Thanks for the tip Sushipup1!

plllog, I didn't even think of the rye crust! it's sounding better all the time. :)

I really like green and black olives, minced garlic, tomatoes, pineapple, green pepper and red roasted pepper. Mozzerella, feta and ricotta cheeses. Sea salt and oregano. This is what I have been getting at the local wood fired pizza place.

I'm not really a fan of traditional pizza, I don't care for the red sauce and I'm not wild about cheese. Yeah, I know, I'd weird, my kids remind me regularly, LOL.

Anyway, my favorite was an inspiration from AnnT, a breakfast pizza with potatoes, bacon and eggs. A whole breakfast in a slice, and yummy. Once I made it and added slices of fresh tomatoes from the garden, then the potatoes, bacon and eggs. Extra yummy.....

Annie

I almost always make a white pizza, no tomato sauce, but a combo of mozzarella, provolone and sometimes ricotta. Toppings (not all at the same time) can include kalamata olives, artichoke hearts, pancetta or prosciutto, sliced garlic, spinach or broccolini (actually gailan), onion, sliced leeks, Italian sausage, hot peppers, and pretty much anything else that seems like it would work!

Goat cheese, prosciutto and fig topped with arugula after taking it off the bbq is a favorite.

Swedish friends turned me on to curry powder and banana on pizza and its very good!

OMG VedaBeeps! My grandparents used to have those plates! What a happy memory! And what a yummy looking pizza!

Breakfast pizza sounds so good!

VedaBeeps, oh man I want that right now!

We're mainstream....Italian Sausage, black olives, diced red onion. Mushrooms, spinach leaves, Ricotta if I have them. Red Sauce, mozzarella, grated fresh Romano, basil (fresh or dried).

Or Canadian Bacon/ham, pineapple, bell pepper, diced red onion.

Crushed red pepper on the side for me.

Definitely no potatoes or other 'carby' stuff. I'm already splurging on carbs w/ the crust.

I guess I'm not very adventurous because when I'm hungry for pizza, I just want a traditional pizza and nothing exotic. Except that I do want to try adding thin slices of eggplant one of these days.

Edited to add: I like to use the brine from draining black olives as the liquid in the crust.

Using The brine from olives sounds clever! Thanks!

Re eggplant, it's super delicious on pizza, but you should cook it first. I prefer spears to slices because I don't care for so many seeds. Undercooked pizza toppings is a bugaboo of mine, and undercooked eggplant is a superbugaboo. :)

Re mushrooms, same thing. To avoid that pencil eraser analogy, sauté the mushrooms (slices if they're big) in a little olive oil and a little more rich red wine (madeira or port or leftover cab if it's not too tannic). You can add some minced onion/scallion/shallot if you like. Once the mushrooms have cast off most of their water, cover loosely and simmer for 8-10 minutes, then continue to sauté until the liquid is gone from the pan. They'll be tender, and oh, so tasty! I think that rubbery thing comes from how the water reacts to the high heat. If you want the mushrooms snappable and spongy like raw, put them on the pizza with only a minute left in the oven, so they warm up but are still essentially raw.

VedaBeeps, please tell more about that banana & curry! too odd not to ask. :)

Ci_lantro, do you use the usual sauce & cheese in addition to the C. bacon/pineapple/pepper combo, or does the sauce clash? BF is wavering now on whether the CA version he remembers did indeed use sauce. :p

PM, here the canadian bacon/ham and pineapple combo is really common. It always has red sauce and white cheese. Ashley is a huge fan and all the pizza places offer it, mostly calling it "Hawaiian" pizza.

Elery has a pizza oven that fits on top of his grill, but we haven't used that in at least a year. With his knee replacement, there wasn't a lot of grilling going on here.

Annie

I'm very fond pizza and don't have one favorite. Nearly any veggie combination -- broccoli, peppers, eggplant (yes I do par cook it first), zucchini, yellow squash, any kind of greens (kale, spinach, arugula, turnip)... I always include veggies to some degree.

I do try to keep the fat lower, so my proteins tend toward chicken, ham, low fat kielbasa, even veggie burgers.

