500 Pizzas & Flatbreads: The Only Pizza & Flatbread Compendium You'll Ever Need (500 Series Cookbooks) [ハードカバー]

The 500 Pizzas and flatbreads provides 125 recipes for a variety of pizzas and breads from everyday to exotic variations. Each of the 125 recipes has four minor variations that tweak the item into a different version by adding a new flavor profile. Overall it is an average cookbook but for those who are skilled in baking like my wife it provides base recipes that can then be used to make their own variations while using this as a widespread springboard and because the recipes are chosen for easy variations they lend themselves to creating your own as well. Overall well recommended for those that are looking for a lot of cake recipes that can be built on.

For this particular book we find the pizzas to be fairly basic and the best part of that section has been the dough recipes (although the Turkish pizza and Pesto Pizza were quite good). We have gotten quite a bit more use out of the flatbread section which provides a variety of bread options especially for those interested in middle eastern breads like Naan, Moroccan breads and chick pea flat bread. All were very good and easy to make.

While I believe the number of "raw" recipes is far less than 500 (maybe I'm wrong), after each section they offer 4-6 "variations" on each of the recipes previously given. Between all the variations on the primary recipes, there's probably about the 500 number.

For anyone expecting a large book, well, large it's not. It's probably about 6" square but a tiny bit over an inch thick. For being so small, it packs a lot of recipes and a fair amount of other info into its tiny shelf footprint.

I think it's a very worthy supplement to Flatbreads & Flavors (a good survey of flatbread culture the world over) and Vegetarian Pizza Cookbook (I mention it mainly for its good variety of crusts and a few nifty dessert pizza recipes).

This seems like a pretty decent little compendium and certainly could be used to spur some creative pizza & flatbread dishes... Though, I might have liked to see a wider variety of crusts & sauces introduced. Or, as with Flatbreads & Flavors, some other recipes thaVegetarian Pizzat would act as accompaniments to the pizzas & flatbreads listed. Such as some curries or other things that typically go with the mentioned breads. But, I guess that's why I think this book and Flatbreads and Flavors complement one another relatively well.

Pizza is one of my favorite foods so I was pleased to discover a cookbook devoted to it. As with the other cookbooks in this series from Sellers Publishing, there are about 100 main recipes with each including four or five variations to total 500.

The book begins with suggested equipment and ingredients, along with basic crusts (including gluten-free) and sauces recipes. Chapter categories include thick crust pan pizzas, thin crust pizzas, rustic pizzas and calzones, international pizzas, flatbreads (from several regions such as European, Africa, Middle East, and South America), and sweet dessert pizzas and flatbreads.

I made the spinach and feta pizza (cut the recipe to an individual serving size) as something different and enjoyed it. The next one I want to make is the grilled chicken and fontina pizza.

There are traditional recipes that include Chicago deep-dish style pizza and those using familiar ingredients like mozarella cheese, mushrooms, sausage, olives, and pepperoni. There are also lots of unique offerings including a seafood pizza, pesto pizza, a chevre, arugula & pear pizza; Mexican pizza, turkish pizza (using lamb and spices), and smoked salmon and capers pizza. The dessert section has some interesting recipes such as chocolate pizza, apple and cranberry pizza, and ice cream pizza with a brownie crust.

Most of the recipes are simple to make so even novice cooks will find tasty pizzas to try. There were a few cheeses I wasn't familiar with that I might have to go to a larger grocery or specialty store for, but most ingredients were those I could find locally and if not, could easily be substituted with something else.

Overall this seems to be a great collection of recipes for pizza lovers with a nice balance of traditional and unique recipes.

I received a copy of this book for review from the publisher but the opinion of it is my own and was not solicited, nor was a positive review required.