Knife and fork pizza

The Pizza

In 2015 I was in southern Italy and had this pizza at a restaurant in Ostuni, a lovely hill town in the heel of Italy's boot. I'm blogging about it in 2017 because this is the photo for the month of May on my 2017 Bread and Pizza calendar.

This pizza was as delicious as it looks but the reason I included it on my calendar and the reason I'm writing about it is that it represents a whole category of "pizze" (plural of pizza) that are common in Italy but quite different from most North American pizza. I call it "knife and fork pizza" because you can't pick up a slice and eat it without the topping falling off because the toppings aren't plastered to the crust with melted cheese. In this case, fresh toppings were added to the crust after it came out of the oven. This expands the range of what a pizza can be and I love it because it's different than the way I make pizza.

I've always made pizza that sticks together as opposed to pizza for a knife and fork because it's the original pizza of creation, I like to eat pizza by hand, and pizza that stays together is easy to keep and re-heat. It's hard to knock these advantages but having eaten pizza with a knife and fork at restaurants in Italy inspires me to try new ways.

If you want to use pizza crust as a base for a salad or other fresh topping, keep in mind that if you bake a crust with no topping it will probably puff up into a pita. If that happens you can simply press it flat while it's hot and apply the toppings. Another alternative is to make a "white pizza" for which there are many recipes online. For example, you could top it with ricotta and/or mozzarella and then dress it with fresh toppings when it comes out of the oven.

The Calendar

The back cover of my 2017 calendar has thumbnails of all the full-page images (photo below). Every bread or pizza pictured is mine except the "Pizza Italy" from Ostuni for the month of May. At the beginning of each month this year, I'm posting a story here about my calendar photo for that month. At least that's my plan. With this post I've blogged for 4 of the 5 months.

The back cover of my 2017 bread and pizza calendar

However you eat it, enjoy your pizza!