Give in to pineapple, already

My love affair with pineapple began at a young age. In an effort to provide me with healthy snacks, my mother would cut up fresh pineapple, along with a variety of other fruits, and keep a large fruit salad in the fridge. When I tried to grab sugary cereals, candy and other junk foods, she’d do her best to get me to satisfy my sweet tooth with the fruit.

It mostly worked. I quickly discovered that I truly love nearly all fruits, but in particular I was bananas about bananas, peaches and — you guessed it — pineapple.

It wasn’t long before I started requesting ham and pineapple as my pizza toppings, much to the chagrin of my friends, who favored sausage, green peppers and mushrooms.

Now I know there’s a certain segment of pizza society that, to this very day, consider pineapple on pizza to be blasphemous. To those people I resolutely say this: it’s okay to be wrong. Nobody’s perfect.

In all seriousness, for those who want to hang their hat on tradition … I get it. I really do. I’m a “baseball purist,” and that label comes with an extreme disdain for the Designated Hitter. Most modern-day hardball fans disagree with that — they want to see more home runs.

Well, modern diners want bursts of fresh flavors and combinations that go well beyond the traditional. Hey, Buffalo chicken pizza is not traditional, but it’s insanely popular. Give the people what they want, within reason, or they’ll get it somewhere else. If you still think pineapple isn’t within reason in 2021, we’ve already established that you’re just plain wrong!

My personal favorite pizza that features pineapple carries a sweet heat to it. Check it out.

Spicy Pineapple Pie

Get the Spicy Pineapple Pie recipe.

Hawaiian Sunshine

Get the Hawaiian Sunshine recipe.

I realize some of this is just too much for some of you fundamental traditionalists to handle. So here’s a pie that is very traditional … but has pineapple.

Okay, Boomer

Get the Okay, Boomer recipe.

Pick a Fight Love pineapple on pizza? Hate it? Have a pizza recipe featuring pineapple that you simply adore and that flies off the shelves? Tell me about it: jwhite@pizzatoday.com.