Active Time: 20 mins
Total Time: 30 mins
Yield: 4 servings

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“Pizza and sport go hand in hand and we are excited to continue serving customers while they enjoy their favourite sport,” says Domenic Primucci, president of Pizza Nova. “The newly renovated Rogers Centre brings more opportunity for Pizza Nova to interact with fans.” 

Fans watching the game from home can enhance their experience by enjoying Pizza Nova’s Home Run Bundle, which launched April 1, the best game day meal. The Home Run bundle includes a medium 3-topping pizza and chicken trio for $29.99, plus taxes and delivery charges. 

“We are passionate about our business and excited to continue building on this partnership,” continued Primucci. “There’s always excitement in the air at the Rogers Centre and we feel it every day when we open our stores. There’s something magical about feeding enthusiastic sports fans and supporting our home team.”

About Pizza Nova 

Founded in 1963, Pizza Nova is a family-operated business that is committed to sharing the rich taste of Italy with Canadians. Pizza Nova has more than 150 stores and concession locations in Southern Ontario and inspired by family values such as trust, integrity, and authenticity. They are known for fresh toppings, high-quality ingredients and a wide range of authentic Italian menu items including lasagna, panzerotti, Italian sandwiches, chicken wings and arancini. They also have a line of Primucci branded products featuring Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Homestyle Tomato Sauce, Italian Hot Peppers, Spicy Green Olives, and Sundried Black Olives. Taste the Difference and learn more at pizzanova.com. 

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But 2024 might just be the year that pineapple pizza cracks Italy, thanks to Gino Sorbillo, the renowned Naples pizzaiolo (pizza maestro) who has added the dreaded “ananas” to his menu in Via dei Tribunali, the best known pizza street in the world capital of pizza.

Sorbillo’s creation, called “Margherita con Ananas” costs 7 euros ($7.70). But this isn’t your regular Hawaiian: it is a pizza bianca, denuded of its tomato layer, sprinkled with no fewer than three types of cheese, with the pineapple cooked twice for a caramelized feel.

Sorbillo, a third-generation pizzaiolo, told CNN that he created it to “combat food prejudice.”

“I’ve noticed in the last few years that lots of people were condemning ingredients or ways of preparing food purely because in the past most people didn’t know them, so I wanted to put these disputed ingredients – that are treated like they’re poison – onto a Neapolitan pizza, making them tasty.”

Doing it in his headquarters in the historic center of Naples with its 3,000 years of history – Sorbillo has 21 outlets around the world including in Miami, Tokyo and Ibiza – was also making an important point, he said.

The pineapple is prebaked in the oven and then cooled. Then he adds smoked provola (a local cow milk cheese from Campania), extra virgin olive oil, and fresh basil, before popping the pizza in his woodfired oven.

As it comes out of the oven, he scatters “micro shavings” of two types of smoked cacioricotta cheese around the crust: one from Sardinian goats, and another from buffalos in the nearby Cilento area.

“It makes it really tasty,” he said.

The uproar commences

Tasty or not, pineapple on pizza is anathema to most Italians, and his pizza – which he launched on social media this week – hasn’t gone down well with many. It has, Sorbillo said, started “uproar” with insults on social media, and his pizza even being discussed on national TV.

But he says that those who’ve been curious enough to try it have been favorable.

“Before I launched it on social media, I put it on the menu without saying anything for a couple of weeks, and lots of people ordered it, even Neapolitans,” he said.

“But Italy is split in half about it. And not just Italy. There’s a load of arguments that have opened up about it. I think people in general are not curious. They are mistrustful of anything different.”

Barbara Politi, a food journalist who rushed straight to Naples to try it, was positive.

“It’s good, fresh, I’m in favor of it,” she said. “Did you know that pineapple has been part of Europe’s food culture since Christopher Columbus tasted it in Guadeloupe in 1493 and brought it back?

“When Sorbillo launched it, I was curious and looked into how long pineapple had been used in Europe, and I found that it has been part of European [food] culture for a long time. So in reality we’re talking about a question of mentality and of taste habits.

“I liked it, it’s a bit like sushi – at the start you might not love it but then it becomes a fixation.”

“In the last few years people have been using ingredients that five, six years ago were never used. Now we use speck from Alto Adige, mortadella which wasn’t used 10 years ago, chopped pistachios, powdered olives, mozzarella foam, even jams. Why shouldn’t we rediscover pineapple? Pizza has been taking on a new life for the past five or six years.”

