by Ogelthorpe Q. Sighvatson

Created on: May 01, 2009

You may ask yourself, what is non-Italian pizza? Really, it is a food that follows the basic structure of pizza: crust, sauce, cheese/toppings while eschewing the traditional Italian flavors associated with standard pizza. This could take the form of indiginous flatbread dishes from both Africa and the Asian sub-continent or (more commonly) the many unique pizza options available in modern restaurants and home kitchens. It is this latter category that I am going to focus on, since indiginous flatbread dishes are their own entities and do not need to be referred to as "pizza."

The idea of placing food on bread has been around for thousands of years and knows no cultural or geographical boundaries. Pizza, at it's most basic, is the modern day continuation of this culianry tradition. It a one dish meal, that can generally be eaten by hand and on the go. More then all that; it has in relatively recent years come to be seen as a blank canvas on which we can create our meal of choice.

Consider the following flavor profile for "Italian" pizza: tomato sauce, basil, garlic, mozarella cheese, pepperoni, Italian style sausage. We will also put pesto on this list since it is a primarily Italian flavor profile.

Now, let us consider the menu at a certain west-coast based sit-down pizza chain: BBQ Chicken, Buffalo Chicken, Pear and Gorgonzola, Jamaican Jerk, Mango Tandoori and more. Each oft hese items take the traditional pizza structure and impart it with a different profile of flavors from around the world. Experimenting with different and exciting flavors on pizza is a great way to mix things up. It can be a great opportunity to expose finicky kids to a new and interesting world of flavors. After all, what kid doesn't love pizza?

So let us consider a couple of these previously mentioned "California" pizzas and then take the lessons learned to create out own unique non-Italian pizza.

The BBQ chicken pizza features: barbecue sauce, smoked Gouda and Mozzarella cheeses, BBQ Chicken, sliced red onions and cilantro. This is one of the most straightforward adaptations of the pizza structure. Barbecue sauce replaces the traditional tomato sauce, smoked gouda enhances the standard issue mozzarella, BBQ chicken gives us a healthier alternative to the usual pepperoni or sausage, while the red onions and cilantro give a distinctive veggie and herb profile.

The Mango Tandoori pizza is made with: grilled Tandoori chicken, mango, mild onions, red peppers and Mozzarella cheese on a SPICY golden

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