Pizza Today - March 2018 - 52

ome of the most popular toppings
of all time are pepperoni, sausage,
green peppers, mushrooms and
olives. These top toppings top any
sales list in most pizzerias and make
a colorful and delicious pizza when they are
all on board. But what if you're "supremely"
surprised to be out of a certain topping on
a busy Friday night? We've all been there.
Your purveyor mis-ships or just doesn't
deliver one of these important toppings, or
you forgot to order enough. Are there any
good alternatives to offer your customers?
There are toppings that could help in an
emergency or to expand your menu-mix to
mimic the popularity of the top five. Here
are some tremendous ideas for tapping
into the top flavor and toothsome textural
profiles of these top five toppings.

LET'S FACE IT: SOME SUBSTITUTES COST
MORE THAN THE TOPPING YOU ARE
REPLACING. But when you are in an emer-

gency situation, all that matters are your
customers' satisfaction and tackling that sale
like a linebacker!
* PEPPERONI. This topping is a winner both with its flavor and weight. Those
thin slices pressed with paprika, garlic,
onion, herbs and spice leach out enormous
amounts of satisfying fat, which coats the
mouth with bold flavor. Alternatives to
pepperoni like thin-sliced Genoa salami,
soppressata and the hard-to-find cured and
aged Spanish chorizo sausage are good.
These aren't traditionally baked on a pizza
like pepperoni because they tend to burn or
turn dry. Some intrepid pizzaioli are now
placing moist salumi like 'nduja, capocollo,
Finocchiona and mortadella under cheeses
and other ingredients to flavorful effect.
* MUSHROOMS. Some mushroom pizza
fanatics cannot pinpoint why they love
these small umami bombs so much, but
between the deep back-of-the-throat flavor
and the meaty texture, there is plenty to
love. Alternatives to the typical white button mushroom are shiitake, cremini (baby
bella), oyster and Portobello. The smaller
mushrooms like shiitake can be found in
Asian markets dried for much less than the
fresh ones sold by weight (they always add
the inedible stem). My favorite is a combination I call "the stretch." I roast Portobellos and button mushrooms with ¼ cup of
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rehydrated and chopped porcini and their
great juice. This triad of mushroom flavor
is intense and perfect with cream sauces,
garlic, fontina, Parmigiano, rosemary, lemon,
shallot and fresh mozzarella.
* SAUSAGE. If pepperoni is the king of
pizza toppings, this has gotta be the queen.
Sausage is perfect in every way; meaty
texture, melting fat combined with the
inescapable flavor of fennel (you must have
fennel to call it Italian sausage), garlic, salt,
oregano, basil and peppers of differing spice
levels. Alternatives to sausage include the
widely popular pork belly, shoulder and even
pulled pork flavored with sausage spices.
I love to make ground pork meatballs to
populate a pizza with fennel, basil, roasted
garlic, breadcrumbs and Calabrian chilies
for a nice kick. There are other protein sausages like the spicy North African Merguez
lamb sausage and the Polish kielbasa. The
Nuremberger pork sausage from Germany
or the spicy Hungarian csabai kolbaszok,
which is a flavor bomb, are great as well, but
fairly hard to find.
* OLIVES. Olives are like anchovies:
people either love them or hate them. It
could be the texture or the fact that these
folks were never introduced to real, cured
olives instead of the insipidly bland black
olives or the super-salty green cocktail olives
with fake gelatin instead of real pimento. I
love to use the mega flavor from Moroccan
oil-cured olives in bread with rosemary and
garlic or the bright and colorful Castelvetrano olives from Sicily. A great alternative on
pizza is an olive tapenade, which contains
chopped green and black olives, roasted
garlic and anchovies. The biggest problem
today for pizza people is the availability of
pitted olives. Some purveyors are now offering pitted and sliced Kalamatas, and those
are a big hit for me.
* GREEN PEPPERS. When I first opened
my pizzeria in 2000, a lot of older folks
referred to these as "mangos" and this
tripped up many an order taker. I found
later that because pizzerias never got fresh
green peppers, they'd cut them and let them
sit in the make line to get all gooey -- just
like a mango. (Please excuse me while I
roll my eyes in disgust.) These days, many
peppers are available year-round. I love
the wondrous attributes of the thin-walled
shishito peppers for their mildness, edible

seeds and depth of flavor when just grilled
or sautéed in extra hot olive oil with sea salt.
The poblano is my go-to stuffer because of
the mildness (and occasional heat), but it's
also a great slicing pepper alternative. Some
people make the mistake of calling it an ancho, which is a dried poblano. I've recently
come to love Pimento, Corno di toro, sweet
Italian reds, cubanelle, lipstick and cherry
bombs that are not as hot as their name.

Country Rib "Pseudo Sausage"
This delicate and fatty cut is usually
from the blade-end of the loin or from the
shoulder itself. Usually the bone is removed
and they are cut into a rib-style shape. The
term "country ribs" is used because they
can taste like ribs because of the fatty flesh.
I make this chunky pork because it is fast,
economical and a great alternative to superground commercial sausage. These tender
chunks have fat, meat, sausage-flavor-herbs
and soul, baby!
12 ounces Country style ribs or blade-end
loin chops, bone removed
¼ teaspoon coriander
½ teaspoon each of onion powder,
oregano, dried basil, dried thyme
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
1 teaspoon fine cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon toasted fennel seed, ground
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
Cut the ribs or loin into long strips
wide and then across the strips to
produce 1/8 -inch cubes.
Once the cubes are cut, place in a bowl
and mix with all the other ingredients.
Place in a sealed bag with no air and
hold in the refrigerator for a minimum of
2 hours. This will ensure all the flavors
meld into the meat and fat.
After marinating, sauté the pork with
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil on high
heat for 4 minutes, turning frequently to
brown.
After half cooked, pour ¼ cup water
into the pan and cook 2 to 3 minutes more
until tender and the water evaporates.
Refrigerate and serve as needed. n
1/ -inch
8

JOHN GUTEKANST owns

in Athens, Ohio.

Avalanche Pizza

http://www.PIZZATODAY.COM

Pizza Today - March 2018

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