Around the World Pizza Date Night

 A few weeks ago, I was looking for a good recipe for pear and prosciutto pizza. 

That might sound weird, but we tried it at Pizza Limone in town and I loved it!

Well, that internet rabbit hole of pizza led me to all sorts of random pizza recipes from all over the world. A few minutes later, date night was planned. Haha!

Since I was planning on making lots of kinds of pizza, I thought it would be fun to do this as a double date! Buuuut, with covid and kids and living an hour away from all of our closest family... we ended up doing it on our own. In the future, it was way too much pizza for us and the kids so I'd definitely do it again as a double (or triple... maybe even quadruple) date. The idea would be that each couple is in charge of one or two countries and makes a pizza that is normal there.

Since we did this on our own, we made 7 pizzas... for 5 people. And the little guy didn't even eat any. 

So here's what we made!

Korea

This pizza was one of the best. We kind of combined two different recipes to be able to use what we had at home. In the end, we spread the bulgogi sauce on the crust, and then topped it with mozzarella cheese, corn, mushrooms, olives, and chicken from some wings we had in the fridge. So, yeah... we kina cheated using the chicken instead of actual Bulgogi (Korean BBQ beef), but it's what we had on hand. We also drizzled the leftover bulgogi sauce on top after cooking the pizza for more of the Korean BBQ flavor. 

The sauce we used is found here.

The pizza recipe is found here.

We should have thickened the sauce (like the pizza recipe did) but didn't think about it until we spread it on the crust. It still tasted great though!

(The Korean Pizza is the top one in this picture and the Swedish one is on the bottom.)

Sweden

This one was definitely the most unusual one. It was made by spreading red pizza sauce on the pizza dough followed by slices of bananas, curry powder, and mozzarella cheese (in that order). After trying this pizza I found out that the only time I don't mind eating a warm banana is when It's covered in chocolate and marshmallows and we're on a cold campout. That being said, it wasn't horrible. It just wasn't something I was used to and I'm not sure I would make it again... It was definitely fun to try though and I can see how some people might acquire a taste for it. 

The recipe we used for it is found here.

Australia

Brooke was the most excited to try this pizza and she liked it a lot! It's made with BBQ sauce, mozzarella cheese, crumbled bacon, pineapple (optional so we put it on half), and an egg cracked in the middle right before putting the pizza in the oven. It was... interesting. I personally wasn't a huge fan of the egg, but like I said, that was Brooke's favorite part. I'm not sure if I'd make it again for myself, but how hard would it be to crack an egg in the middle of a BBQ pizza in the future just for my mini me? We'll see if she requests it anytime soon! And hopefully I won't overcook it next time if she does...

The Aussie Pizza recipe is found here.

Italy

For this one, we made the traditional Margherita Pizza. Neither of us had actually ever tried it although it didn't sound too different than typical cheese pizza with more sauce, less cheese, and some basil thrown on top.

We didn't use an actual recipe for this, but kind of followed the basic instructions for the recipe right here. We didn't add any tomato slices but we did use large chunks of mozzarella cheese like it's supposed to have. It also overcooked a little, but still tasted fine!

Pear and Prosciutto

Like I said at the start of this post, we first tried this pizza in a restaurant in Utah. Soooo, I have no idea in what country it originated from. Buuut, it was a fun one to try to replicate at home! It was good, but if I made it again, I'd add smaller pieces of prosciutto and more pears to balance out the flavors. It ended up a little too salty and less sweet from the meat. We also didn't add the balsamic vinegar the recipe called for.

The recipe we used is found here.

Chicken Artichoke

Another more typical one in America, but I actually just wanted to try this one at home on a special crust I made. (More about the crust in this post). In the end, we left out the tomatoes (Yes, for John. Lol.) and it was still great! We did add some baby spinach to the top after it came out of the oven, but in the future, I think I would put the spinach on before the mozzarella cheese and bake it in. For me, this was a definitely would make again.

Here's the recipe.

After trying each of these pizzas, we rated them from 1 to 10 based on appearance and taste. The appearance winner was the Pear and Prosciutto and the taste winner was actually the Korean one! No surprise if you've ever had Korean BBQ!

For the 7th pizza, we used the leftover dough to make a normal pizza hoping our kids would actually help eat it. They maybe had 3 pieces total that first night and Brooke was the only one who would eat the leftovers with us and only if the piece had egg on it. And now, we won't be having pizza for the next month. Lol. So, the lesson learned is to definitely do this with friends. Haha!