If you think putting pineapple on pizza is a crime, cover your ears. In Sweden, pineapple isn’t even the most controversial tropical fruit to be used as a popular pizza topping. That’s right: the Swedes have an affection for putting sliced banana on pizza.
According to Jessica Kelly, freelancer for Smithsonian magazine, one of Sweden’s signature pizzas is topped with banana, curry and ham. (Though there is no mention of it in Kelly’s story, the pizza appears to often be called “pizza Africana.”) Kelly, a brave soul, traveled to Stockholm specifically to try the pizza—and found that she didn’t hate it at all.
“The first pizzeria I came across had it on the menu, so I took a seat on the patio and ordered a pizza,” Kelly wrote. “I wasn’t sure what to expect of the pie topped with bananas, cheese, curry, and salty ham, but when I took my first bite, I was pleasantly surprised. It was delicious. The slight sweetness of the bananas, the saltiness from the cheese and the ham, and a kick from the intense flavor and smell of the curry all came together quite nicely. The combination just worked.”
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Kelly’s story details the fascinating way bananas and curry pizza became a staple in the Nordic country. She spoke to food historian Richard Tellström, of Stockholm University, who told her that Polynesian food culture came to Sweden shortly after World War II. Fruits like banana and pineapple were increasingly featured in home cookbooks and in the cuisine at local restaurants.
“Deep-fried bananas served [with] steak [or] veal [is] an early dish from the 1960s served at some restaurants,” Tellström says. “Bananas could be served along with ham, as a fancy dish for a Saturday night with the family watching TV. In the ’70s, a simple, everyday dish at home could be sausage filled with tomatoes, pineapple, mustard, and ham. In the ’80s, deep-fried bananas [were] a common dessert at Chinese restaurants, and then served with ice cream and ginger syrup. You could use the new microwave to make an ‘Oriental chicken,’ a dish with chicken, curry, bananas, and peanuts.”
There is also the possibility that the combination of curry and banana came to Swedish pizzerias via Britain, which has had a strong influence on Swedish cuisine, Tellström said. And because Indian cuisine has long been popular in Britain, it stands to reason that the banana, curry, and ham pizza is just another fusion that made its way across the North Sea.
It’s also worth noting that the pizza in question is hardly the only unusual, popular pizza in Sweden. For example, the Kebab pizza comes with kebab meat, pepperoni, yogurt sauce and vegetables. Tellström told Kelly that his favorite pizza comes with tuna fish, black olives and sardelles (a salty fish similar to anchovy).
“The pizza shops here are usually run by immigrants from Greece, Iran, Iraq, so they adapt this Swedish style of pizza,” Tellström explains. “If you go to a Swedish pizza shop, you can probably choose between 75 and 100 different pizzas. You can always do your own mixture of toppings on it, as well, so you choose your favorites, and that usually doesn’t cost anything extra.”
As Kelly points out, somebody in the U.S. wouldn’t have to travel all the way to Stockholm to try a banana and curry pizza. Stockhome, a restaurant in Petaluma, California, has it on the menu.
“Banana curry pizza is what I loved growing up,” Roberth Sundell, chef and owner of Stockhome, told Kelly. “I was introduced to banana curry pizza when I was a child. I’m born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden, and have since brought flavors of Sweden to my restaurant in Petaluma, California.”
