Five Luxurious Toppings You Can Put on Pizza This Weekend

There is a fine line between everyday homemade pizza and the kind that makes you say, 'But I only ate this at restaurants.' This boundary is not made of special equipment, hard-to-find flours, or professional pizza-making techniques. It's made of ingredients. Of precise, conscious choices inspired by distant or nearby cuisines. This year, all over the world, the most creative pizzaioli and the most attentive kitchens are looking beyond the usual repertoire and bringing toppings to pizza that until recently seemed destined for other dishes. Burrata, prosciutto, balsamic reduction, Indian spices. Ingredients that may sound distant, but once tried on pizza will feel like the most natural thing in the world.

In this issue, I share five ideas you can apply immediately, in your home oven, with ingredients you can find at the supermarket or market. You don't need to be an expert; just a little curiosity and the desire to go beyond the usual.

Burrata: When Creaminess Becomes the Star

If you haven’t tried burrata on pizza yet, you’re missing out on something extraordinary. We’re not talking about regular mozzarella, the kind you know and have always used. Burrata is something else. On the outside, it has the texture of mozzarella, but inside it hides a soft heart of cream and stracciatella that melts as soon as you touch it. That heart, on a hot, freshly baked pizza, creates a natural cream that envelops every bite.

The secret is not to bake it. Burrata should not go in the oven. It’s added to the pizza when it’s already prepared, still steaming, either cut in half or left whole in the center. The residual heat of the pizza does the rest: it slightly melts, making it even creamier, and integrates with the other flavors without overpowering them.

Try this combination: a white base without tomato, grilled zucchini, and a drizzle of garlic-infused olive oil. Bake the pizza, wait thirty seconds, then position the burrata in the center and add a few fresh basil leaves. Slice and serve immediately. The cream that drips onto the crispy crust is one of those unforgettable experiences.

If you want something bolder, pair the burrata with a sauce of confit cherry tomatoes baked with oil, oregano, and a pinch of salt. That concentrated, sweet tomato pairs perfectly with the milky sweetness of the burrata.

Prosciutto: The King of Toppings Added After Baking

There’s a reason why prosciutto is always added to pizza after cooking and not before. It’s not due to laziness or a hollow tradition. It’s about respecting an ingredient that would lose everything in the oven’s heat: its delicate aroma, silky texture, and the complexity of flavor built over months of aging.

Prosciutto should be placed on the pizza as soon as it comes out of the oven. Those thin slices, in contact with the hot surface...