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
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 ;)
Yay. Chili flakes are great, too.
BTW, the worst pizza I ever had was served in Italy. Absolutely drowned in oil.
Maybe the oily pizzas are more pizzas than the ones we eat out of Italy
deleted by creator
laughs Japanesely They have a dish here called something like Napolitan that’s a ketchup-based sauce on spaghetti. IIRC it was partly born out of post-war food shortages and trying to make something Western-ish by a hotel in Yokohama. It became its own food, however, and lots of people love it.
deleted by creator
As I understand it, it was created by a hotel chef trying to find something to feed foreigners (mostly soldiers) very soon after the war, so it’s kinda different.
Tempura and Pan (bread) come from the Portuguese. They did start growing hot peppers like many after they got here via either the Portuguese and/or Dutch following the Columbian Exchange.
Much like there’s American Chinese food, there’s also Japanese Chinese suited to their tastes. Pizza is probably the most prominent examples: mayo, corn, etc. pizza is common here.
Have you read the story of Panko breadcrumbs?
It came from food and fuel shortages in WW2 where the ingredients for bread but no ovens or equipment to cook it into anything. One guy hooked a bunch of dough up to a car battery and electrocuted it and created a crustless loaf with a weird texture. He also discovered this weird texture made for great even sized crumbs with a uniform colour and after the war ended decided to turn it into a business.
Ketchup + sour cream + grated Trappist cheese (cold) mixed with piping hot pasta is godlike though. Was a staple during my childhood.
We were poor.
deleted by creator
But no comment in the sour cream?!
Tbh Hungarians eat everything with sour cream.
deleted by creator
The Trappist cheese sounds like a more expensive option imho
It was the staple of Hungary during socialism and probably still is. Supposedly 70% of all cheese purchases are Trappista.
It’s very similar to what North Americans would describe as basic cheddar.
Aha wow, today I learned! Are there that many Trappist monks in Hungary, or is the name entirely unrelated to the monks?
You put red pepper flakes on your pizza sometimes, yeah? She just likes hers in liquid form.
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.
Not one single actual Italian gives a flying fuck how you eat anything, as long as you eat enough.
The only “Italians” who say this shit are people that claim to be Italian because their great great great great grandfather once got a hand job in a Fiat 500
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
I mean, Italians put French fries and hot dog slices on pizza. Can we really say they’re the last word on “authenticity” ?

That’s Pizza Americana though
I don’t see them serving these in America, though.
And I don’t see them serving Panda Express in Beijing. The point is not authenticity it’s that different cultures take what they perceived to be another culture’s food and bend it to their preferences.
But mostly I was making a joke because of its name.
if an Italian died every time “an italian dies” Italy’s population would be in the negatives by now.
It already was in the negatives the last time i checked
Is she making he pizza for Italy, or for herself?
As an Italian I love Sriracha or Harissa on pizza, but the vinegar, no please!
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.
Tabasco?
I prefer hot sauce on old pizza, not vinegar
The opinions of imaginary and very close-minded italians do not concern me and should not bother you as well.
deleted by creator
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.
I’m not a fan of Tabasco so I wholeheartedly say “nay.” If we’re talking classic Sriracha or something less vinegary, then by all means “yea”.
Sriracha just doesn’t mesh well with pizza taste wise.
Wrong.
Says you.











