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White walls of a hot pizza oven
A hot pizza oven's walls turn white, and then you sweep the fire aside
Kyle Phillips
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Pizza, Anyone? Certainly, Pizza!

From Kyle Phillips,
Your Guide to Italian Food.
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Innovative Pizza Recipes: To Enjoy or Build Upon

Pizza is an inexhaustible art, and to be quite frank you can use anything you want as a topping. After all, you are the person who has to eat it, and if you like black currant jam (something my father once encountered on a pizza in Germany -- mixed in with the tomato sauce, he said) on your pizza, fine. This doesn't mean one cannot provide some ideas, however, and here are a few more innovative suggestions for pizzas and calzoni.

To get started, you will need: pizza dough -- you can start with frozen pizza disks but that puts you at the mercy of the producer with regards to the quality of the ingredients, and of the merchant for how well it was stored, and though you can buy (at least in Italy) fresh pizza dough from a baker or in the deli section of the supermarket, I would only use it as a last resort.

While the dough is rising, assemble the other ingredients you'll want to top your pizzas with, and come time to make them either preheat your oven to 450 F (225 C), remembering to give your pizza stone an hour to heat through if you are using one, or fire up your wood-fired oven. Everything set? Here we go:

Pizza with Olives, Or Pizza alle Olive
(And quite a bit more.) If you want to be technical, this is almost a focaccia, because the dough is baked and then topped. But it is quite zesty, and will be refreshing on a hot day.

Pizza alla Provenzale
Pizza need not be made with tomato, and here's a tasty, oniony variation for those who do not like the golden orb (pomo d'oro, or pomodoro in Italian)

Pizza with Clams -- Pizza alle Vongole Veraci
Simple, tasty, and quite elegant. Who could ask for more?

Pizza Focosa -- Fiery Pizza
This is a wintery pizza, with beans and pepperoni to keep the cold at bay.

Pizza Orientale
An unusual pizza, with chicken breast and pineapple, among other things. Tasty, too.

Pizza delle Isole -- South Sea Islands Pizza
Another innovative pizza, with swordfish and avocado, among other things.

Pizza with Brie and Artichokes -- Pizza Con Brie e Carciofi
An unusual, but very tasty pizza whose flavors meld beautifully.

A Pesto Pizza
Though people usually associate pesto sauce with pasta, or perhaps minestrone, it works beautifully in pizza too.

A Maxi Calzone
A calzone is a pizza folded over, so the topping becomes a filling. This one is beautifully balanced.

Pizza: History and background, making pizza dough, traditional recipes, and off-site links.
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