I tried Pepperoni and Pickle pizza from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

During the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV show, one of the most notorious running gags was that the four titular heroes would order up some very…unique pizzas. Pepperoni and cheese alone were never enough as the turtles had a more “refined” pizza palette. Some of the pizzas that the boys phoned in for delivery included: Anchovy/Banana, Marshmallow/Guacamole, and even Peanut Butter/Clams amongst many other gag-worthy combinations. Every time that I hear a new order from the TMNT, it always sounds like something that would make me want to throw up…but I respect them for being different. I figured that even though the boys have sort of a gross taste for pizza, they had to have had at least one edible pizza that I could try myself, right? After scouring the internet for every pizza combination that was on the show, I ended up finding my answer: Pepperoni and Pickles would be the Pizza that I try. Pepperoni and Pickles sure is weird, but it still strikes me as the most edible compared to the other choices. While I was looking for pizza answers on the internet, I was happily surprised to find an official TMNT Pizza cookbook that has pizza from and inspired by the show. I wouldn’t dare order a pickle and pepperoni pizza from a local place, so I picked up the cookbook and (mostly) followed the recipe for pepperoni and pickle pizza found in Peggy Paul Casella’s “The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pizza Cookbook”.

The peperoni and pickle pizza is first mentioned in season 4 episode 12 “Super Hero for a Day” during a great scene where the boys are playing poker – but with pizza slices instead of playing cards. “I call you dude, one pepperoni with pickles” says Michelangelo, to which Leonardo responds “I see that and raise you two Mushroom and Kale”. This scene is a rare occurrence for the show where pizza is on screen but it’s never actually show being eaten, so we can’t tell if all of the TMNT agree on this pie or not. There are not too many specifics mentioned or really shown about the pizza in the episode so I can’t tell exactly how it was arranged or what kind of pickles were being used. This is where the cook book comes in handy, as every slice of pizza in this episode just looks like a regular pepperoni slice. Hopefully the TMNT weren’t ordering entire kosher spears on top of their pizza but I wouldn’t put it past them to try that either.

(before cooking)

As far as ingredients go, this pizza has all of the usual suspect from a regular Pepperoni pizza until we start to get into the weird territory with the obvious addition of pickles. The book suggests the use of sweet bread and butter pickle chips over any other type of pickle so that’s what I went with. I won’t be reposting the ins/outs of the books recipe for obvious reasons, but follow you can follow your own favorite pizza recipe or even add pickles to a pizza at home if you want to try this for yourself. There’s nothing special behind the recipe or any big secret other than adding the weirdness yourself. One thing that recipe didn’t call for that I found very important was making sure that the pickles were super dry before going on the pizza. If I hadn’t let them dry out, everything would’ve been way too wet and I don’t know that the pizza would’ve even came out in one piece. Bread and butter pickles are roughly the same size as a pepperoni, so everything ends up looking nice and uniform when you start assembling this pizza. Once everything was ready, I placed my pizza in to a very hot oven and walked away as I had wondered “what have I done?”. Usually when I have food in the oven, I check every few minutes but I left this pizza alone as I was afraid of what might be looking back at me when the timer was done. Thankfully, the pizza ended up looking really appealing and not like a monstrosity. If you looked at this pizza for a quick moment, you’d probably just assume the Jalapenos were on it and you would never think twice. The eye test passes for this pizza, but looks aren’t everything when it comes to pizza. How will this pizza hold up once it’s in front of my mouth and ready to go down the pipe?

(after cooking)

  When I was ready to eat this pizza, the smell in the air was of your standard pepperoni pizza but pickle smell wasn’t at all present. Surprisingly, the one odor that was most present with this pizza was that of Banana peppers…which was odd given that there weren’t any involved with this pizza. Pickles have a distinct odor, but that was no longer present once they were baked. It seems like the expected pickle flavor matured into a zestier pepper-type of flavor while in the oven, and this was really, really good. The sweetness and zest of a BB pickle were still present, but they were slightly muted while simultaneously being enhanced by the acidity of tomato. This pizza tasted like no other pizza that I’ve had before, making me confusingly come back for more. In your head, it’s a little weird to eat the first piece knowing what the combination is but once you realize that it’s now almost a pepper, everything clicks. I was worried that the pickles would get too mushy or take on some kind of undesirable texture, but they remained only slightly changed. After baking, the pickle chips end up having more of a snap than they would normally have, but they’re also still moist. I think that the flavor of the pickles after baking ends up being far superior to regular pickles out of the jar, so much so to the point that I’d bake pickles just to have as a snack after eating this. I did think that the pepperoni took a back seat to the flavor of the pickles which is unfortunate, but playing around with the ratio of pickles to pepperoni could fix this. I went with almost a 1:1 ratio, but I think a 1:2 would be better next time for this pizza. The pepperoni on this pizza didn’t stiffen up as much as normal with the addition of pickles, which is bad depending on how deeply cooked you like your peperoni. Despite the usual “main character” of pepperoni taking a back seat this time around, I enjoyed this pizza a lot. I’d recommend this pizza if you like a little bit of sweet on your pizza, or like peppers. Most people have a firm stance on Pineapple/ham pizza, so I’d use that to get an idea on where you might lie in terms of enjoying a pizza like this one with a sweet/meat combo. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ pepperoni and pickle pie ends up getting a surprising “B” rank.

the odd pairing of peperoni and pickle works despite sounding gross on paper. Sweet, savory, and zesty are the main forces at work here, Cowabunga!