He said he thought his pizzaiolo ancestors “would be perplexed” by his pineapple offering, but added, “Things should be tasted first, and then you express your view. In the past, not even ham or arugula went on pizzas, now they’re normal.”

However, one thing he draws the line at is starting with a tomato base.

“That’s another fruit – with two fruits, which both have acidity it wouldn’t be a good product,” he said. “Instead, I put three smoked cheeses on, and it changes the pizza, becomes a different taste.”

He said that the Hawaiian’s history, using tomato, meant that “people condemn it without trying to work on it, as I did.”

“Pairings are important in food. If you pair ingredients well, the result is good. People who are gastronomically curious are eating it, which means we did well.”

In fact, Sorbillo has already used the criticism to create another controversial pizza.

“When the pineapple pizza came out, someone wrote, ‘Now see if you can do a ketchup one, so I did it,” he said. “And another row started.”

It was no ordinary ketchup, though; instead, he used homemade sauce from red and yellow Italian datterino tomatoes, on a white base with smoked provola. He then filmed himself eating it triumphantly, surrounded by bottles of homemade ketchup, pronouncing it “good.”

“All you need to change is one ingredient, or one preparatory step, and you create a whole new thing,” he said.

“I’m sure that soon pineapple pizza will appear on the menus of other pizzerias in Naples – and not only in Naples.”

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Jumping and chirping loudly – these crickets are about to become food.

The process is simple: they are frozen, boiled, dried, and then pulverised.

Here at the Italian Cricket Farm, the biggest insect farm in the country, about one million crickets are turned into food ingredients every day.

Ivan Albano, who runs the farm, opens a container to reveal a light brown flour that can be used in the production of pasta, bread, pancakes, energy bars – and even sports drinks.

Eating crickets, ants and worms has been common in parts of the world like Asia for thousands of years.

Well, nowhere in Europe is there more resistance to eating insects than in Italy, according to data from the global public opinion company YouGov, and the objections come right from the top – the government has already taken steps to ban their use in pizza and pasta production.

“We will oppose, by any means and in any place, this madness that would impoverish our agriculture and our culture,” Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini wrote on Facebook.

But is that all about to change? Several Italian producers have been perfecting cricket pasta, pizza and snacks.

“What we do here is very sustainable,” says Ivan. “To produce one kilo of cricket powder, we only use about 12 litres of water,” he adds, pointing out that producing the same quantity of protein from cows requires thousands of litres of water.

Farming insects also requires just a fraction of the land used to produce meat. Given the pollution caused by the meat and dairy industry, more and more scientists believe insects could be key to tackling climate change.

At a restaurant near Turin, chef Simone Loddo has adapted his fresh pasta recipe, which dates back nearly 1,000 years – the dough is now 15% cricket powder.

It emanates a strong, nutty smell.

Some of the diners refuse to try the cricket tagliatelle, but those who do – including me – are surprised at how good it tastes.

“The meat I produce is much cheaper than cricket flour, and it’s very good quality,” says Claudio Lauteri, who owns a farm near Rome that’s been in his family for four generations.

But it’s not just about price. It’s about social acceptance.

Across Italy, the number of people living to the age of 100 and beyond is rising fast. Many point to the Mediterranean diet as the Holy Grail for a healthy lifestyle.

“Italians have been eating meat for centuries. With moderation, it’s definitely healthy,” says Claudio.

He believes that insect food could be a threat to Italian culinary tradition – which is something universally sacred in this country.

“These products are garbage,” he says. “We are not used to them, they are not part of the Mediterranean diet. And they could be a threat for people: we don’t know what eating insects can do to our bodies.

“I’m absolutely against these new food products. I refuse to eat them.”

While insect farming is increasing in Europe, so too is hostility towards the idea.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has referred to Italy as a “food superpower”, created a Made in Italy ministry when she was elected, with the aim of safeguarding tradition.

“Insect products are arriving on supermarket shelves! Flour, larvae – good, delicious,” she said in a tone of disgust in a video.

Amid concerns that insects might be associated with Italian cuisine, three government ministers announced four decrees aimed at a crackdown. “It’s fundamental that these flours are not confused with food made in Italy,” Francesco Lollobrigida, the agriculture minister, said.

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