Photo by Jeff Saxman
Jerk Chicken
Mellow Mushroom in Carytown — and soon, Midlothian — slices fresh chicken breast and marinades it in a Jamaican jerk sauce, then bakes it atop your pizza.
24-Hour Tomatoes
Move over, sun-dried tomatoes. At Bottoms Up Pizza, the chefs create an in-house version, baking Roma tomatoes for 24 hours with garlic oil.
Fried Eggplant
Fresh eggplant gets sliced, hand-breaded and fried before landing on your pie at Piccola’s, but go all out with the Eggplant Parmigiana special, where the eggplant’s topped with extra tomato sauce, Parmesan and fresh basil.
Fennel Sausage
Over in Carytown and Short Pump, Baker’s Crust combines ground pork with fennel seeds, secret spices and its house-made red-pepper ketchup before roasting it all in the pizza oven.
French Fries
Going all in? Belmont Pizzeria sells at least a handful of French-fry pies nightly, whole or by the slice. I tried this in the name of science and lived to tell the tale.
Spicy Meatball
The team at Matchbox makes 80 to 160 of these a day, rolling and slow-roasting pork, veal and beef with parsley, crushed red pepper, egg and milk-soaked fresh bread.
Tuna
Do as the Romans (and Sicilians and Tuscans) do with this olive-oil-packed tuna, popular with 8 1/2 fans and Italiani alike.
Fresh Mozzarella
The LoDuca family’s been serving up Italian classics in Richmond since 1979, and at Midlothian’s Palermo Trattoria Pizzeria, they make their own mozzarella every other day.
Fresh Clams
Frank’s in Stony Point serves up more than a solid sauce. Adorn any pizza with fresh, whole vongole, which get steamed and shucked from their shells before topping your pizza.
