Sooner or later, most serious pizza lovers will need to go on a diet. Unless you were lucky enough to inherit an incredible metabolism, chances are, you’ll probably end up with a few unwanted pounds one day.

Low carbohydrate diets, like the South Beach diet, are usually effective for weight loss. In fact, they’ve even been shown to lower cholesterol levels. Low carb diets are pretty easy to stay on because there are lots of satisfying foods you can enjoy, and it’s not hard to find something to eat if you go to a restaurant.

The down side is that conventional pizza is off limits. And after a few weeks of protein and veggies, you’ll likely be craving one. Most pizza toppings are okay on low carb diets. It’s the pizza crust that’s the deal breaker. Just one slice of Boboli thin crust has 24g of carbohydrates.

Delicious low carb pizza.

But recently, we tried a low carb pizza crust that was worth getting excited about.

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Really good low carb pizza crust.

This crust is tasty, inexpensive, easy to make, and perfectly legal. There are really only three ingredients:

1 cup cooked, riced cauliflower
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
1 beaten egg

Cut a large head of cauliflower in half and then use a hand-grater or food processor to cut it into rice size pieces. Put the riced cauliflower in a microwave-safe dish with a lid and microwave it for about four minutes. Don’t add any water.

Spread the cauliflower on a plate to let it cool for a couple of minutes. Then combine it will the grated mozzarella and egg. We added some oregano, basil, garlic powder, and a little grated parmesan for flavor.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Oil a cookie sheet or pizza pan — we got good results with our cast iron pizza pan — then spread the cauliflower mixture onto the pan. We ended up with about a nine inch round.

Bake the crust for about 15 minutes, or until it starts to brown. Remove it from the oven, add you favorite pizza toppings, then pop it under the broiler for a few minutes until everything is hot and melted.

Because there’s so much cheese in the crust, you’ll need less cheese as a topping. If you’re doing the Atkins diet, you can use traditional pizza meats like Italian sausage and pepperoni. Just make sure they’re cooked before you use them. For the South Beach diet, leaner meats like ham, prosciutto, or sausage made with chicken are preferred.

Tomatoes and tomato sauce have some carbs, so use these sparingly. But most vegetables are virtually carb free, so add as many as you like. Onions, peppers, artichokes, olives, and mushrooms are all good choices.

The pizza we made was extremely satisfying. In retrospect, we added more cheese than we needed to. And even though it was smaller than the pizzas we usually make, we couldn’t even finish it. We each ate about a third, and left a third for some other time.

We didn’t get hungry later, and we satisfied our pizza craving without blowing our diet. If you’re trying to lose a little weight, or even if you’re not, give it a try. It’s a good way to get another serving of vegetables into your diet.

Find more diet pizza ideas here.

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If you’ve been to gourmet pizza restaurants like Pizzeria Mozza in Los Angeles or Co. in New York, you’ve probably seen the term “salumi.” But since the word has come into fashion only recently, you may not know exactly what it means.

Salumi is Italian (it’s the plural form of salume), but it’s not a misspelling of salami, although salami is a form of salumi. Confused yet?

Salumi refers to Italian-style cured meats in the same way that “charcuterie,” refers to the French equivalent. And what’s not to like about that?

Most salumi is made from pork. A notable exception is bresaola, which is made from beef. Salumi is usually cured with salt, which kills bacteria, and dehydrates the meat. As the meat is cured, it become firm and the flavor intensifies.

Authentic Italian salumi

Salumi can be smoked (like speck), or unsmoked (like pancetta). Encased (like salami), or not (like lomo). And cooked (like Italian sausage) or eaten raw (like Prosciutto Crudo). It’s often thinly sliced as served as part of an antipasto.

Because it’s cured, most salumi lasts a long time if stored properly. But once it’s sliced, it should be eaten quickly. Otherwise, it dries out. Salami, which is made with ground pork and a variety of seasonings, lasts a little longer because of the added fat — usually from 20 – 25%.

