Post 2: Otto's Pizza
Posted By: Dave Mancini
Posted: 3/5/2010
In 1862, then-Prussian Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck was negotiating the unification of Germany and delivered a speech making the point that it would take military strength, 'blood and iron', not sweet talk, to effect change. The phrase was originally mistranslated as 'blood and eggs' and this would lead to the unlikely circumstance of Otto having a pizza named for him, the Bismarck (thanks, Josh Elling, for the history consultation).
It's a pizza with a runny-yolk egg on top. Our version also has prosciutto and fresh mozzarella, but the egg is the real point. And we don't have ground beef as a topping. I mention these things because food should be delivered by someone who understands it. I understand sunny-side up eggs – delicious, rich, unctuous fattiness. Mmmmm. Gray, sauteed ground beef? Not on the menu – I cannot stomach ground beef on pizza. It doesn't fit. It works in meatballs, meatloaf (as I write this I'm considering the possibility of a meatloaf pizza), and I love a good, slightly bloody burger. But to just sauté it with a little seasoning and throw it on a pie? I don't get it. So I don't know how to make it taste good. And I don't put it on my pizzas.
The gratifying thing for me is that many people are catching on to the egg as a topping. In recent months, the orders for the Bismarck pizza are increasingly frequent. We crack them raw on top of the pie just before it goes into the oven – one to a small, four to a large.
That's another beautiful thing about pizza – if you have good crust you can try just about anything on top of it. This past weekend I tried shaved, roasted celery root as a topping. I think it worked, based on customer response. Swiss chard pizza was good, the seasonal butternut squash has a cult following, and potato pie has been pretty well received. I may just have to try that meatloaf thing. It's still stuck in my head.
*Supino's will be closed from March 14-29 so Dave can do some R&D in Italy