Sauce can be traditional red, pestos, or vinaigrette.

Cheese can be traditional too, but I really like goat cheese w/ pesto, or feta. Always topped with a sprinkle of parmesan, though.

A quick just-go-home-from-work-at- 8pm pizza is a tortilla in an oiled skillet, topped with some greens, a generous sprinkle of pre-cooked chopped bacon, red pesto or olive tapenade, and cheese. Cover and cook until it looks done (usually less than 10 minutes).

I bet pesto would be delish!

PartyMusic--Yup, red sauce/ white cheese just like Annie said. No, the sauce doesn't clash/ popular combo. The little sweet tidbits of pineapple are a nice touch...more a contrast in a good way. I almost always have to use ham because I can't find Canadian bacon. You'd think, living in Wisconsin, it would be everywhere. But nope. The pizza parlors around here don't even offer it on their menus! When I lived in Oklahoma, I could find mega packs of it for cheap as well as being a routine pizza joint offering.

Pllog, I planned to cook the eggplant before putting it on the pizza. Eggplant just HAS to be cooked until it's a soft yummy, almost liquid, IMO. Rubbery eggplant/ no good! For that matter, I like to nuke green/ red peppers a bit before putting them on a pizza. Improves the flavor.

Thank you, Annie and ci_lantro! I was going to make it today but decided to wait until a day when I have more time. Is there any special ordering of the ingredients required? is it sauce, then a b/p/p mix, then cheese on top? I'll look up Hawaiian pizza and see what I find. And I agree -- it's difficult to find C. bacon here too, so I was already prepared to sub ham and BF said that was just fine. :)

ETA: I'll probably do KAF's version where they pan-fry their pineapple and ham first to intensify flavor and avoid a soggy pizza. :)

We really like a combo of cheese, anchovy and spinach pizza (layered in that order).

You can kick the Hawaiian pizza up a notch by adding side bacon in addition to the back (Canadian) bacon.

Roasted chicken, mushroom and roasted red pepper with pesto instead of red sauce is also good.

No particular order. The last time or two that I've made pizza, I put the sauce on last. If I'm making an Italian sausage pizza, I drizzle the raw crust w/ olive oil and spread some crushed garlic around and then add sauce and the other ingredients.

It's all good.

Cheese first is an option if you're having problems with the cheese getting too brown w/ the traditional layering sequence.

Another popular item in this part of the country is something they call 'Cheese Fries'. Pizza crust topped with cheese and nothing else. Marinara sauce for dipping the fries in, if you wish. I like it with & without dipping sauce. (The olive oil/ garlic crust treatment is really good when you're making cheese fries.) Also, I like a cheese combination-mozzarella, feta & grated Romano or parmesan.

I don't know the truth of it, but I first met "Hawaiian Pizza" in Canada when I was a teen, and they said that it was actually a Canadian invention. It's the jalapeños that you specifically get in California. Many pizza places here, at least in SoCal, offer sliced green jalapeños as a standard topping option. Mostly raw, though sometimes lightly pickled.

Ci_lantro, I should have known--if only I'd stopped to consider who was talking. I just get really tired of restaurants and delis selling undercooked eggplant, and hearing people talk about how much they hate eggplant who've never had it properly cooked. I suppose I'm unwittingly on a crusade to get people to cook their eggplant right. :) I have the same problem with people who are told not to wash mushrooms (eew! I don't want to eat mulch and compost.) because "they take on water", whereas mushrooms shed water and shrink mightily because that's what they are. :\

BTW, a really great pizza (at least with whole wheat crust, which is what I make) is red bell pepper sauce instead of tomato, char-roasted eggplant (just the green goo, no seeds or skin), and toasted onions, with a light sprinkling of smoked cheese. It would probably be good with antique olives and fig slices on it, too.

I was at a business meeting at CPK once and didn't really fancy anything exactly as it was on the menu, so I got their grilled vegetables and goat cheese (dollops of chevre), hold the regular topping cheese. Their tomato sauce was really oily, so the crust didn't dry out at all (i.e., it made up for the lack of cheese all over), and it was one of the best restaurant pizzas I've had.

lobster with Sunglod tomatoes.

dcarch

Mine involve seafood and white pizza. Two favorites are lobster and corn or scallops and bacon.

