Vegetables

• Vegetables for pizza can be made interesting with certain combinations going very well together. Saute fresh spinach and garlic in a little oil, place on a pizza shell, white, with no sauce, and top with crumbled gorgonzola cheese before baking. Another idea is to top a white pizza with sun-dried tomatoes, thyme and goat's cheese. Try using fresh vegetables in season; fresh sliced tomatoes on a white pizza with garlic, mozzarella, fresh basil and a drizzle of olive oil. Other toppings to consider include: cured gaeta and kalamata olives, available at many supermarket olive bars, or placing thin potato slices on the pizza, with just a little mozzarella and top with salt pepper, rosemary, olive oil and grated Romano cheese.
  
  

Meats

• When adding meat as a pizza topping, make it interesting by avoiding traditional meats, such as pepperoni, meatball and Italian sausage. Go for dried, cured, Italian meats like soppressata, prosciutto, salami and pancetta. These meats can be added to a pizza topped with pizza sauce and mozzarella, much like a regular pizza, but the results are far from regular.
  
  

Seafood

• Seafood definitely makes pizza interesting. Shrimp Parmigiana pizza can be made with tomato sauce, mozzarella, grated Romano cheese and shrimp. Shrimp or clam casino pizza is made either red (tomato sauce) or white, with peppers, mozzarella and bacon. More exotic pizza can be made using lobster, scallops, calamari and other seafood types.
  
  

Interesting Oddities

• Out of the ordinary pizzas include a breakfast pizza, with cheesy scrambled eggs and bacon, or chocolate dessert pizza, made by topping the pizza with a quarter cup of chocolate spread. Italian dishes make great pizzas, such as spreading a thin layer of ricotta cheese and sauce, topped with Italian sausage and mozzarella for a lasagna pizza, or a chicken Florentine pizza, with chicken, sauteed spinach, garlic and mozzarella cheese.