Fruit pizza in Nunavut, Arctic Canada (don’t tell the president of Iceland)
Remember a few years ago when the president of Iceland said he was fundamentally opposed to pineapple on pizza?
Hawaiian pizza is a Canadian creation — and it’s controversial.
President Guðni Th. Jóhannesson even said he would ban the fruit topping from pizza if he could.
A couple of years later he said, “I went a step too far.”
However, he still maintains that the fruit topping is no good.
Imagine his reaction if he knew what was being created in a small kitchen in Iqaluit: a pizza with only fruit toppings.
This gorgeous looking pizza is the creation of Iqaluit’s Theresa Alikatuktuk. It’s a recipe handed down to her from her late aunt.
“It took me a few tries to do a really good pizza like how she does it,” she said in an interview with CBC Northwind host Wanda McLeod.
She said the first time she tried it, she added too much water and it didn’t turn out.
After a few tries, she said it really started to come together.
She says the crust needs to be prepared like cookie dough.
“What I add is a half a cup of butter, three quarters cup of icing sugar, one cup of flour and two to three tablespoons of cold water,” Alikatuktuk said.
She then bakes it in the oven at 375 F for 12 to 15 minutes.
“The crust is amazingly soft.”
The president of Iceland would surely approve up to this point, but he’d likely send in the coast guard if he witnessed what happened next.
Alikatuktuk covers the crust with eight ounces of cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and … fruit.
“When it’s berry picking season … I buy all kinds of blackberries from [a] local woman who does berry picking on the land,” she said.
But you don’t want to put too many blackberries on it. She says a “small Ziploc bag” will do.
Throw on a banana, strawberries, kiwi and some wild blueberries and you’ve got yourself a fruit pizza.
“Sometimes I sell them through Facebook,” she said. “Because my daughter really loves fruit pizza, I have to make multiple of them if I want to sell a couple of pans.”
Fruit on pizza. Not only legal in the North, it’s gobbled up.
Perhaps the president of Iceland should give this one a try — with pineapples, of course.
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Pizza with a northern twist: Inuktitut cookbook offers new spin on Inuit cooking, CBC News
China: Arctic Indigenous food culture takes the day at international cookbook awards, Eye on the Arctic
Finland: Finns eat too much meat, study says, Yle News
Iceland: Iceland’s president admits he went ‘too far’ with threat to ban pineapple pizza, CBC Radio
Norway: Norway’s seafood exports continue to grow, The Independent Barents Observer
Sweden: Swedes eating less meat than before, Radio Sweden
United States: This Alaskan spice shop brings new flavors to Indigenous dishes, Alaska Public Media
