Yesterday was my birthday. At my age, birthdays pretty much come and go without too much fanfare. We usually go out for a nice dinner somewhere and call it a day. Since Mr. SGCC was out of town on business, we decided to postpone our celebration until this weekend. Mini SGCC insisted that I shouldn’t have to cook on my “special” day, so she decided to take charge of last night’s dinner arrangements. She did what any normal, red-blooded American teenager would do. She ordered pizza. Except, she didn’t just order any old pizza. She got us a taco pizza.

I’ll admit, I was skeptical about that taco pizza at first. But about three slices in, I was sold. There wasn’t anything elaborate about the pizza – just taco meat, tomatoes, scallions and some lettuce, topped with a little sour cream and salsa – but it was pretty darn tasty!

It got me to thinking about how versatile pizza can be. I started imagining all kinds of different ingredient combinations that would work on a pizza. How about a pulled pork pizza ^[1]? Or, a Korean kimchi pork belly pizza ^[2]? Mu Shu pizza ^[3], anyone? A linguine and clams pizza ^[4], without the linguine? Or even a bacon and eggs pizza ^[5]? See what I mean? The possibilities are virtually endless.

Then, I remembered another kind of pizza that I posted about a few years ago – Picadillo Pizza ^[6]. Now, that was one awesome pizza! So awesome, in fact, that I thought I’d share it with you again.

Picadillo is a Cuban dish made with ground meat, tomatoes, garlic, onions, peppers and various other ingredients simmered with herbs and spices. Though, it’s typically served over rice, it is kind of like a Cuban version of taco meat, which is why the taco pizza reminded me of it. The version I like to make includes green olives, capers, raisins and slivered almonds, and is flavored with cumin, smoked paprika, oregano and a dash of cinnamon. Picadillo is very easy to prepare and is muy sabroso! Picadillo also seems to get even better when it sits, so the leftovers are the perfect thing to use as a pizza topping for the next day’s dinner.

To make picadillo, first dice up your vegetables and sauté.

Then, add your meat and cook it all together.

Add the rest of your ingredients and simmer.

That’s it. You’re done!

You can enjoy your picadillo the traditional way, over rice, as a pizza topping like I did, as a sandwich filling or any way you like. I’m thinking picadillo sloppy Joes sound pretty good too.