Travel around the world with these four mouth-watering, authentic-style international pizzas! Quick and simple instructions for making Hawaiian homemade pizza, Mexican pizza, traditional Italian pizza, and the grandmaster all-meat pizza – recognized around the world as the most self-indulgent pizza ever made, the “Pigisa” (I borrowed the name from our fave Baja, Mexico, oceanfront eatery), well worth the $30 USD we used to pay for it!
Homemade Pizza Ingredients: the Basics
For homemade pizza crusts, we’ll be using “Belizean tortillas”, which are thicker than any tortilla we’d ever seen! They’re too bulky to roll into a nice enchilada or quesadilla, without cracking and breaking, but are interesting enough also used as pizza crust. Belizean tortillas are about the size of round focaccia bread, but about a quarter of the thickness.
Standard Ingredients for All Pizzas Listed
Pizza Crust is the backbone of your homemade pizza. Belizean tortillas are perfect (available in packages of 4 large), or bake your own pizza crust – half a day!
Pizza Sauce brings all your homemade pizza flavors together. Use one can of pizza or spaghetti sauce (either is fine) OR make your own pasta sauce by simmering chopped tomatoes, with Italian herbs and seasonings – half a day!
For Mexican pizza, use one can of refried beans, or make your own by soaking kidney beans or black beans overnight. Let them simmer for most of the day before cooling and mashing – a day-long process!
Cheese is the glue that holds all your pizza-topping ingredients together. Grated mozzarella, jack (queso blanco), and cheddar cheeses.
Yes, you can even make your own cheese (if you know how) – could take weeks, or months if you age your cheese.
Precooked Meats
give pizza much of its flavor. Chopped BBQ chicken, shrimp, chorizo sausage pieces, pepperoni slices, Italian sweet or hot sausage pieces, ground hamburger, diced ham, and crumbled bacon.
All meats must be precooked! It is a great way to use up leftovers.
Toppings of Fruit & Veggies will season your pizza, give it a nutritional boost and eye appeal when sprinkled on top of the cheese. We’ll use chopped pineapple chunks, green sweet peppers (and/or hot peppers) sliced or diced, black olive pieces, onion rounds, garlic bits, chopped tomatoes, and sprigs of fresh cilantro and basil.
Make-It-Yourself Pizza Buffet
Set out all ingredients above in separate dishes and show your family how to create ingredient-specific pizzas as instructed below. Or encourage your expat kids to create their own international pizzas using preferred ingredients and naming them after their new home country!
Then bake at 400-degrees Fahrenheit (205 Celsius) on large cookie sheets or pizza-pie pans for 10 minutes or until grated cheeses have melted the ingredients together. Remove from the oven, let it cool, and slice into pieces for everyone to try a slice of round-the-world pizza!
Pizza Around the World
Make your family-faves or all four varieties. Assemble pizza fixings on top of Belizean tortilla crusts, arranged on either cookie sheets or pizza pans to go straight into the oven when ready.
Hawaiian Pizza
Spread a thin layer of pizza sauce over your crust and add a light sprinkling of mozzarella cheese. Add small pieces of BBQ Chicken meat (or shrimp), diced green bell peppers, and chopped pineapple pieces, adding another layer of grated cheese, and cook in the oven just until the cheese melts. “No ka oi” (for the better – the best)!
Mexican Pizza
Spread a thin layer of refried beans over the crust, and over that, add another thin layer of pizza sauce. Cover with grated jack cheese (queso blanco), adding pre-cooked pieces of spicy chorizo sausage, chopped tomatoes, diced onions, covering all with a sparse layer of grated cheese. Then sprinkle black olives and sprigs of cilantro on top and cook just until the cheese has melted. “Muy bien!” (very good!).
Traditional Italian Homemade Pizza
I’ve been told that traditional Italian pizza is always red, white, and green, the colors of Italy’s flag. Keeping that in mind, spread a layer of pizza sauce over the crust, adding a layer of grated mozzarella cheese, and top with thin-sliced Pepperoni to cover.
Feel free to sprinkle chopped onions, green peppers, garlic, and sprigs of basil to your family’s taste.
No need to cover with another layer of cheese, as the pepperoni will get fried on top, semi crispy to the bite, and the lovely oils will flavor the cheese. “Buono!” (delicious!)
“Pigisa” International Homemade Pizza
The “Pigisa” pizza is NOT for the faint-of-heart, nor vegetarians, nor those with dietary restrictions, as there are a lot of pork products used here. Yet it is by far the sloppiest of all our pizzas listed, and the best according to our taste testers. It will satisfy every one of your meat-loving family members!
Add a thin layer of pizza sauce over your crust, adding a solid layer of grated mozzarella, jack, and cheddar cheeses combined. Then pile on your meats, layering and alternating between pepperoni, BBQ Chicken (or shrimp), chorizo, diced ham, and Italian sausage pieces (or precooked hamburger morsels).
Add a light sprinkling of cheeses and top with diced onions, hot peppers, and precooked bacon crumbles. Cook until the cheese has melted, usually within 10 minutes, at 400-degrees Fahrenheit (205 Celsius).
To be fair, you could substitute all the meat with seafood, veggies, and/or grains, such as a tabouli salad, and then cover with cheese. Once melted, your expat kids, new friends and neighbors may never know the difference – it’s PIZZA! YAY!
Have a happy-family Pizza-Fest wherever you land! Tell us where you go to find quick and satisfying homemade pizza dinners abroad.
by: Cheri Majors, M.S.