Really? No Canadian Bacon? I'm astounded, it's everywhere here, from the grocery stores with the lunch meat to Sam's Club and Costco.

Too bad you aren't closer, Elery just took a batch out of the smoker!

I vacuum sealed it and put it into the freezer, 12 slices per package, for pizza or calzones, or for breakfast sandwiches.

I would have gladly shared for your pizza!

Annie

My favourite pizza has spicy tomato sauce shrimp pineapple onion sweet peppers and feta and other white cheeses on it.

I found a blurb about the Hawaiian pizza.

"...Now it appears that Hawaiian pizza is not from Hawaii, but from
Chatham, Ont., where retired pizza cook Sam Panopoulos says he invented
the dish at Satellite Restaurant in 1962....Hawaiian pizza is the most popular pizza in Australia and is known as
one of the more controversial pizza styles in North America, because it
uses fruit."

Well I'm not surprised since the Canada Goose isn't from Canada... (Maybe since Canada means village it's supposed to be called a village goose. ;0) )

And the tomato is a fruit too so not sure what the beef is there. :)

Annie, that C. bacon looks fantastic!!!

yeonassky, lol! it's even worse when they're so often referred to as Canadian Geese. :O)

As I age, I prefer simple. Thin yeasty crust, red sauce and cheese. Can't approach a more populated pizza. I was bothered by that after all of my illnesses, but anymore I just embrace what agrees with me.

I rarely eat pizza because I avoid wheat and don't care for the subsitutes, but when I throw caution to the winds I also prefer a plain cheese pizza.

plllog, Trudeau is evidently taking a stand on the current pineapple-pizza-gate controversy:

http://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/when-it-comes-to-pizza-toppings-canadas-pm-justin-trudeau-is-teampineapple-1663622

I can't read the article, Writersblock. I didn't know it was a controversy. All I can say for sure is that there wasn't Hawaiian pizza in SoCal and there was in Alberta. The man in the restaurant there said it was a Canadian specialty. I was used to the pizza made by the Italian man, at the restaurant bearing his name, near us with hardly any sauce, really thick layer of cheese, large pyramids of forked homemade Italian sausage, heavy with anise, and real pepperoni made into cups by the heat. Plus all the usual vegetables, of course. Heavily covered. Every bite a a party. Pizza is reputedly Greek in origin, but this Italian guy had it right. Everything that went on it was good and so the whole pizza was good. The Canadian restaurant was more like a lunch place. Bright colors, lots of sun, rather than the grotto decor and Chianti bottles of our local Italian restaurant. The Hawaiian pizza was...interesting. Not bad, but nothing like Italian-American pizza. :) But it was an authentic Canadian dish, and treasured because of that. It was at least a decade later that I first heard of it on a menu here.

ok, now I'm reminded of the Artful Detective (Murdoch Mysteries) episode where they first sell 'pizza pie' in Toronto. Those who saw it will understand when I say I loved the hat... 5-cents a piece or 1-cent a bite, right? LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not everything on the page, but you get the gist:

Pineapple-pizza-gate. It's the controversy that refuses to die down. Iceland's President Gudni Johannesson
recently sent the Internet into meltdown mode after claiming he was
"fundamentally opposed" to pineapple as a pizza topping and would ban it
if he could. "I like pineapples, just not on pizza," President
Johannesson was later forced to clarify in a Facebook post.
"I do not have the power to make laws which forbid people to put
pineapples on their pizza." But, did you know that the pizza topping was
actually invented in Canada? And it turns out the country is
#TeamPineapple all the way!

First, this post appeared on Canada's official Twitter account:

It's savoury, it's sweet – Canadian invention #pineappleonpizza can't be beat

Then, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau threw his weight behind the cause:

Jon Wiseman
@JonWiseman@JustinTrudeau Very important question for all Canadians - does pineapple belong on pizza?

