Why Do People Eat Bad Pizza? – Green Pizza

There are lots of things I never understood about the high school students I taught for 30 years. Chief among them was why they ate the pizza served in the school cafeteria.

Long Island, where I live, is the land of excellent pizza. Virtually every strip mall has a small, independently owned pizza parlor; I count eight or nine within a handful of blocks in the downtown area of my town, Huntington. They are all different and everyone has their favorite. Some serve pizza with thin crust and a crispy bottom; others are heartier with a more substantial layer of cheese. Most are slice shops, with only two serving fancier brick oven pies. Some have wild toppings, while others are more traditional. At most of these spots, despite their differences, the pizza is very good, if not excellent.

This is not the case with school pizza. It is terrible. Flavorless sauce. Boring cheese. Cardboard-flavored crust. It really made no sense that students would line up for it day after day when there were other, better options in the cafeteria, and they could easily get an excellent slice as soon as school let out in mid-afternoon. But eat it they did.

School pizza is not the only bad kind out there. Think supermarket frozen pizza. Yes, it’s gotten better over the years, and it’s certainly convenient, but it’s generally awful. Is it really worth eating when quality options can be delivered right to your door? And while New York has been known for its pizza for years, there are now good pizza options across the country, as highlighted by recent articles in the New York Times and Bon Appetit magazine.

When I was in college in Indiana there were few pizza options. As a result, we could be forgiven if we ordered Dominoes, which, sadly, was the best by far. Of course, that was several decades ago, and I hope that by now the quality and variety of pizza restaurants in that small, Midwestern city has improved. I would only order Dominoes now under severe duress. Yet even on Long Island, there are Dominoes Pizza branches, and I had students who bought it.

Even if you live in a pizza desert, quality homemade pies are relatively easy to make. If you don’t want to make your own dough, lots of pizza restaurants will sell you some, and passable fresh dough is now available in the refrigerated section of many supermarkets. As for toppings, making your own pizza allows you to customize it in ways your local shop will not. You can always go traditional, but I’d just as soon have delicious pesto pie or one with mushrooms, goat cheese, and fontina, and my mashed potato pizza is excellent. And once you get the technique down, making your own pizza is fun and delicious.

I don’t understand why people eat bad pizza when good pizza is always within reach.

Green Pizza

For years my wife, Marci, bugged me to make white pizza – ricotta, fresh mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses, along with garlic, without the red sauce – but it is not my favorite. However, I agreed to try it when I thought about adding fresh pesto to the ricotta. I discovered that this green pizza is far superior to white pizza. It’s still creamy from the ricotta, but the pesto gives it more flavor and character. While green pizza may look a little odd, it rivals any white pie at even the best pizza restaurants.

makes one 18-inch pizza, about 1 hour

10 – 12 oz. whole milk ricotta cheese or fresh ricotta

¼ to ½ cup fresh pesto

kosher salt to taste

¾ lb. fresh mozzarella cheese, torn or cut into small chunks

2 oz. Parmesan cheese, grated

1 pizza dough, about 1 lb.

1. Place pizza stone or steel in cold oven and preheat to 500 ^o F. It should heat up for at least a half hour and preferably a full hour for the crispiest crust.
2. Mix ricotta cheese and pesto in a bowl until well combined. Stir in salt, starting with a ½ teaspoon and taste. Add more salt as needed. Cut or tear mozzarella into small pieces and blot dry with a paper towel. Grate Parmesan cheese.
3. Stretch pizza dough into a circle about 18 inches in diameter, leaving a little extra dough at the edges for the crust. Bake for about 5 minutes on pizza stone (popping bubbles if necessary) until bottom of crust is starting to brown.
4. Remove from oven with a pizza peel and smear ricotta-pesto mixture almost to the edges. Top with chunks of fresh mozzarella and grated Parmesan cheese.
5. Place back on pizza stone in oven and cook until mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses are melted and crust is fully cooked, about 5 minutes. Serve hot.

Please like and share this post: