Customer Reviews

Pizza!: Delicious Recipes for Toppings and Crusts for All Pizza Lovers

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Pepperoni? Too boring! Cheese? Too traditional! How about Roasted red onion, artichoke, and sage pizza? Or Chicken, cranberry, and brie pizza? (You have to think way out of the box on that one!) And one more: Wild mushroom, havarti and spinach pizza. Well then, you've come to the right cookbook--"Pizza!" The subtitle says it all: "Delicious recipes for toppings and bases for all pizza lovers."

I require two things of a cookbook: that it has many colorful photographs of most of the prepared recipes and an enticement, by nature of the prepared dish, to try a majority of them. "Pizza!" wins big on both counts!

First, the physical book: Its slick 176 pages open out flat--a definite plus! and are ringed into a spiral-type central binder. The two writer/pizza masters begin with basic ingredients in making the dough, sauces, cheeses, and meats. Types of equipment needed in cooking and serving pizza.

The the preparation begins! Not all pizza comes on crusts. There's calzone, little morsels, grilled, flat breads, focaccia, and a honeyed crust.

Guess what the actual first pizza recipe is? Marinara--"the original, first-ever Neapolitan pizza--simplicity at its best" (44). Pizza was first prepared in Naples. Then there's the Margherita, using sauce instead of actual tomatoes and mozzarella (the real kind) and basil.

Here's a pizza that always puzzles me: Frutti di mare (seafood), but seafood in its glory, that is, still in shells--mussels, clams, and shrimp. Hmmmm.

Or Florentina: spinach leaves, mozzarella, spring onion, nutmeg, and eggs! They will be runny when the diner cuts into them. OK, I'll try it. Or the great Quattro formaggi (four cheeses)--ricotta, mozzarella, gorgonzola, and parmesan. Serve with a good chianti and "you'll be happy!"

Or go daring! Try Pizza at tonno (canned tuna) or Fennel relish and beef carpaccio, or Asiago, pancetta, and endive. Of the last the writers say: "Pancetta lends a wonderful salty-smoky quality to this unique pizza" (91).

You get the idea! This is a cookbook for the adventurous pizza lover. We all have our favorites. This is a chance to find a new favorite!

When my figs are ripe, here's the one I will try: Fig, rosemary, and Stilton. I'll cut some of my rosemary as well. Open a bottle of zinfandel and voila! Heaven!