Indian pizza is the fusion comfort food of your dreams.
For pizza lovers, digging into a crusty pie slathered with herbaceous tomato sauce, loaded with stringy mozzarella cheese and piled with three or four of your favorite toppings is comfort food 101. But Italian pizza isn’t the only game in town. Indian-style pizza, a mash-up of traditional Italian pizza with Indian spices, sauces and trimmings, has taken off across the country and finally landed in the Valley.
At Avasa Pan Asian Cuisine (6430 S. McClintock Dr., Tempe, 480-272-6380, avasarestaurant.com), chef Akhil Yelle whips up four Indian pizzas built on crispy naan crust: chili paneer, paneer tikka, chili chicken and chicken tikka ($14.55-$16.63, depending on size, pictured). The first bite will surprise you because the sauces are lit up with Indian spices, including chili powder, coriander, garlic and ginger paste, rather than Italian stalwarts oregano and basil. The paneer tikka pizza, swabbed with tikka sauce (a creamy, slightly sweet tomato sauce) and topped with paneer (a semi-firm cheese made from cottage cheese) along with thinly sliced red and green peppers and onions, hits all the flavor and texture buttons. Once you bite through the buttery naan crust, you’ll be hooked.
Also in the East Valley, Pizza Twist (3950 W. Ray Rd., Chandler, 602-675-6777, pizzatwist.com) offers close to 20 varieties of Indian pizza, from butter chicken and tikka masala to lamb kebab and garlic veggie. We opted for the curry chicken ($14.99-$26.99), blanketed with mild curry sauce and a princely number of accoutrements, including mozzarella, red onions, bell peppers, jalapeños, mushrooms, black olives, fresh ginger, garlic, green chiles and bits of curry chicken. The crust, available in original hand-tossed, thin, deep dish, thick or gluten-free, stood up to all the fixings and made for a sturdy slice. You can also create your own pizza by combining traditional toppings with Indian sauces. Pepperoni and tandoori sauce? Why not?
At Curry N Crust (555 N. Scottsdale Rd., Tempe, 480-590-8432, curryncrustaz.com), the tagline is “Where Indian Spices Meet Italian Flair.” Following through on the premise, owner Sam Singh puts out several house creations inspired by family recipes, including tikka chicken deluxe ($10.99, 10-inch; $17.99, 16-inch) with chicken, bell peppers and masala sauce. The crispy crust adds an extra layer of texture to the pizza and absorbs most of the toppings’ greasy goodness. Singh also offers a make-your-own option if you’re feeling creative, perhaps with korma (yogurt-based sauce), paneer tikka and caramelized onions. It just might become your new pepperoni-and-cheese.