Justin Trudeau
✔
@JustinTrudeau @JonWiseman I have a pineapple. I have a pizza. And I stand behind this delicious Southwestern Ontario creation. #TeamPineapple @Canada

Thanks for posting that, sherri.

Thanks, Sherri!

I don't know why people have to be so vehement. It's one thing to express a personal dislike and another to want to ban it for everybody! I've had it when it's been good, including in Canada, and I've had it when it was awful. IMO, garlic and pineapple don't go, or at least classic, Italian garlic heavy sauce and canned pineapple with lots of full on Italian cheeses in between, is not a good combo. A lighter, fresh tomato sauce and pineapple, without aged cheeses, or heavy oregano or marjoram, goes well. There are many variations in between.

Me, I'm all in favor of banning pineapple from pizza ever since the day I went to pick up a plain cheese pizza and got home to find they'd inadvertently given me someone's pineapple/anchovy one instead. :)

ROTFLOL!!! What a combination!!!

I like any combination of mozzarella, anchovies, pepperoni, ham, bacon, any kind of preserve sausage like salami, kielbasa or krakowurst, feta, soft goat's cheese, blue cheese, melanzane, sun dried tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, kalamata olives, artichokes, jumbo shrimp, mushrooms, capsicum, onions, pineapple. DH can't eat onions and doesn't care for pineapple. I don't mind chicken but find it a bit meh. I have had a yummy roast lamb and hoummous pizza with feta and rocket. Some pizza combinations here (especially chicken) have barbecue sauce instead of red sauce but I don't care for it. I don't mind pesto where appropriate and quite like dessert pizzas, especially any involving Nutella :-)

Tomato sauce (even though I should limit my intake of nightshade, a pizza is incomplete to me without), extra cheese, garlic, oregano, and at least one or two of the following (NOT all at once!):

Kalamata olives, artichoke hearts, onions, mushrooms, spinach, pepperoni, sausage, eggplant, bacon, sun dried tomatoes, red pepper flakes....

I don't want potatoes... enough starch already, even without that recently-developing nightshade issue. No nuts - I definitely can't eat those, much more severe reaction! Hamburger and chicken are meh. I've never tried pineapple - would try it if some else wanted ham and pineapple, but not an essential on my bucket list.

I remember a group of us who would meet monthly over pizza. One guy always wanted to include anchovies so he'd ask for them on the side. I'd take one of his anchovies, cut it up over my slices. Frankly, way too salty to do more than that, on a dish that's already salty, but just that hint of anchovy was good enough for me.

Had clam pizza once. Meh in flavor, the clams got lost.

That lobster pizza looks great, dstarch! Not so sure about the shell, though....

Dessert pizza does not interest me, but I'm your local non-sweet tooth.

I will say, I don't really enjoy "plain". That's something I avoid - I like me some tasty veggies at least!

Just a little tangent here, wondering how regional 'tomato pie' is?! I've read articles that say it's unique to this area and Philadelphia. lol! Here, tomato pie is very popular -- especially for large parties! It's essentially a thick baked pizza crust -- always rectangular! -- that is then smobbed with a thick tomato 'sauce' after it's been removed from the oven, and sprinkled with parmesan/romano. It's always kept and served at room temp. Everyone's tomato pie sauce is a little different and people tend to love one bakery's/pizzeria's over another. I know that I have my favorite! :O)

ETA: doing some research and seeing they bake tomato pies w/ the sauce on, but my friend who worked at one of the pizzerias told me otherwise. :p

We make all kinds of different pizzas around my house. My son loves to play with different ideas for his pizza.

We make lobster pizza with an alfredo type sauce, roasted garlic, chunks of lobster with Parmesan cheese and mozzarella.

Steak pizza with Parmesan pepper corn sauce, Italian roast beef broke up into small pieces, sliced tomato, garlic, banana peppers and white cheese.

He likes pulled pork and BBQ on his pizza, I am not a fan.

My son also loves BBQ chicken with pineapple. Add me to the list of not a fan of Pineapple on a Pizza. I am one who does not like fruit with my meat though. Fruit to me is for dessert but I know lots of people who love it.

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

We do a dessert pizza with peanut butter, bananas, chocolate and marshmallows for the kids.