Many Italian pizzas feature some kind of salumi. The most popular are pepperoni and Italian sausage. But many other Italian meats make delicious pizzas too. Coppa, capicola, and sopressata are all great meat pizza toppings.

Salumi from Molinari in San Francisco

Because of the cost of meeting U.S. Food and Drug Administration standards, few Italian salumi makers can afford to import their products into the United States. Which is too bad, because they’re really wonderful. What sets them apart is the quality of the pork, which in most cases comes from pigs that were naturally raised on a farm.

Outside Italy, most Italian butchers sell some salumi. And prosciutto and pancetta are available in most groceries. There are several American producers who are making salumi the way they do in Italy. The best known is Salumi Artisan Cured Meats in Seattle, which is owned by Mario Batali’s father, Armandino. You can order their products at www.salumicuredmeats.com

The next time you’re craving a real Italian pizza, try using some of these delicious salumi cured meats as pizza toppings.

Read more about Italian pizza meats here.

Authentic Italian salumi Image Flickr: rfarmer
Salumi from Molinari in San Francisco Image Flickr: biskuit

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Nothing makes a pizza more Italian than authentic Italian meats. Since tomatoes and mozzarella are a given, it’s meat pizza toppings like pancetta and proscuitto that can really boost the flavor of an Italian-style pizza.

Not long ago, it wasn’t that easy to find these products. But these days, many grocery stores like Fresh and Easy and Trader Joe’s carry them. So you can make a delicious Italian pizza right at home.

Pancetta, which is often referred to as Italian bacon, is pork belly that has been spiced, salt-cured, and dried for several months. But unlike American bacon, it’s not smoked. In Italy, it’s often rolled and then thinly sliced. In the United States and Britain, it’s often sold diced.

Because pancetta is salty, it’s especially delicious when combined with sweet pizza toppings. Try is with ripe pear or butternut squash.

Prosciutto is uncooked Italian ham. It’s also cured with salt and aged. Some prosciutto has the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) which dictates how it is produced and what ingredients can be used.

The most famous is Prosciutto di Parma. The pigs here are fed whey left over from making Parmigiano-Regianno cheese, which gives the prosciutto a slightly nutty flavor. If you travel around Italy, you’ll notice that each region’s prosciutto has a distinctive taste.

Usually, a pork leg is covered with sea salt and left to cure for a couple of months in a cool place. After that, it’s washed and left to dry. Once it’s dry, it’s hung for up to two years in a well-ventilated place.

Prosciutto pizza

In Italy, it’s called prosciutto crudo or “raw ham” because it’s not cooked. It’s often eaten as an appetizer with melon, breadsticks, asparagus, or fresh mozzarella. Or used in pasta dishes with peas and a cream sauce. Saltimbocca, which is veal topped with prosciutto, sage, and cheese, is one of Rome’s best loved dishes.

Prosciutto is one of the pizza toppings on a Pizza Capricciosa, which also has mushrooms, artichokes, and olives. It’s also excellent with nutty cheeses like Fontina and Gruyere.

Less well known outside Italy, guanciale is unsmoked Italian bacon made from pork jowls or cheeks. To make it, the pork is rinsed in wine, seasoned and left to marinate for over a month. Like prosciutto, it’s left to dry, but unlike prosciutto, it’s meant to be cooked.

Prosciutto

There aren’t many places outside of Rome that sell guanciale, but if you have a good Italian butcher, you can ask. You can also order it online. If you have guanciale, render it in a pan before using it as a pizza topping, and the save the drippings and make something fabulous with them. It’s extremely high in fat, but since even a small amount adds a tremendous amount of flavor, it won’t bust your diet completely.

You can also make your own if have access to pork jowls and are willing to wait three weeks.

Its rich, pork flavor is the cornerstone of dishes like Spaghetti alla Carbonara and Bucatini all’Amatricana, though pancetta is often substituted.

Read more about Italian pizzas here.
And find more pizza meats here.

Pancetta Image Flickr: tsuacctnt
Proscuitto Pizza Image Flickr: stu spivak
Proscuitto Image Flickr: mandydale

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