Bialy Pizzas

Although nothing compares to fresh homemade pizza dough, when people have good bread at the ready, we haven’t hesitated to make it pizza. Pizza pretzels, French bread pizzas, pita pizzas. We love our pizza, and, quite often, we love convenience—pizza done in minutes and on sturdier bread, which can sometimes make it easier to eat on the go. Not that eating and walking is a good thing, but sometimes it must be done. For me, I think there’s a perfect Jewish bread for pizza. And it’s not bagels—though they are good, they are often more bread than topping, and then, of course, there’s that pesky hole in the middle. I’m talking bialys, bagel-like round breads brought to the United States from Poland by Jewish immigrants. Rather than a hole, they have an indented center classically filled with onion and poppy seeds.

Now, the proper thickness and chewiness of pizza is something to argue about. But to me bialys work perfectly, with the thin-almost-crunchy-center creating a perfect cradle for pizza toppings and the puffy outer ring giving just the right amount of bread flavor and chewiness. Beyond on all that, turning a bialy into a pizza warmly and playfully combines some favorite Jewish and Italian elements. What’s not to love?