Colorful Veggilicious Pizza

What comes to mind when you think of Italian food besides all the fantastic pasta dishes? Yes, of course, pizza! Wherever you go, whatever country you visit, everybody loves and savors this versatile dish. It comes in all kinds of flavors, colors, deep dish, thin crust, gluten free, vegan, you can eat it with your hands or silverware – pizza is for everybody! So this is my version of perfect pizza. I prefer it Italian style with a delicious thin crust, a medium amount of toppings, and….yup, a glass of red wine! The toppings are your choice! Mine are just a suggestion. Pick the ones you like, but don’t go overboard! Best enjoyed in good company with some Italian music in the background!

Helpful but not necessary:

• peel
• pizza stone

Ingredients for two 12 inch/40 cm pizzas: 

Pizza dough:

• 3/4 cup (180 ml) warm water
• 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
• 1 tsp maple syrup
• 2 1/2 cups (325 g) all-purpose einkorn flour + more for bowl and to roll out (I used ‘Jovial‘)
• 1 1/4 tsp Celtic sea salt
• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• cornmeal for pizza stone or baking sheet

Toppings:

• 8 oz (240 g) pizza sauce
• 12 oz (360 g) shredded vegan mozzarella cheese
• 1 small sweet onion, sliced
• 1 small red pepper, quartered and sliced with seeds removed or 4 mini peppers, cored and sliced in rings
• 8 oz (240 g) fresh mushrooms, sliced
• 1 medium tomato, diced
• ~ 20 pitted Kalamata olives
• if you like it spicy, 1-2 jalapeño peppers, cored, sliced in rings
• dried oregano to taste

Preparation:

Pour the warm lukewarm water in a small bowl. Add yeast and maple syrup, stir, and let sit for about 10 minutes until bubbles form. Meanwhile, put the einkorn flour with salt into a large mixing bowl and form a well in the middle. If you’re using a machine, attach the kneading hook. Once the yeast/water mix is ready, pour it with the olive oil into the well and start kneading. It takes about 5 minutes on low to medium low speed for my stand mixer to form one piece of dough that can easily be pulled away from the side of the bowl and the hook. It might take a little longer, if you use your hands. Cover the bottom of your bowl and your hands with some more flour, and form a nice flour-dusted ball of dough. Cover the bowl with a clean, damp kitchen towel, and let the dough rise in a warm place until it’s about double the size. This takes, give or take, about 2 hours, depending on room temperature and the kind of yeast you use. If your A/C is running, and you can’t find a warm spot in the house, please check my notes for a solution! Once the dough has risen, push it down with your fist, pull it away from the bowl, and briefly knead it again. Transfer dough to your flour dusted work area and divide into 2 similar size pieces. Preheat your oven to 500°F (260°C).

With floured hands first pull, then roll out the dough to about 12″ for each pizza. It should be rather thin in the middle and just a little bit thicker outside for the crust. Spread some cornmeal on your pizza stone or the baking sheet. This will prevent the pizza from sticking to the surface and make it easier to take out. Transfer first pizza dough to the pizza stone or baking sheet. Remember, the topping ingredients are for 2 pizzas, so make it half for each! Spread sauce and vegan cheese on the pizza, add veggies and dried oregano and slide into the preheated oven. Bake for 10-15 minutes until crust takes on some color and veggies show some burnt edges. Be very careful, when you take out the pizza stone with the pizza. It’s very hot! I use my peel to transfer it to a pizza tray, but you can also slide it off. That’s when you see how well you sprinkled the cornmeal! I have another pizza stone, which comes in very handy for the second pizza. If you don’t, just wait until it’s cooled down a little to repeat this process with pizza #2 or transfer to a baking sheet.

Notes:

• If you can’t find a warm spot in your house to let the dough rise, heat your oven to 110°F (43°C). Not higher! Then turn it off again! Yeast loves warm conditions but will die when it’s too hot. Wrap one or two damp kitchen towels around your bowl to give it some insulation and to prevent the dough from drying out. Put it in the warm oven (did you turn off the heat???) and let it rise. This technique will definitely speed up the process.
• Learning how to make pizza is really a process. I always refer to my mom’s ‘how-to-make-yeast-dough’ instructions, so … thank you, Mom! Unlike my mom, I made all kinds of mistakes, but as long as I followed my properly risen dough recipe, nobody really cared, because the outcome was delicious. One time, I was a little stingy with the cornmeal underneath the pizza and ended up ripping it apart. Well, it became a wonderful Calzone and everyone involved devoured it. (Pssst, just don’t tell them you made a mistake 😉 )
• If you don’t like vegan cheese, no problem! It’s really not necessary! This pizza is so flavorful that you won’t miss a thing!