Aah, pizza places – nothing like the taste of hot, bubbly cheese in a sea of marinara sauce surrounded by sporadic islands of toppings all on a toasted crust – thick, thin, gluten-free, cauli, keto – whatever your choosing!
Pizza has always been one of my favorite foods – even as a child, I remember the old school Pizza Hut commercials with aah’s and ooh’s. I love all kinds of pizza – the crispy thin genuine Italian, the thick Chicago style, the thin and flat New Yorker, the crispy Detroit and just about any other one you can find. The one challenge, about pizza places, is that when it comes to trying to find your spice, normally you are limited to just pouring copious amounts of red pepper flakes and maybe asking for jalapeno peppers as one of your toppings. Not that that’s a bad thing – I do that all the time anyway, and I love it! But it’s just that outside the core pizza itself, it can be tough to find unique ways to make your pizza spicy.
However, worry not! Every now and then, you can find a place that does offer something for us Heataholics…enter Blaze Pizza! Fitting name, don’t you think? Yes, it’s a chain, I know, and a large one too, but dear readers, you should know that I am NOT anti-chain. I welcome any place, large or small, that offers good food, good spice and a venue worthy of a visit! Blaze has locations all throughout Texas and the South, and it’s one of several modern chains that specializes in a Chipotle or Subway-esque BYO (build-your-own) style of pizza. But, to make things easy, they also have custom made-to-order combinations for those who know exactly what they want and can either add or subtract ingredients when needed.
So what is this offering I speak of? Simply put, it is their “Hot Link” pizza. Loaded with banana peppers, jalapeno peppers, red onions (all in all, hotter than white ones), and Blaze’s own spicy red sauce (something I recommend no matter what kind of pizza you get). The standard Hot Link comes with spicy Italian sausage, but being a vegetarian, I requested none. I did, however, request both extra spicy red sauce, and keeping with my recommendation I’d described in a previous post about how the spiciness of food can be significantly intensified simply by adding the hot condiment (be it sauce, powder, rub, etc.) DURING THE COOKING PHASE, in addition to after, I requested they add the crushed red pepper to the pizza before putting it in the oven.
End result? It was spicy and delicious! It met and exceeded my expectations! I’ll keep going back!
Details:
- Address: Multiple locations
- Phone: Varies based on location
- Website: www.blazepizza.com:
- Menu (can vary slightly by location): https://hq.blazepizza.com/menu/
Spicy Flavors:
- Spicy Red Sauce
- Hot Link Pizza (in my case, without the Italian sausage – make sure to ask for crushed red pepper before they bake it!)
Personal Faves:
- Any of their pizzas suit me well
- Veg Out pizza
- (Low carb and Keto days) Cauliflower crust and Keto crust pizzas
- Dough Knots
- (For all you sweet-toothers) S’more pie
Spice on, my friends!
