My wife puts Tabasco sauce on her pizza, while I am convinced that an Italian person dies every time she does that. Help us sort this out, please.
I haven’t been arrested by Italian food cops yet so I’d say it’s fine. Do whatever you want to food that makes it taste good to you because taste is a very subjective thing.
The Pizza Police, you say?
Pizza Polizia
TBF, not only would that same Italian person you envision also die every time a “pizza” is made, (IRL, they’re far hardier as a people) but I personally reached a similar point in my impression of “proper” sushi. 🤷🏽♂️ For decades now, I’ve looked down on cream cheese, et al, used as ingredients in rolls of all kinds. That eventually evolved into other disdainful opinions on adjacent foods’ contents, but I’ve fairly recently discovered a simple fact: in its culture of origin, sushi is known to on occasion include ice cream as an ingredient.
Therefore? Such quixotic prescriptionism is worse than useless: it restricts access to experiences based on fabricated and imaginary rules (or, face the piercing judgment of… actually no one at all).
Fuck what “people” say. Engage with your wife’s view, and maybe even join her in exploring what other curious ways one can enjoy weird shit. 🫀🖖🏽
Yup, there’s three rules about food:
- Don’t eat what will kill you.
- Eat stuff that tastes good.
- Eat stuff that’s good for you.
As long as you never break rule one and only occasionally break rules 2 and 3, you’ll have a good time.
I felt somewhat similarly about cream cheese in sushi, then I watched some video of a guy in Japan taking Americanized sushi to an old traditional sushi chef. When he liked the cream cheese, I unclutched my pearls a bit.
The closer I get to that “old chef” icon myself, the more I come to realize that the majority of it is projected onto the concept from the surrounding culture… (I blame that very thing for contributing in large part to the robbing us all of Bourdain, in fact. 🙇🏽♂️💔)
Well, let’s be real, pizza isn’t some kind of holy thing that is only Italian.
It’s not like they’re the only people to ever put things on flat dough and bake it.
But ignoring that, food is a living thing, just like most languages, like music, like fashion and art. You can try to stick a pin in it, but you kill the thing by doing so.
It reaches a point where it’s ludicrous to try and claim a thing is possessed in its entirety by the place that first named something.
Once a cultural idea spreads far enough, you can only specify one type of the thing. It’s why we have champagne, and sparkling wine. It’s a way of putting a pin in something but recognizing that there’s still living versions out there.
Or, look at it like the difference between formal and colloquial language.
Pizza may have started in Italy as a term, but it’s like kleenex and qtips. Pizza is now the generic term for stuff cooked on flat dough. It can even be applied to stuff being placed on flat bread, and then cooked, though I don’t know why you’d not call it one of the other words for that idea other than being unaware of those words.
Put whatever you want on your dough, call it pizza, and enjoy ;)
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Ketchup + sour cream + grated Trappist cheese (cold) mixed with piping hot pasta is godlike though. Was a staple during my childhood.
We were poor.
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But no comment in the sour cream?!
Tbh Hungarians eat everything with sour cream.
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If you wanted pizza to be “italian”, it would have to have no tomatoes, peppers, pepperoni, buffalo milk cheese, basil or a whole bunch of other ingredients that are commonly added to pizza.
Pizza is a global food, do with it as you will
Don’t worry about what Italians think about how you eat pizza. Unless you are in Italy, however you are eating it is probably unappealing to most Italians no matter what you are putting on it, even in its base form with no modifications.
Tabasco?
I prefer hot sauce on old pizza, not vinegar
Put whatever you want on a pizza, its a good delivery mechanism
I’m not a big hot sauce ON pizza kinda guy, but I dip the crust in something like secret aardvark. Buffalo chicken pizza is pretty popular and that’s basically a hot sauce pizza.
Red Hot would be my preferred hot sauce, but yes.
As an Italian I love Sriracha or Harissa on pizza, but the vinegar, no please!
Is she making he pizza for Italy, or for herself?
Sure, why not? I put sriracha on some the pizzas we get, or make at home.
Some Italians may find this offensive, alas not as offensive as lathering pizza in ketchup.
sriracha, the one with xtra garlic
My wife puts the nearest hot sauce on everything. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate spice, but she has no regard for the flavor profile of the sauce or the food. Maybe your wife’s the same. I’ve been slowly trying to get her to pair her spice sources thoughtfully.
Tabasco is a sup-par hot sauce for most pizzas. Red pepper flakes are best in my opinion, and pack plenty of heat and flavor. I had some serrano basil sauces that went great with pizza, which I think could be expected with any sauce featuring basil. If you’re feeling fancy, Truff goes great on pizza too. If you’re going to do Tabasco, at least do the smokey chipotle.
Different sauces taste different, and pair differently with different foods. Some flavors synergize with a dish, some overpower it, and some clash. I wouldn’t say regular Tabasco necessarily clashes with pizza, but I think it usually overpowers the other notes. There are more delicious choices.
heat improves the flavour often. If you ever cut chilli peppers into a salad, you’ll find that you won’t need to add salt
Yes, but different heat works with different flavors
Tabasco is alright if you like Tabasco, I usually go for something hotter where I can, tabasco as a last option when my options are short.
That being said, they used to make a bomb ass chipotle sauce.
