Re-Inventing the Pizza Wheel

No, I'm not re-inventing the little wheel-style pizza cutter tool. I'm re-inventing the great wheel that is the institution of PIZZA.

I've never been to Italy (YET!) but we Americans love us some pizza pie. The average American eats about 23 pounds of it per year, per person. That comes out to something like 50 slices.

Me? Not so much.

I like pizza, don't get me wrong. But 2 full years of my college days were spent living in a roach-infested apartment above a pizzaria. The aroma of pepperoni was forever in the air. It broke me. Now, I can take it or leave it.

But when I do partake in a pizza pie, I often like to have fun with it. I like to go beyond pepperoni and mozzarella. This started in earnest during my days at the Italian restaurant.

I would prep in the kitchen by day, then do a change of clothes and greet patrons in the dining room by night. When the dinner rush was over, I'd go to the pizza oven area and help my friend, Richie, portion dough. And often I'd make a pizza. I'd do weird things. With weird toppings. And non-traditional pizza cheeses. Sometimes my inventions were awful. Sometimes they were awesome.

I like to do that, from time to time, at work, and even at home. Customers seem to love my adaptation of a sweet potato pizza, with crispy pancetta and oregano on a whole grain pie shell. I think my Thai-inspired Asian chicken pizza is kind of neat.

Tonight, I took a night off from the oven. I ordered a pizza...but I let myself go: roasted red pepper sauce, asiago cheese, spicy capicola, and lots of fresh basil. I know I cook a lot, but I don't know everything (good God! Not at ALL!) I only have some idea of what I'm doing: the rest is a roll of the dice.

But! I rolled good numbers tonight!

You can, too! Get off the sausage and pepperoni merry-go-round. What have you got to lose? I mean, really...what's a pizza?...15.95 at the most? Can't you roll the dice for once? Play around a little? Give the kids a chance to have some fun? Come up with some never-before combination? Even if it's awful, you'll still eat it (mark my words!) So there's nothing wasted.

And...nothing ventured, nothing gained!