Wow, lots of these sound fantastic! I need to try adding jalapenos to pepperoni pineapple pizza. Some of my faves: Potato pesto with fresh mozz, potato rosemary and gruyere, ricotta with garlic and spinach, and for dessert, lemon and confectionary sugar. Hmmm might need to make pizza tonight!

I've never made a dessert pizza, but definitely will try one now! I'm torn between the PB/banana thing and the notion of something with caramel, nuts, and chocolate.... maybe toasted coconut too. :O)

For a crowd i use Tortillaland unbaked flour tortillas. (when i can find them) though any brand will do, some better than others. Health food store even has decent gluten-free.

If i have house guests i can prep the day/night before and make a dozen in under an hour with one finishing on top and one started below, then switch.

They also freeze well. Good cold or re-toasted.

I use pesto and paper thin potato only on the edge to avoid a burn. Salsa in the middle with the toppings. Don't need much. Easy to let guests request their own and kids can make a personal one.

Banana, nuts, peanut butter and chocolate would be a good kid dessert pizza like a reese cup. A bit of brown sugar on the banana?

Over the holidays i bought a new mandolin. The Beringer used in restaurants. They have a new model out now. Love it. I do have a big clunker metal one but i use the new one so often i gave it its own drawer space. Makes matchsticks slices, three sizes, for a quick slaw, salad, spring rolls. Thin fresh slices for veg chips, or baked chips.

The NoCry gloves are great and necessary to protect fingers.

I was introduced to "Hawaiian" pizza in Vancouver in 1976 - I hated it then and still do. I do not like anything sweet on pizza, and pineapple is horrible because not only is it sweet, it is also soggy. I'm okay with the Canadian bacon, but hold the pineapple. I had always assumed that Hawaiian pizza was a [bad] Canadian invention. OTOH, I love Bloody Caesars, and I had those first in Vancouver.

I make a lot of pizza style sandwiches using ciabatta bread or something similar, and I generally just make it Margherita style. I also make pizza style quesadillas using a flour tortilla and pizza toppings. I make these when I am eating alone - otherwise I make the pizza dough for 2 to 3 pizzas at a time.

Everything I put on pizzas (plus more) has already been listed here, and I'm not terribly adventurous with pizzas. I have found that certain ingredients, such as mushrooms and bell pepper, need to be sautéed before adding, as they can make the pizza soggy. I prefer to grill the pizzas outside, and I have a pizza stone for our Big Green Egg, but I won't do that unless I am having a party, as a rule.

Hawaiian pizza may have been invented by the Canadians, but it is one of the most popular pizzas in Australia.

I love "Hawaiian pizza" and have never had an issue with the pineapple making it soggy.

Last night I roasted squash, mushrooms, cauliflower and peppers -- tonight I am tossing some of those onto a basic frozen pizza. It is too late (and I am too tired) to make one from scratch or order. I think this brand "Bon Appetite" is pretty decent for a base so I keep one in the freezer for nights like this.

This one turned out well... garlic and thyme-infused olive oil, roasted butternut squash, caramelized onions, fresh mozzarella and bacon.

I made this last week: Blueberry, Feta and Honey-Caramelized Onion Naan Pizza.

It was really good. We added microgreens and some blackberries.

We made a Sicilian/Grandma dough and topped it with pulled (NC-style bbq sauce chicken, garlic chard, fresh and smoked mozzarella.

We also each had a toasted up slice topped with a poached egg for breakfast.

Oh my, Mimi. Do you have a recipe you would share for the Sicilian/Grandma dough? We love pulled anything; never thought about putting it on pizza. Love your pizza for breakfast idea.

For the dessert pizzas you can do anything you like.

Nutella is good as a base with marshmallows kinda like a s'more

Nutella and bananas

Fried apples drizzled with caramel sauce or drizzled with icing.

Anything really just as long as the crust doesn't get to soggy and will support the toppings the sky is the limit on that. Like I said we make it for the kids as they enjoy coming up with things to put on it. Heck we have had peanut butter topped with M&Ms and gummy bears. I wouldn't eat it but they loved being able to create something and then eat it.