“Diavola”, “Inferno”, “Mexicana” and “alla calabrese”: the spicy pizzas represent a small niche among the proposals of a pizzeria, but with great business potential. Let’s find out why and how to make pizzas even more fiery for your most daring customers.
Lovers of spicy are divided into two categories: the daring and the fanatical. The first are those who put chili on everything: first, second, side dishes and maybe for dessert order a slice of hot chocolate cake without any problems. Seconds are no less important, but they are also real encyclopaedias of chilli pepper, able to associate each variety to its Scoville scale score.
If you have these two types of customers among the customers of your pizzeria, or you want to earn them, it is worthwhile to relaunch your proposal of spicy pizzas, becoming a real reference point for them!
If you already know everything about chili and how to serve it at the table, let’s go straight to the point and see how to prepare hot pizzas worthy of the most daring palate.
Spicy pizzas: the classic proposals
These are the most typical ones to find in a pizzeria, but often their offer is limited to one or two choices. Many people believe that it is enough to add a single spicy pizza to the menu to satisfy all customers oriented towards that choice. The truth, however, is that if there are different degrees of spiciness is precisely because everyone has their own level of tolerance. There are those who prefer a spicy just mentioned, and those who prefer a real fire. To think of satisfying them both with a pizza halfway between the two roads is rather reductive.
For this reason, it is necessary to expand the offer of spicy pizzas to at least three proposals: spicy, spicy and for true connoisseurs.
Let’s see some of the most classic hot pizzas currently served in the pizzeria.
Hell
A variant of the Neapolitan with tomato, mozzarella, capers, anchovies, which provides for the addition of spicy salami and a pinch of chili pepper. A proposal already suitable for those who make the spicy a sort of “philosophy”.
Devil
Among the most common and widespread. Red pizza that differs from the previous one because without capers and anchovies, but the spicy salami is usually associated with chives and a generous dose of chilli oil. A pizza for the general public, spicy but not excessively, perfect for lovers of spicy foods.
Mexican
So called because of the use of typical South American ingredients, such as red beans, onions and Mexican sauce made with jalapeño chili, garlic and lime. It is a more “exotic” proposal, not easy to find and therefore not particularly widespread.
Calabrese
Almost a gourmet pizza, that is able to tell the story of a territory through the excellence of its most authentic flavors. It is naturally enriched by the addition of ‘nduja and, why not, of a particular variety of local chili pepper of the region, Capsicum annuum, better known as “Calabrian chili pepper”.
Spicy Ortolana
A real mix of flavors, perfect alternative to vegetarian pizza, for lovers of spicy who do not eat meat. It consists of grilled vegetables with a drizzle of chilli oil. Its strength lies in the possibility of varying the degree of spiciness by adding more or less oil and chilli powder, according to the customer’s preferences.
A larger assortment means more choice for the customer. It calibrates the degree of spiciness of the different proposals, so that you can recommend to the public the one that best suits your tastes.
For a further relaunch of the spicy pizzas you can also create personalized ones, inviting customers to taste the proposals of the restaurant and igniting the challenge between lovers pinch more extreme.
Spicy personalized pizzas: shock proposals to stimulate customers
A business idea to entertain and attract new customers, inviting them to a challenge at the last taste. It is a format already successfully undertaken by other venues, aimed at organizing a small competition between lovers of spicy.
For the occasion, create your own recipes of pizzas and spicy trousers, from the lowest degrees Scoville to the most incendiary, and ask the public to accept the tasting challenge.
Give the pizzas funny and evocative names, such as “Grisù”, “Caliente”, “Sputafuoco”, “115” or “Vulcano”, and evaluate the possibility of creating animation by serving flambé pizzas for a guaranteed scenic effect.
Choose your ingredients carefully, using quality chilies, easy to find and with a high degree of spiciness, such as Habanero, Naga or Trinidad Scorpion. Accompany the sauces with spicy sauces such as Tabasco, sriracha and harissa, and create the right mix of meat, vegetables, cheese and other ingredients to put on the dough.
Some foods counteract the burning sensation dictated by the capsaicin present in chili peppers. This is the case of milk (and derivatives, therefore also mozzarella and cheese), oil and bread, all ingredients at the base of the pizza. You can therefore use them freely to enhance the taste of your new spicy pizzas without fear that they will “burn” excessively.
Try a chilli woodcutter, or a pizza with spicy salami and caciocavallo. Try chili and red beans, or with the addition of sausage and other red meats, or even spicy calzones with mushrooms or ham.
Valid proposals for theme nights as to be permanently included in your menu, for the joy of your most “fiery” clientele, which will certainly appreciate.
