Favourites include pepperoni and its vegetarian alternative comprising mozzarella, tomato sauce, onions, peppers, chopped tomatoes, sweetcorn and mushrooms, according to data from the pizza franchise, Papa John’s.
Vegans are enjoying their own version of the pepperoni topping comprising vegan cheese and sausage and smoky jackfruit slices. Orders for home delivery of plant-based pizzas in the UK have increased by a massive 81% in one year. The nation's favourite accompaniment is garlic dip.
A slice of history
While you may think pizza is a modern dish, its origins can be traced back to 16th century Naples, where the peasant communities would cook a flatbread flavoured with various kinds of topping, as it was a cheap meal.
Maria Carolina, the Queen of Naples, wanted to try the dish for herself. Eventually, she persuaded King Ferdinand, her husband, to allow pizza to be cooked in the royal kitchens.
The cheese and tomato pizza dates from 1889, when the Queen of Italy, Margherita of Savoy, was given a special dish created for her by the famous pizza chef, Raffaele Esposito. She enjoyed the relatively simple topping, which was designed to resemble the Italian flag. The Margherita pizza became popular all over the world.
Is it cheaper to make pizza at home?
Spending £5 billion a year on pizza seems incredible, considering the current economic climate, don’t you think? Have you ever wondered how to cook the perfect pizza at home? You may be tempted when we tell you it is a lot cheaper than ordering from a takeaway. What's more, it tastes just as good - and you can completely personalise it.
It's almost five times more expensive to order a food delivery from a restaurant than it is to make your own at home.
Of course, there are also other benefits of making your own pizza. You can choose all the ingredients, ensuring you're eating exactly what you want. If you have food allergies, you can be 100% sure there's nothing risky in your topping. You will also be able to use the freshest ingredients you can find - often fresher than fast food pizza restaurants can achieve.
One of the most important advantages of making your own pizza at home is the way you can turn it into an event, bringing your family and other loved ones closer together. Cooking can be great fun, whether you're teaching the kids, or enjoying a date. Spending time together makes it a social occasion.
What are the most popular types of pizza dough?
A fresh homemade base is usually better than shop-bought frozen pizza dough. When you buy the ready-made variety, the dough is often moist and soft, so it doesn't bake as crisply as the fresh dough that you've made yourself.
Dough can taste better if you refrigerate it before baking, This is a great way to spread out the work, so you're not in the kitchen for hours at a time. Prepare the dough and then leave it overnight before you pop it in the oven.
If you're making several pizza bases at once, make sure you store them correctly, so they don't break or get squashed.
Do you need a pizza oven to make pizza?
While restaurant-quality, wood-fired pizza ovens have higher temperatures, you don't need one to make great pizza. As long as you prepare your oven properly, you can achieve good results in your own kitchen.
The main tip is to make sure your oven is hot enough. It should be at least 220°C to ensure the pizza crust bakes and browns quickly enough. If the oven is too cool, the toppings tend to make the crust go soggy.
Once the oven is hot enough, you can use a thin metal pan to give the crust a crispier texture. Use a pizza stone if required to hold additional heat. This creates a hotter surface to help with cooking and crisping the pizza crust quickly.
If you like a particularly crisp finish, dust the work surface or pan with cornmeal. Ordinary flour doesn't create such a crispy effect. Also, cornmeal adds to the flavour, making it slightly nutty and sweet.
What about pizza toppings?
You can have fun with the pizza toppings by experimenting and giving your taste buds something different that you won't find at a takeaway. Always make a note of the ingredients you use and the cooking instructions, so you can recreate at a later date.
Don't go overboard with too much topping, as thin crusts in particular can't hold a lot of sauce and other ingredients. An average 12-inch thin-crust pizza can take half a cup of sauce, one cup of meat and vegetables and around one-and-a-half cups of cheese. Anything else can make it soggy or cause the base to collapse when you try to pick it up.
Deep dish pizzas can be more challenging to make at home, as you need to bake them at a slightly lower temperature over a longer period. Otherwise, the base won't bake evenly throughout, and you may find it is soggy in the middle. If you're a novice, it's probably better to stick to thin-crust pizza until you gain more experience.
There are also ways to boost the nutritional content of your pizza. Try making a whole-grain crust, or adding extra vegetables, rather than piles of cheese.
Not only is pizza delicious, but it can also be a healthy option - not to mention a cheap meal when you prepare and cook it yourself!