Simple Margherita Pizza Recipe + Most Popular Veggie Pizza Toppings

Every weekend we make this simple margherita pizza recipe and play with our favorite toppings always using our Italian basic pizza sauce recipe. Everyone loves pizza, but not everyone makes their own pizza. Here we share all our tips learned since we arrive to live Italy a couple of years ago, and our chef friends have kindly tought us. Let's make pizza today!

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Having pizza here in Italy is like having bread in any western country. Although we all know pizza, we have very different conceptions about what is acceptable and what isn’t when eating and cooking this world-famous invention.

Even here in Italy, there are a lot of differences between regions.

These differences touch every aspect of its making; the dough (“impasto”), the sauce, the cheese, the type of flour used, the raising time and method, the cooking method (there’s even fried pizza)… I could keep going.

Jump to:

• 🧾 Ingredients
• 🇮🇹 Rules to eat Pizza without hurting Italian’s Pride
• 🍕 Pizza naming
• 🥣 Get it right from the start
• 🧂 List pizza toppings
• 🍽 Equipment
• 🥡 Storage
• 📚 More dough recipes
• 📋 Recipe
• 🌡️ Food safety
• 🌡️ Food safety
• 💬 Reviews and Comments

🧾 Ingredients

•  0 flour full of strong Manitoba flour
•  Extra virgin olive oil
• Sea salt
• Cane sugar
• Dry brewer’s yeast (active dry yeast)
• Warm water
• Vegan Mozzarella cheese (you can use regular mozzarella if vegetarian)
• Parmesan cheese

🇮🇹 Rules to eat Pizza without hurting Italian’s Pride

Note these are NOT my personal opinions but a set of "rules" I have gathered while living in Italy and interviewing chefs and just regular people from different regions. So we just compiled some of those opinions.

Certain things remain the same across the country, some of which we didn’t know before:

1. Do not add any strange things on top of a pizza, such as ketchup. Hawaiian pizza is completely unacceptable in Italy. We have nothing against it but that's how it is here. That one is easy!
2. Pizza should be eaten with the hand, no forks, please—another easy one, except for some picky characters.
3. The pizza is round, with no funny shapes. I had made and seen rectangle shapes before; just make sure you don’t do it in Italy! Keep reading to know about the Pinsa, which has a rectangle shape. The exception here is the pizza slices bought at bakeries and street-front pizza shops.
4. The cut should be triangular. No squares allowed. I had cut them in different shapes before, but not anymore!
5. The pizza is individual. This one was shocking for us. Please do not attempt to ask for a pizza for two in a restaurant, although it is OK to share kids. I wonder how they keep in shape!

Of course, you can get creative when it comes to toppings; they are also very creative even here in Italy.

In every Pizza Shop, you will find not less than twenty types of pizzas.

The usual variations and customizations are:

• Type of flour: Bran flour vs. Normal
• Sauce: White vs. Red Sauce Pizza
• Border: option for a filled border. This one is arguable, but hey!… I live here, and I have seen many pizza delivery services that offer this option).

🍕 Pizza naming

The Naming of a Pizza: do not call a Napolitan Pizza a Roman Pizza (and vice versa). If you are not wrongly calling out those types of pizzas, you are safe!

The main differences between the two

The main difference between the Roman Pizza and the Napolitan Pizza is the dough.

• You make a Napolitan Pizza only with flour, yeast, water, and salt.
• On the other hand, Roman pizza will add olive oil to the ingredients to be stretched further, making a thinner dough.

There is also the Pinsa Romana, which:

• It has a rectangle shape.
• The dough is made with a specific combination of flours.
• It is raised for a specific amount of time.
• A Pinsa does not have cooked ingredients on top.

I will dedicate another post to the Pinsa Romana soon!

The mindset that drives all these specificities is the same as the one for wines and distyles. It all comes to what ingredients are being used, their origins, and the cooking and processing methods.

🥣 Get it right from the start

Making a pizza is actually very easy; you just need to know various tips and consider them from the start. Otherwise, you will always be asking yourself what went wrong this time.

How to make vegan pizza dough

Luckily the traditional pizza dough is vegan! I strongly recommend reading the pro tips along with Yeast and Flour Section below.

• Dilute the sugar and instant yeast in the water. Let it rest for 10 minutes. You should see some bubbles on top of the mix.
• Meanwhile, mix 14 ounces (400 grams) of flour, two-thirds of the semolina, salt, and olive oil, in a bowl.
• Add the yeast mixture. Mix it. It should be sticky but manageable. Bring on additional flour gradually if you have a hard time kneading the dough.
• Remove from the large bowl, stretch and fold it for 20 minutes in a lightly floured surface, adding the remaining flour if needed. You could use a stand mixer with the dough hook appliance instead.

Preheat oven for at least 15 minutes at maximum temperature (about 480 ºF, 250 ºC) before pizza making. You want it to be very very hot.

Tip: do not use a rolling pin, you want to keep the air inside of the dough. That way you will get a thin crust with a fluffy border.

