OK, I admit I'm a pizza purist. (Please, God, why did you invent the barbecued chicken and pineapple pizza?) I used to turn up my nose at pizzas topped with too many non-pizza vegetables.
Vegetables, in case you're wondering, fall into two categories:
1) Pizza vegetables: Tomatoes, fresh basil, onions, mushrooms, peppers.
2) Non-pizza vegetables: Asparagus, arugula, spinach, artichoke hearts, eggplant, yellow squash, zucchini, squash blossoms, broccoli. If God had meant broccoli to be on pizza, he would have made it flat.
Over the years, of course, I gradually got used to a few of them on a pizza as long as they didn't dominate the other ingredients. But then one day I had a slice of vegetable pizza -- piled high with non-pizza vegetables -- from Bossa Nova, a West Coast chain, and I was sold.
The closest I've found around here is the verdura fresca I had last night at Iggies, with roasted vegetables and a balsamic reduction. (That's what got me thinking about this.)
The vegetable pizza is a version that can go terribly wrong, but when it's done right, it's one of my favorites. There must be other great ones in Baltimore; I just don't know about them.
(AP Photo/Larry Crowe)