A Brief History
On October 11, 2018, the United States of America stands united in celebrating National Sausage Pizza Day, one of this author’s favorite holidays! Although the origins of this “National Day” are unclear, what is clear is that Sausage Pizza is the single greatest way to enjoy our favorite Italian themed food. (You pepperoni people that are responsible for the vast majority of pizza sales are not necessarily wrong, just not completely right.) We have previously talked about pizza in depth (May 19, 2017: “Today is National Pizza Party Day”), but today we extol the virtues of the single best topping for pizza.
Digging Deeper
Sure, pepperoni is good, especially when done with crispy edges on the slices of spicy meat. The occasional veggie pizza, supreme, or even Hawaiian pizza can get our taste buds on high alert, but the real stand by topping is nice chunks of Italian Sausage, either hot, mild, or sweet. Regardless of the variety of sausage, we mean nice chunks about half the size of a golf ball, not the crumbles some blaspheming pizza parlors foist off on us. Also, we will not accept any of the sliced lunch meat style Italian “sausage” on our revered pies. Additionally, it is important not to precook the sausage, so that every bit of the delicious grease remains on the pizza to run down our fingers and chins while we savor every bite. Adequate amounts of sauce and cheese (mozzarella and provolone, no fake cheese substitute will do!) to keep the savory dish nice and sloppy is mandatory as well. Make sure your pizza is well done enough for the crust to have a bit of brown on the edges and the bottom, and pleeeeeeze, do not allow the pizza maker to skimp on pizza spices to make some sort of generic bland pizza so as not to offend delicate taste buds (you offending national chains know who I am talking about). Add crushed red pepper to taste.
Should the crust be thin, as in New York style or thick as in Chicago style? This we leave up to you. We actually love both styles and everything in between, as long as the top is nice and sloppy/greasy. Plus, if you choose thick crust, be sure that crust is not too dry or so thick that it detracts from the rest of the ingredients.
We need to warn you right now about a danger you face when ordering “Sausage Pizza.” The “sausage” must be the Italian variety to qualify! Although using Kielbasa or Bratwurst (or other forms of sausage) on pizza is an acceptable treat as a change of pace, we demand that you honor the spirit of real pizza (something we just invented right now) by insisting on Italian Sausage. While purists may insist on sausage and only sausage on their “Sausage Pizza,” some other toppings go pretty good with the spicy meat as well, including mushrooms (the #1 pick), olives (unless you do not like olives), and onions or green peppers (unless you do not like onions and green peppers). By all means try to avoid using half sausage and half pepperoni as the 2 main competing pizza meats will sort of cancel each other out instead of complimenting each other. (Trust me, I have eaten a tremendous amount of pizza!)
Celebrate this great national holiday by ordering up or baking your own Sausage Pizza and get enough or bake enough to share it with friends and family. You will be soooo popular if you do. Mangia!
Question for students (and subscribers): What are your favorite types of pizza? Do you think chicken ever has a role as a pizza topping? If you only had one food to eat for the rest of your life, would it be pizza? Please let us know in the comments section below this article. (You KNOW what our answer is!)
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Barrett, Liz. Pizza, A Slice of American History. Voyageur Press, 2014.
Helstosky, Carol. Pizza: A Global History. Reaktion Books, 2008.
The featured image in this article, a photograph from 21 February 2007 transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by Manlius at English Wikipedia of a sausage pizza with olives, has been released into the public domain by its author, Manlius at English Wikipedia. This applies worldwide.