Do not overload the pizza dough with mozzarella cheese, otherwise the pizza crust won't reach the right consistency.

Time to add your favorite pizza topping. If using leaves such as fresh basil or arugula, add them after removing the pizza pan from the oven, otherwise they will wilt, otherwise add other types of toppings at this moment.

This homemade pizza crust recipe only needs about 15 minutes of baking time, as long as it is baked in a preheated oven. The perfect pizza should be golden brown and have at most a couple of dark brown spots.

If you are using a normal sized oven, we recommend baking one pizza at a time, so the heat is concentrated and cooks the pizza fast.

Remember that the professional ovens used in bakeries can reach much higher temperatures compared to most household's oven, that's why taking care of preserving oven's heat is imperative.

Tip: if you are unsure about how even your oven heat is, put an oven-safe container on the bottom of the oven with a cup of water.

Here in Italy, when making a cheese pizza, it is common to have your pizza topped with buffalo mozzarella.

See full recipe below.

Pro Tips

To make the perfect homemade pizza dough follow the simple but extremely helpful tips. Don't be intimidated, you will incorporate the quickly and also be able to apply them to your baking recipes.

1. The minimum amount of time I would recommend letting the dough rise is two hours, but I prefer leaving it to rise for three hours and even overnight.
2. Make sure you leave the dough to rise at a warm temperature. For example, I leave it close to my house heater in winter, or also, you can turn the oven on to 100 ºF (50ºC) for ten minutes and then turn it off before turning the dough in.
3. I love semolina and the sandy, dusty effect it has on pizza. In my opinion, semolina just makes the pizzas have more of a Sourdough texture, which I am all in for.
4. When rising (proofing), cover the dough pieces with plastic foil. Air is the worst enemy of your dough. It will make a hard crust on it if you leave it uncovered.
5. Put any oven-resistant pan on the bottom of the oven with 2 cups of water (this helps ensure the same temperature is homogenous if you don’t have an oven with a fan).
6. Suppose you don’t have a Pizza Oven or a Clay Oven, which raises their temperature way above any conventional house oven. In that case, you need to increase the temperature to the maximum (about 480ºF or 250ºC) and let it pre-heat for twenty minutes.
7. Do not open the oven until the pizza is ready! Otherwise, you will lose the temperature, and the dough will not forgive you.

Flour

Flour type is a big deal when it comes to baking. I learned it the hard way. You just can’t use any flour for any dish. The zeros define the amount of gluten (protein) a given flour type has, thus what the flour is good for.

The fewer zeros, the more gas it would hold, and more gluten, and gluten is the protein that makes dough rise. If you use a multipurpose flour (most likely a 000), it will not grow as a 0 or 00 one.

You can use both strong flour (one zero), or all-purpose flour, also known as bread flour (two zeros).

What's the difference? Strong flour, has more strength to proof, meaning the pizza crust can be airier, but for this to happen you need to let it proof for more time. From 4-5 hours.

If you use bread flour (two zeros), the proofing time can be as low as 2 hours.

The more common flours used for baking cakes and dessert recipes is the 0000 type because you don’t want your cake to lose its shape.

The 0000 is more refined and whiter, as it has little gluten formation, it is not a good gas container and the bread loses shape. For this reason it is only used in sliced bread and pastry, in cake batter, puff pastries, etc.

There is no better or worse flour; you just need to know what you want it for.

Tip: if you want your pizza to be somewhat airy but still flat, you can use a mix of half all-purpose flour and half strong flour . Make sure to increase leavening time by one to two hours.

Yeast

This easy pizza dough recipe uses instant yeast, as it reduces the leavening time and complexity of the recipe. In fact, most of the pizzaiolos (pizza makers)and bread recipes use active dry yeast.

If you choose to use fresh yeast, also known as cake or compressed, make sure you use 3 times more.

Active dry yeast = ⅓ dose fresh yeast

Yeasts are microorganisms from the fungus kingdom. They are alive; they hate salt and love sugar. So when you use salt, make sure it doesn’t come in direct contact with yeast; it will kill it, the same way hot water will. Yeasts like warm water and sweets, don’t we all?

Most of the active dry yeast packages say you don't need to dilute yeats in warm water before using and that you can add it directly on top of all-purpose flour; but my experience sugary warm water does help the yeast.

You can find both fresh and dry yeast; they both work; just follow the yeast package instructions.

Pizza Sauce

Do not get too inventive with the sauce. No onions, no red bell pepper. Please keep it simple; it works! Just use the best tomato sauce you can find (Italian Passata works well).

Or make your own; simply use blended extra ripe tomatoes using either fresh tomatoes or canned tomatoes.

Add a little extra virgin olive oil to a pan, followed by minced garlic and basil. Alternativerly you can use a teaspoon of Italian seasoning.

The best pizza shouldn't be soggy, use only a little amount of sauce, spreading it with the back of a wooden spoon and make sure not to overload you fantastic homemade pizza dough's surface.

We usually make a marinara sauce for all types of pizzas, including the famous pizza marinara, a simple yet delicious accidentally vegan pizza.

