Will It Pizza-Fy?

I thought I knew pizza. But Melissa Clark'spizza chicken脆带骨锅鸡煮熟的番茄auce and topped with gooey mozzarella—was eye-opening. Then I sawthis tempting pizza waffleand this towering, cheese-filledPIZZA CAKEand wondered: Is there anything that we can't pizza-fy?

I shared my pizza query with my coworkers, and they urged me to take a (somewhat) scientific approach.

The hypothesis:Everything tastes better topped with mozzarella, tomato sauce, and basil.

The method:We would "pizza-fy" different foods and submit them to a rigorous taste test.

Over the next few days, the Epi Test Kitchen left no stone un-pizza-fied, applying the formula to some ordinary foods, and often (usually) making them extraordinary. Here arethe results:

Food Director Rhoda Boone tookher ultimate mac and cheeseand put a little pizza in its heart. By swapping in mozzarella cheese for the cheddar and topping everything off with tangy tomato sauce and spicy pepperoni slices, Rhoda raised mac and cheese to the pizza-fied power. Likechicken friesandSilly Bandz, pizza-fied mac and cheese satisfies so many needs you never even knew you had.

I’m no stranger toSouthern-style cornbreadcovered with a tomato-y sauce, like the one atRed Rooster in NYC, so I knew I needed to fully explore pizza-fied cornbread. By itself,this sweetened cornbreadwas more like a cake. But adding flecks of pepperoni to the batter gave it bites of salty, savory flavor, while the tomato sauce lightened cornbread's usually leaden (see: doorstop) body.

On paper, this sounded like it could work. Chicago-style hot dogs are topped with tomatoes, right? Unfortunately this sausage fest ended up being a flashback to somescary elementary-school cafeteria moments. Combined with mozzarella and tomato sauce, the hot dog was just way too salty.

Lesson learned: Just because you can pizza-fy it, doesn’t mean you should.

Pizza-fy me, cap'n.

Photo by Chelsea Kyle

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The pizza-fied baked potato on the other hand, was a clear winner. The starch of the potato mimicked a crust, the tomato and basil kept all of it from getting too heavy, and OMG IT'S POTATOES AND PIZZA TOGETHER AT LAST. Pizza-topped baked potatoes just might be better than baked potatoes with sour cream and chives. Sorry, I said it.

For a closer look at what we pizza-fied, watch the behind-the-scenes stream we posted to Facebook.