Vegetarian pizza.

by Mo on August 12, 2011

Vegetarian Pizza a healthy alternative

Vegetarian Pizza

Regular readers of best pizza toppings can probably guess that we’re not vegetarians. There are too many vivid descriptions of salumiand photos of prosciutto for us to pass ourselves off as non-carnivores.

But as we’ve gotten older, staying healthy and looking good have become more important. So like everyone else, we try to watch what we eat.

While it’s true that you can substitute greasy pizza toppings like pepperoni and meatballs for leaner options like chicken sausage and ham, even the healthiest meat toppings are usually pretty high in sodium.

If you want a truly guilt-free experience, a vegetarian pizza is the way to go. Since we’re not vegetarians ourselves, we assumed that any pizza without meat was vegetarian, but that’s not strictly true.


To qualify as vegetarian, the pizza must be made with cheese that doesn’t contain animal-based rennet. Fortunately, there are a number of great cheeses on the market now that don’t. So, problem solved.

You can make a conventional pizza crust with flour, water, and olive oil, or use any number of other bases. While canned tomatoes – especially San Marzanos – make an excellent tomato sauce, they often have quite a bit of sodium. If you use fresh, vine-ripened tomatoes, they’ll have just as much flavor with a lot less salt.

Just be sure to seed the tomatoes before you use them. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a limp, soggy crust.

You could also use pesto as your sauce. If you don’t have lots of fresh basil on hand, most groceries sell good, ready-made pesto.

To add an extra depth, consider opting for a smoked cheese. Gouda and mozzarella are both excellent and melt well, which is key for pizza. If you have a smoker – though if you’re a vegetarian, I can’t imagine why you would – you can even smoke the cheese yourself.

Healthy vegetarian pizza

Vegetarian Pizza with Mushrooms

With the sauce and the cheese nailed down, the sky is the limit as far as toppings go. Artichokes – either marinated or canned – are excellent. They’re also terrific grilled. Steam one for 30 minutes, cut it in half, remove the choke, baste it with some oil and grill for 5 minutes on each side.

Olives add a lot of flavor, as do roasted red peppers. Of course, you can use raw green or red pepper, although it’s a little harder on the stomach. Onions are practically essential. You can even make a four-variety pizza with sweet, green, red, and caramelized onions.

Garlic is delicious, especially if you take the time to roast it ahead of time. And mushrooms add a rich, savory note. If morels, shitakes, or crimini mushrooms are in season, so much the better. And add plenty of fresh or dried herbs for even more flavor.

When you take your pizza out of the oven, drizzle it with a little extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with crushed red peppers flakes, if you like a little spice.

Read more vegetarian pizza ideas.

Vegetarian Pizza Image Flickr: Boon Lee
Vegetarian Pizza with Mushrooms: Brocco Lee

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In praise of the cheese pizza.

by Mo on February 16, 2011

Most of the time, we use quite a few pizza toppings. But some times, less really is more. And a plain old cheese pizza — done well — can be the most delicious pizza ever.

Like most dishes with only a few ingredients, it’s important that each one of them be top quality. If you can’t buy fresh pizza dough at your neighborhood grocery store, make it yourself. And use San Marzano tomatoes if you can find them.

Pizza Cheese

Pizza Cheese

But for the ultimate cheese pizza, the most critical ingredient is the pizza cheese, or more likely, cheeses. Although mozzarella cheese is the obvious choice, it’s quite mild and without some spicy pepperoni to jack things up, you could end up with a boring pizza.

If you want a mouth-watering pizza that’s bursting with flavor, you’ll need to add some other cheeses. Emmental cheese is a very popular pizza topping in France. A Swiss cheese made from cow’s milk, it has a nutty, buttery flavor. Jarlsberg, which comes from Norway, is similar. Both melt beautifully.

Another Swiss cheese that makes a fabulous pizza is Gruyere. Slightly salty from being brined, Gruyere is aged from a few months to a year. The flavor intensifies with aging. The French cheese, Comte, is quite similar. These cheeses are too rich to use as you would mozzarella. Either combine them with mozzarella, or use less than you ordinarily would.


As you’d expect, Italy also has several great pizza cheeses in addition to mozzarella. Fontina, which hails from the Val d’Aosta region, near the Swiss border, is mellow and slightly sweet. Burrata cheese — basically mozzarella with a center of heavy cream — is subtle, but delicious. Ricotta also adds a smooth, creamy texture. Just be sure it’s well drained before you use it.

No pizza is complete without one of the Italian grating cheeses: parmesan, grana padano, Asiago, or pecorino romano. These add wonderful depth, but be mindful of their saltiness. For the best flavor, grate them right before you use them.

Although the four cheeses in pizza quattro formaggi vary based on the preferences of the pizza maker, there’s usually a bleu or veined cheese, often gorgonzola. Use the gorgonzola sparingly, otherwise it will overwhelm everything else.

Cheese Pizza

Cheese Pizza

If you’re not a fan of bleu cheese, consider substituting goat cheese or feta. These range in flavor from mild to pungent.

Before you put your pizza in the oven, drizzle a little top-quality olive oil over the top. And if you’re so inclined, add a couple of twists of freshly-ground pepper or crushed red peppers flakes.

Once the aroma of melting cheese starts to waft from the oven, it will be difficult to be patient. But let your oven bake until the cheese turns golden brown and bubbly. Pour yourself a nice glass of Italian red — maybe Montepulciano or Chianti — and enjoy the best pizza there is.

Read more tips on pizza cheese or learn how to make your own.

Pizza Cheese Image Flickr: quinn.anya
Cheese Pizza Image Flickr: avlxyz

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Capricciosa pizza toppings.

by Mo on December 3, 2010

We’ve had many great pizzas in Italy, but our favorite has to be Pizza Capricciosa. The ingredients complement each other so perfectly — the saltiness of the olives, the woody taste of the mushrooms, and the tang of the artichokes — that is more complex and satisfying than any other Italian pizza.


The best one we ever had was on the island of Capri. So we thought that maybe the pizza was named for the isle and originated there. But neither is true.

The name roughly translates as “capricious pizza” because it seems like the maker couldn’t decide which pizza toppings to use. Most often, it’s made with artichokes, mushrooms, ham, olives, chopped tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese. Sometimes, a raw egg is broken over the pizza before it’s put in the oven or chopped, hard-boiled eggs are added.

All our favorite pizza toppings.

All our favorite pizza toppings.

The ingredients are the same for a Quattro Stagione or “four seasons” pizza, but the presentation is different. The pizza is divided into fourths and each quarter has different toppings.

The thing about pizza capricciosa is that there is room for interpretation in the ingredients — but each must be absolutely top quality.

Starting with the base, either pizza sauce or chopped tomatoes can be used, but they really should be San Marzanos. You can use almost any kind of mushrooms — white, creminis, shitakes, morels, or baby bellas. Of course, they’re best if they’re sautéed in a little butter first or you can use mushrooms from a jar that have been packed in oil. Just don’t even think about using canned ones.

Artichokes can be from a jar or can, marinated or not. The ham can be paper-thin prosciutto or diced cooked ham. And the olives can be black, green or mixed.

When we were in southern France this summer, it seemed like every pizza we ordered came with Emmental cheese in addition to mozzarella. And they were absolutely delicious. The best Emmental comes from Switzerland — but don’t tell the French who make a similar cheese called Emmentaler. It’s mellow, nutty flavor really complements the other ingredients. The cave-aged, which have a fruity taste, is the best.

While there are many pizza recipes for capricciosa, the best pizza will be the one that uses the toppings you like best.

Learn about other kinds of Italian pizza here.

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