At this point in the History of Pizza, so many styles populate our pizzerias, delivery boxes, cookbooks and freezer cases that it doesn't surprise us to hear someone describe a new restaurant's pies as "Italian."
What? OK, it does surprise us, because, well, Naples. Italy. The birthplace of pizza. All pizza is, at its core, Italian.
But before we work ourselves up into a good rant, we're stepping down from the soapbox to take a moment to recognize this: The fact that someone would be compelled to differentiate a pizza by calling it Italian tells us that we have come to own pizza completely in this country. And that's a good thing. From Neapolitan to deep dish, there are so many options _ giving us the freedom to set aside the double-zero flour for a night, stop dissecting the minutiae of authenticity and make something of our own invention. Something quick. Something easy. Because sometimes, all we really want is dinner.
So, in that vein, today we're offering three no-fuss topping recipes (hardly any precooking and no tracking down of artisan 'nduja, not that we don't love artisan salumi) to scatter on a humble pie you can throw together at home. On your favorite dough recipe, a store-bought dough or pre-baked crust, you decide. (Don't have a go-to dough? We're including a recipe from "Truly Madly Pizza" by Suzanne Lenzer, because we love its simplicity. Buzz in the food processor and go.)
Each idea uses just 3 to 4 ingredients and makes enough for a 10- to 12-inch pizza. The topping recipes are free-form. Really love olives? Go ahead, throw on more for the creamy and crunchy pizza. If your dough makes a larger pie, simply up the amounts of ingredients.
To bake, crank your oven to 550; use a pizza stone or a baking sheet, up to you. And time the pizza according to your dough recipe, though we give times assuming a relatively thin crust.
And there you are, in 6 to 10 minutes, contributing to the continued History of Pizza.
