Why I Love Anchovy Pizza

It's nine p.m. on a Friday night. There's nothing to eat. My boss has worked me to the bone. . .

I live in downtown Chicago and can call a dozen different places for the Holy Grail of pizza:

Freshly delivered Chicago Style Pizza.

The crust is over a quarter inch thick and it's been baked in olive oil.
On top of that are layers of mozzarella and provalone cheese.
Above that are your choice of toppings.
Then, covering it all, is a huge, thick layer of THE most fragrant tomato sauce you've ever tasted!

With anchovies!

(sound of screeching brakes).

Really, a plain cheese Chicago Style Pizza is really all you need.

However! As long as you're shelling out the bucks for a Real Chicago Style Pizza, you might as well make it worth every penny.

Pepperoni? In my experience, their little slivers only become greasy little things among such a hefty pizza.

Mushrooms? Meh! Tasteless little things

Onions? They're nice and add a bit of oomph to the sauce. But onions as a topping? Why pay for onions? They cost nothing!

Sausage? I don't like sausage. There's always a chance I'll bite down on something in sausage. You never know what that 'something' is.

Jalapeno? It's nice. It has lots of flavor. But it's too "burney". I don't want that much pain to stand in my way of enjoying pizza.

Anchovy? My dear sweet anchovies. They're really the only thing that can add anything of substance to a Chicago Style Pizza.

You bite down into a thick slice and you're hit with an incredible, heady, saline, rich, distinct, muskiness.

Yes, there is a "fishy" flavor that can be overpowering to some, but I've always loved the taste of anything that comes squirming from the ocean.

Also, in Chicago Style Pizza, the anchovies seem to get diffused across each slice, much like they do in a puttanesca sauce. Think of them as a salty tapenade on top of your pizza rather than a cured fish fillet.

No?

Okay, anything but green peppers is fine.