Swedish Pizza Salad

Have you heard about Swedish pizza salad? It doesn’t matter if you order take-away or have pizza in a restaurant. In Sweden, pizza is served with this complimentary cabbage salad.

In 1969, Pizzeria Piazza Opera in Stockholm was opened by the entrepreneur Giuseppe “Peppino” Sperandio. The idea to serve free salad for pizza was also born there. When Sperandio needed a cheap and filling salad to eat while baking the pizza, he remembered the salad “kupus salata” from his childhood in northeastern Italy, a salad from neighboring Croatia. And that’s how the Swedish Pizza salad was created.

Ingredients for Swedish Pizza Salad

Cabbage – Small about 1kg. Slice the cabbage really thin with a mandolin slicer.

Vinegar – Use white vinegar.

Sugar – To balance the vinegar taste. If you have canned pineapples you can use 4 tbsp of the pineapple juice.

Oregano – Enhances the flavour.

Olive oil – It’s optional. But I prefer to have some in this salad.

Salt and pepper according to your taste.

How to make Swedish Pizza Salad

Start by slicing the cabbage really thin with a mandolin slicer and put it in a colander.

Pour a little of boiled water (5 Cups) over the cabbage and then move it to a bowl.

Then add sugar and white vinegar. After that squeeze the cabbage for a few minutes with your hands until you get some liquid from the cabbage. Keep the liquid with the cabbage, because it will be part of the dressing

Finally add oregano, olive oil, salt and pepper and mix it all together. Then cover with plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

After 1 hour you will see that the salad has more liquid. Leave it that way. The liquid is your “dressing”

You can store the salad in a bowl covered with plastic wrap for up to one weekk in the refrigerator.