🧂 List pizza toppings

We all know that when it comes to pizza toppings the sky is the limit; here we will touch base on veggie Authentic Italian pizza toppings that you can enjoy with your homemade pizza.

• Caramelized red onion
• Black olives
• Green olives
• Sliced eggplants
• Cherry tomatoes
• Sliced zucchini or Courghettes
• Poricini mushrooms
• Sliced cremini or portobello mushrooms
• Oregano
• Sliced plum tomatoes
• Red bell peppers
• Green or yellow bell peppers
• Roasted pumpkin or butternut squash
• Artichokes
• Cooked turnips
• Shaved truffles or truffle oil
• Ground pistacchio

Fresh Italian Basil

The Margherita pizza comes with basil. Add fresh Italian basil just right after the homemade pizza comes out of the oven. Not before, otherwise, the leaves will wilt and turn black.

We like adding sliced fresh basil to our pizza sauce, so it is imbued with delicious herb flavor right from the source, but this is optional and can be also replaced with dried basil.

Arugula

One of our favorite pizza toppings is fresh arugula with cherry tomatoes, very common toppings found here in Italy. This combination is regularly paired with gorgonzola blue cheese.

Check out our Italian Focaccia Recipe!

Most popular Italian pizza cheese toppings

• Mozzarella cheese
• Gorgonzola cheese (blue cheese)
• Buffalo mozzarella
• Scamorza and smoked scamorza
• Parmigiano-reggiano
• Provolone
• Grana padano
• Goat cheese

Allthough these are all great options we stand for vegan mozzarella cheese. You just need to get a good great brand.

Best vegan mozzarella cheese brands in the US

After extensive research while spending time with our relatives in the US during the past months, we have gathered this list of vegan mozzarella options.

• Daiya Mozzarella Style Shreds
• Parmela Creamery Plant-Based Mozzarella
• Moocho Dairy-Free Mozzarella Style Shreds
• Miyoko's Creamery Vegan Pizza Mozzarella
• Violife Just Like Mozzarella shreds (affiliate link) (affiliate link)

🍽 Equipment

We strongly recommend baking your pizza either on a pizza stone or pizza pan for this easy recipe. Avoid using baking sheets with an edge.

Do not using a rolling pin. It might seem like a good idea to stretch the pizza, but you will be getting rid of all the fantastic bread air bubbles.

Use a large bowl to mix the dough before transferring it to the kneading surface, and it will facilitate your work. Make sure you slam the dough against the kneading surface to activate the yeast properly.

Using a stand mixer (affiliate link) can get your hands off the kitchen for 20 minutes. We love kneading, but it can certainly be useful when hosting a pizza party.

Cut the pizza either with a pizza wheel (affiliate link) or a chef's knife (affiliate link).

To make the pizza sauce, we recommend using a skillet (affiliate link) with a lid because thick tomato sauce tends to sprinkle vigorously.

🥡 Storage

Store the pizza dough for up to 5 days in the fridge. When properly stored, using a resealable freezer bag for your own pizza dough can last up to 5 days in the fridge or even up to 3 months in the freezer.

The best storage time will strongly depend on the amount of yeast used in the pizza dough. Generally speaking, the less yeast in the pizza dough, the longer it will keep.

📚 More dough recipes

See how to make your own vegan pasta dough, vegan empanadas dough, Italian pagnotta easy bread loaf, and focaccia bread.

⭐ If you try this recipe, let us know! 💬 Leave a comment, rate it, and don't forget to tag us @ourplantbasedworld on Instagram. Cheers!

Ready to knead? It will be fun!

⭐ If you try this recipe, let us know! 💬 Leave a comment, rate it, and don't forget to tag us @ourplantbasedworld on Instagram. Cheers!

📋 Recipe

🌡️ Food safety

• Cook to a minimum temperature of 165 °F (74 °C)
• Do not use the same utensils on cooked food that previously touched raw meat
• Wash hands after touching raw meat
• Don't leave food sitting out at room temperature for extended periods
• Never leave cooking food unattended
• Use oils with high smoking points to avoid harmful compounds
• Always have good ventilation when using a gas stove

See more guidelines at USDA.gov.

The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist's advice. See our full Nutritional Disclosure here.

Please note that some of the links here are affiliate links, and I will earn a commission if you purchase through those links. I recommend all of the products listed because they are companies I have found helpful and trustworthy.

🌡️ Food safety

• Cook to a minimum temperature of 165 °F (74 °C)
• Do not use the same utensils on cooked food that previously touched raw meat
• Wash hands after touching raw meat
• Don't leave food sitting out at room temperature for extended periods
• Never leave cooking food unattended
• Use oils with high smoking points to avoid harmful compounds
• Always have good ventilation when using a gas stove

See more guidelines at USDA.gov.

The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist's advice. See our full Nutritional Disclosure here.

Please note that some of the links here are affiliate links, and I will earn a commission if you purchase through those links. I recommend all of the products listed because they are companies I have found helpful and trustworthy.