Pizza is amongst the most consumed food items in the world.
The base of the pizza, the crust made with the dough, is pretty much standard across the world with very little variation.
What makes pizza interesting and yet common place is how open it is to experimentation by its chefs.
Much of the experimentation comes in the form of toppings that are either spread across the crust or titbits that are placed on the crust itself.
The pizza topping is in itself limited by the imagination of the chef. Some chefs can get seriously creative with their pizza toppings.
Of course, there is a risk involved with every imaginative topping that your favourite pizza outlet chef is going to come out with.
The standard issue toppings that you are probably familiar with are onions, tomatoes, pepperoni, mushrooms, sausage, chicken, bacon, green pepper and olives.
This is the standard list of toppings that you will commonly find in your local pizza outlet and any pizza store for that matter.
If you want to go out of your way and find some new toppings that are available in some stores, we have a quick list for you.
Blue Cheese
You are already familiar with the standard issue cheese that is used at home and on pizza.
Blue cheese is a minor variation on the standard cheese, wherein it gains an appearance of blue spot marks.
Blue cheese is available in two variants, the generic blue cheese and the certified variants such as Bleu de Gex, Roquefort and Blue Stilton.
Blue cheese is known for its unique smell and a sharp salty taste, definitely not found in regular cheese.
Ricotta
Another variant of cheese that is usually offered at specialty Italian pizza outlets.
Ricotta is an interesting variant of cheese, given that it is prepared from the leftover ingredients that were used to make regular cheese.
This is one of the reasons why it is very low in fat content. A key health fact about Ricotta is that it has very little of casein in it.
If you are intolerant to casein but still want to get a taste of cheese, this is the topping for you.
Jalapeño
Jalapeño is one of the more popular variants of chili pepper that is used in cooking and it only makes sense that it has made its way to being a spicy topping.
If you want your pizza to be extra spicy and you can handle the heat, then this is the only topping that can satisfy your needs.
Further, Jalapeño is known to have a positive impact on those who have heart related problems, increasing the overall health benefit of the pizza.
Red Onion
The everyday use onion is the yellow onion and is used for every possible cooking application. It is also the most standard onion that is available as topping with your pizza.
If you want to try something different, then you should probably opt for the red onion. In terms of taste, red onions are no different than their yellow cousins.
However, some medical benefits like allergy reduction are possible via red onion.
Salmon
Salmon is a popular food item among those who like fish based dishes.
It is extremely high in protein, which is the case with most water based food items and has substantial quantities of omega- 3 fatty acids.
Salmon is usually associated as a side dish with barbeque but it also makes for an excellent pizza topping. If you like some aqua based food in your pizza, salmon topping is the call to make.
Salami
Given its structure and appearance, Salami is usually used as a major layer component for sandwiches.
This structural benefit can be exploited to turn it into creatively shaped toppings for pizza. Salami is unique among meat based toppings.
It can be, in turn composed of different types of meat that is rolled into one.
If you want to eat something that is actually a mix of many different meat types, Salami topping is what you should be asking for in your pizza.
Some of the other unconventional pizza toppings that deserve an honourable mention are capicolla, eggplant, venison, oysters and pecans.
In most cases, you may find it difficult to actually get pizzas with these toppings because most pizza outlets stick to the popular ones for the sake of profitability and common sense.
The best way to actually enjoy these toppings would be looking out for pizza specials offered by pizza outlets.
You can also try cooking your own pizza by making these toppings at home.
The author cannot help but be impressed with the wide variety of conventional and some odd but interesting toppings that are available at the Edinburgh pizza delivery outlet.
Check this site to see for yourself.