiopian cuisine. More on the history of pizza). |
 Topped with romaine lettuce and Parmesan cheese, this grilled pizza is a fun take on a favorite main course salad, the Chicken Caesar. |
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Recipes like Chicken Caesar Pizza allow you to sneak salad atop a pizza, in a way that pleases those who typically avoid salad greens. Suddenly, pizza becomes a main-dish salad with the side of bread as the base. Make a Grilled Chicken Caesar Pizza; then see how many different ways you can combine proteins and veggies on a pizza. Look to your favorite sandwich and salad combinations. Instead of conventional sandwich bread, use the ingredients to top a pizza. You can use tomato sauce or barbecue sauce as a base, or any other sauce topping. We’ve used wasabi mayonnaise, blue cheese dressing and thousand island dressing with canned tuna, hard-cooked eggs and roast meat leftovers. Try a chef salad or spinach salad pizza. Add romaine or other lettuce and some cherry tomatoes, and you’ve got a pizza salad-and-sandwich. Pizza Dough Tips |
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