Today is Sweden’s National Holiday (yay, Sweden!) and in honor of that, I thought I’d post a 
very Swedish recipe: banana curry pizza (we made one of these last night – yum!).
In Sweden, we like to throw everything we can get our hands on on a piece of pizza dough (a slight exaggeration). While you certainly can get a Margherita and other traditional pizzas, some of the other common toppings make people from other countries do a double take. Here are some examples from the menu at my brother’s favorite pizza place (note: kebab in Sweden is the equivalent of Schwarma meat here):
“Love You” – tomato sauce, cheese, filet of pork, ham, mushrooms, bacon, shrimp, béarnaise sauce
“Kebabpizza” – Tomato sauce, cheese, schwarma meat, iceberg lettuce, onion, tomatoes, cucumber, pepperoncini, kebab sauce (a yogurt-based spicy sauce)
“Castello” – Pineapple, mushrooms, onion, peppers, pepperoncini, salami, gorgonzola, camembert, feta cheese
“Mexico Special” – Tomato sauce, cheese, ground beef, bacon, garlic, egg, onion, jalapeno, taco spices
I’ve had the Kebabpizza and it is awesome – the sauce is to die for!
And now, on to the banana curry pizza. You might recoil in horror when you first see this recipe, but if you like curry and the mix of sweet and salt, give it a shot. It’s wildly popular in Sweden (you’ll find it under “Ordinary or Classic Pizzas” on the menus), and even my American husband liked it once he mustered up the courage to try it.
This pizza is traditionally made with smoked ham, and if you want to try it with that, buy it thinly sliced at the deli (the Black Forest ham they sell at Whole Foods is one that is very close in flavor to what they use in Sweden) and then cut it into small squares.
Since we prefer to not eat meat, we make it without, but you really do need that smoky flavor to make it taste just like it does in Sweden, and I have found that smoked cheese is a great substitute. Any smoked cheese will do, I get whatever I happen to find at the store that day.
Ingredients
- 2 individual-sized pizza crusts (make them yourself or buy them ready made)
- Pizza sauce (we like Enrico’s organic pizza sauce
)
- 2 ripe bananas
- Curry powder
- Smoked cheese, grated
- Other cheese, grated (any kind you like, we usually use a mozzarella / cheddar mix)
Instructions
- Put your pizza dough on a baking sheet. Spread a thin layer of pizza sauce all over the dough.
- Cut the bananas in thin slices and distribute evenly over the pizza. Sprinkle them with curry powder, as much as you like (I use a lot, at least 2 tbsp per pizza).
- Cover with grated cheese, keep the proportions around 20% smoked cheese and 80% other. If you use too much smoked cheese, the flavor gets too overpowering.
- Place the pizzas in the oven and bake according to the directions for the dough you are using.
Notes
VARIATIONS
Traditional Swedish: Add smoked ham and omit the smoked cheese.
Vegetarian: Omit the ham.
Vegan: Omit the ham and use a vegan cheese (I have yet to find one I like, so I can’t make any recommendations here, unfortunately). To get the smoky flavor, add a little bit of smoked olive oil to the pizza sauce.
For more pizza, also see my Healthy Mexican-inspired vegan / vegetarian pizza recipe
i had this in sweden but instead of tomato sauce it was curry sauce
Interesting, I haven’t seen that… sounds good though! Was it?
I get this pizza every time I visit sweden!
My swedish cousin also made me try bananas and peanuts in my tacos… which horrified me at first, and now I serve bananas and peanuts with my taco fixings every time! 🙂
Isn’t it so good! The tacos sound very interesting… I’m allergic to peanuts these days so I won’t try it, but back when I could eat them (and also ate meat), I used to make a chicken dish with bananas and peanuts that was really good. It’s a nice flavor combo. Thanks for visiting my blog! 🙂
We really like this, we first had in from the Vasa Pizza parlour in Stockholm 1991.
One of our sons lives in Sweden. We thought the same thing when he first told us about banana curry pizza. Then we had our first one. Loved it. We make them at home sometimes. We add the curry powder to the sauce.
So glad you got to try them (and liked it)! I have never added the curry powder to the sauce – must give that a try the next time.
I’ve just made this using pizza sauce, banana, smoked ham, chilli powder, mixed grated cheese.
Not as weird as I first imagined
This is a CRIME, stop.
LOL Try it, you’d be surprised! 🙂
There’s a pizza parlor in Turlock, California that serves a curried banana and chicken pizza. I tried it, against my better judgement, and found it quite delightful. I’m trying this tonight. my family is horrified.
I lived in a town called Sandviken for 4 years and Pizzeria Verona had the best pizza. Their version has chicken, pineapple, bananas and curry on it. I am back stateside now and we make it at home. I don’t miss living in Sweden that much but I do miss that pizza!
That’s so awesome that you dared to try it and liked it! I agree, the ones with pineapple are great too. 🙂
Good for you for daring to try it! I’m so happy you liked it – how did your homemade version turn out?
When I lived in Sweden, 2001-2003, this was a favorite of mine, especially if it had peanuts or pineapple (maybe that was called the Hawaiian pizza in some restaurants). Growing up in the US, I almost felt guilty loving it as much as I did. Thanks for posting the recipe!
Hi Jared 👋
I’m so glad you were brave enough to try it! 🙂 And liked it! I agree, the Hawaiian is really good too, that’s probably my second favorite.