Bananas and Curry on Pizza? That’s How the Swedish Do It

I had no idea banana curry pizza even existed in Sweden until I saw a piece of pizza art from Cities by the Slice on Instagram. On the account, illustrator Dan Bransfield highlights the foods of different cities, and when I saw his pizza print featuring slices around the world, with a Swedish slice topped with bananas, I was intrigued.

Weeks later, I arrived in Stockholm and almost immediately set out in search of the specialty pie. The first pizzeria I came across had it on the menu, so I took a seat on the patio and ordered a pizza. 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.

But I wondered: Why is this a thing in Sweden?

There’s technically no official date on record as to when the banana curry pizza was introduced in Sweden. Richard Tellström, a food historian at Stockholm University, has his theories, though.

“There’s an interest in the Pacific [in the] years after World War II, and this creates the sort of postwar Polynesian food culture that I would link this banana pizza to,” he says.

Since the 1960s and ’70s, Sweden has had a deep interest in Polynesian flavors, like bananas and pineapple, which were introduced in Swedish cookbooks to inspire home cooks. “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.”

One especially peculiar dish introduced in the 1970s is a casserole called the Flying Jacob, made with chicken, chili sauce, bacon and bananas, all topped with peanuts. A Swedish air-freight worker by the name of Ove Jacobsson concocted the surprising dish in 1976, when he haphazardly mixed together ingredients to have something to bring to a summer potluck. His neighbors, including Anders Tunberg, the editor of Allt om Mat (“All About Food”) magazine, enjoyed the hot dish, and Jacobsson’s recipe appeared in the September 1976 issue of the publication, ultimately leading to its nationwide popularity.

“Actually, you can find that kind of pizza in Sweden,” says Tellström. “So, you have chicken, bananas, curry, peanuts, but also pineapple.”

Despite the banana-curry combination’s popularity there, Sweden isn’t necessarily well known for curry recipes in general. “We don’t have many curry dishes in Sweden, but we are influenced by Indian cuisine, which we pick up from the U.K. and Indian dishes that are served in Britain,” Tellström explains. “We have a very strong link to Britain in our food culture, so I would say that this banana curry pizza is related to this search for exoticism that takes place the years after the war in Europe.”

Tellström guesses, based on culinary patterns, that the dish could be traced back to the 1980s, because it was in the late ’70s that Sweden experimented with putting pineapple on pizza—and bananas seem like an extension of that.

“It’s a combination of sweet flavors, salt, warm banana and spices,” Tellström says. When I ask the professor if he is a fan of the textures and flavors, he admits, “I have problems with warm fruit.” But if it’s done properly, and the banana isn’t too soft, he’d give it another go.

For the curious, it’s fairly easy to find banana curry pizza throughout Sweden. “Pizza in Sweden is in between street food and restaurant food,” Tellström says. “We have a lot of pizza shops in Sweden, probably more than there are McDonald’s, and there are plenty of those. Small villages in Sweden have pizza shops, and the pizza shops are familiar with this style, generally serving it.”

Many pizza shops end up adapting, understandably so, to what customers are asking for. “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.”

Kebab pizza, with kebab meat, pepperoni, yogurt sauce and vegetables, is another popular pie in Sweden. Ham is a common topping, too, sometimes with pineapple, mushrooms or even shrimp (for a little Swedish surf and turf).

“My favorite pizza combo is tuna fish, black olives and sardelles [a salty fish, like anchovy] on a cheese and tomato pizza,” says Tellström.

The food historian has come across pizzas with banana, pineapple and curry, with proteins like chicken or beef tenderloin, and sometimes topped with peanuts, too. “If you reflect on why Sweden has so many varieties of this pizza, I think it has to do with freedom to choose whatever you want in this secular modern lifestyle, and so tradition is not so important,” he says.

Banana curry pizza is hard to come by in the United States. But if you find yourself in California’s Sonoma County, Petaluma’s Stockhome restaurant is worth a stop. “Banana curry pizza is what I loved growing up,” says chef and owner Roberth Sundell. “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.”

In addition to classics like Swedish meatballs and shrimp skagen, Sundell’s menu features popular Swedish street foods, like tunnbrodsrulle, or Swedish hot dogs, which consist of a frankfurter or two wrapped in soft flatbread with mashed potatoes, ketchup, mustard, fried onions, lettuce, and shrimp salad or pickle relish.

It has been fun to introduce Californians to Swedish dishes, says the chef. “Melted mozzarella with warm bananas and curry powder is to die for,” he says.

Jessica Kelly | READ MORE

Jessica Kelly is a travel journalist and photographer based in New York. She has written for Huffington Post, Condé Nast Traveler, Bon Appétit, Hemisphere and other publications.