There is sushi and there is pizza, but due to the experimentations of truly crazy people, sushi pizza was born and all the controversies that come with it.
How do you make sushi pizza? There are several ways to do so but they can generally be broken down into two categories. The first is the sushi that is shaped or is inspired by pizza, which mimics its design and distinctive appearance. Then there is the pizza that contains ingredients one might find in sushi, which involves actual baking in the oven.
Since these are two distinct food influences that are mashed together like some kind of culinary Frankenstein’s monster, you can expect bad things to happen if you get it wrong.
What is Sushi Pizza
Before we get into how you can make sushi pizza, we need to make a few things clear with regard to this particular type of dish. First of all, there are many interpretations of this particular food item and depending on how you go about it, the differences can be quite huge. In particular, is the size and shape of the final product.
In fact, the only real connection that the various versions of sushi pizza have is the matters of:
· Ingredients
· Appearance
· Influence
· Shape
· Method of preparation
With this being the case, it is entirely natural to look at the aspect of sushi pizza and conclude that it is not the most sensible of things to make if you are going for authenticity. Of course, this is already a given and the only thing left to discuss is the various forms that sushi pizza can take. For that, you can take a look at the table below:
| Forms | Details |
| Sushi pizza in individual pieces | Nigiri with cheese, sauce, and other ingredients either baked in the oven or cooked under a salamander |
| Pizza rolls in sliced maki form | Thin pizza dough rolled to form a cylinder or tube, baked, and then sliced to look like maki sushi before being served on a plate with toppings |
| Sushi composition in pizza form | Rice spread on a bed of nori in a circular fashion, with fillings making up the top and served as is |
| Pizza composition with sushi toppings | Pizza dough baked with or without sauce until crispy, before sushi toppings are placed on the top, such as flavored rice, raw fish, calamari rings, or sesame seeds |
With modern diners and cooks being how they are, there is more than a fair chance that there are more forms of sushi pizza that has been created but simply have not caught on. The point that the table above is meant to make is simply that you have four main options to choose from if you are thinking of experiencing this particular culinary oddity.
Just bear in mind that there are some things in the world that were never meant to be mixed and can rightly be considered unnatural together. It should also be mentioned that as far as the naming goes, a particular label does not automatically mean that the food item has anything to do with the original.
There have been many cases in which something was marketed under the name sushi, for example, which has no relations at all with the traditional Japanese dish.
How to Make Sushi Pizza
So, now that you know what the various types of sushi pizza are, you might now be thinking about making one. Your approach to doing so will need to start by choosing which type you will make and you can go from there. Naturally, you will need the right cooking implements such as an oven, a pan, knives, and rollers depending on what kind of sushi pizza you will make.
It goes without saying that the cooked kind will be the more complicated one to make, but it does add some unique flavors. Whatever the case may be, after you have made your decision as to which type you will have, the next step is to gather the necessary ingredients.
You need to remember that some ingredients do worse when exposed to heat and will need to be added after baking. These are the kinds of considerations that you will want to keep in mind. If we are going for simplicity, though, there are two main options you can try right now.
One is the sushi pizza pieces where you form blocks of rice like you would with a nigiri. However, instead of fish or other regular toppings, you use ham or bacon that you top with mayo and then sliced cheese. You then put it in a toaster oven or an actual oven until the cheese melts and you are done.
The other option is to lay down sheets of nori on a cutting board and trim off the necessary pieces to achieve the shape you want with a knife. You will then spread rice on top of it until you cover the whole surface, add the toppings, drizzle some Japanese mayonnaise, and sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds.
Why Have Sushi Pizza
If we are talking about the reasons for having sushi pizza, it can honestly be anything. Why else do people eat things that they shouldn’t? The answer is that they can. This can be applied to sushi pizza as much as anything else.
In reality, there really isn’t any reason for you to eat sushi pizza. It is arguably one of the worst ideas that anyone could come up with even when a competent chef attempts it. A big reason for this is how much the two concepts conflict.
Pizza is all about strong flavors and odors and is meant to be served hot with the cheese still melting. On the other hand, you have sushi, which is meant to be served fresh and is either room temperature or is cold. By those virtues alone, it becomes quite obvious that these two were never meant to be combined and yet someone has managed to do so.
Related Questions
Where to Get Sushi Pizza
Chances are there are no restaurants serving sushi pizza where you live because most professionals who deal in serving food know better than to do so. However, there are some places where you can request for it to be made and they will do so with the right amount of money. Good luck with that.
Is Sushi Pizza Good?
Taste is quite frankly a subjective matter and if we are going to discuss just how sushi pizza tastes, there are those who like them, those who can tolerate them, and those who despise them. You won’t really know in which camp you fall under until you try it for yourself.
Which Sushi Pizza to Make
If you were to decide which sushi pizza you were going to make, there are a few things you need to consider. First is the tools and equipment at your disposal since some of these will require you to do some baking. Then comes the ingredients that you want to use since those will dictate how much sushi and much pizza you are going to get.
From there, you will need to think about who will be eating it. Ideally, you should be the only person exposed to such an experience that comes with very few guarantees. However, if you have to serve it to others, you will want to think about convenience, sizes, and the like. You don’t want to give people a hard time trying to eat your food, after all.
What Not to Put on Sushi Pizza
Now, it has already been discussed that you can put a lot of things on pizza and you can do pretty much the same thing with sushi. However, there are some things that you cannot put on sushi pizza if you have any mercy at all for your taste buds and stomach. Sea urchin, for example, or uni, as it is called, is just not suitable for being placed on baked sushi pizza.
The temperature is just not suitable for this particular ingredient. Then there are the vegetables used for sushi such as cucumber or fruits like avocado. You just know those are going to taste nasty when you expose them to the high temperatures that come with baking. Naturally, the same is true when we reverse the conversation.
There are also ingredients that you use for pizza that you don’t add to uncooked sushi pizza. Mozzarella cheese is the most obvious because that stuff is going to be really chewy and tasteless when served without the sauce. Bacon is another ingredient that does not belong on sushi pizza that is made to be composed of mostly raw ingredients.
It would be different if it was smoked meats that can be safely consumed without cooking, but it isn’t definite that it will complement the rest of the ingredients that can be found on the sushi. With this being the case, you have to make sure that you actually do some research on this matter.