Who doesn't love pizza? Those who don't eat meat or cheese can enjoy a delicious vegan pizza. This marinara pizza recipe will please even the pickiest of eaters. Anyone can make this at home with simple ingredients and easy instructions. So roll up your sleeves and get started - you'll love this pizza!
You don't have to be a culinary master to nail this recipe; it's all about embracing the simplicity and authenticity of Italian food. With just a few carefully chosen ingredients and minimal prep time, you'll have a meal that transports you straight to an Italian piazza.
And hey, if you're short on time or ingredients, there are plenty of substitutes you can play around with!
This recipe can be a show-stopping main dish or a relaxed weeknight dinner, inspired by our traditional vegan cheese pizza recipe. However, there are a couple of tweaks focused more on handling and managing the few toppings to achieve the perfect texture, not too much sauce, just the right amount of extras.
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🧾 Ingredients
You have two components, the dough and the sauce.
Pizza dough ingredients
- Bread Flour: Provides the dough with a higher protein content, giving your pizza that desirable chewy texture. It's the secret to a crust that's both crispy and tender.
- Extra-Virgin Olive Oil: Adds a rich, fruity flavor to the dough and helps in achieving that golden-brown crust. Plus, it's packed with healthy fats that are good for your heart.
- Dry Yeast: The leavening agent that makes the dough rise, creating a light and airy crust. It's what brings the "lift" to your pizza party.
- Brown Sugar: Helps to activate the yeast and adds a subtle sweetness to balance out the savory elements. It's like the wingman to your yeast, ensuring it performs its best.
- Salt: Enhances the flavors of all the other ingredients and controls the yeast's activity. Think of it as the conductor of your pizza symphony, making sure every note is perfect.
Marinara sauce (pizza sauce) ingredients
- tomato sauce
- fresh basil
- extra-virgin olive oil
- garlic
Optionally: oregano and season with salt and brown sugar to balance acidity.
🔪 Instructions
Knead the pizza dough
Make the marinara pizza sauce
Stir-fry the minced garlic in olive oil on medium heat.
Add tomato sauce (canned tomatoes and crushed tomatoes also work).
Then, add the dried oregano, basil leaves, sugar, and salt.
Cook the sauce on medium-low heat with a lid for 20 minutes until the liquid has reduced by one-third. Stir it halfway.
Taste and adjust with salt and pepper or red pepper flakes to make it a hot sauce.
🥫Did you know?🍅
When it comes to making tomato sauce for pizza, there are two schools of thought: cooking and not cooking the sauce, evoking the question: what is the difference between pizza sauce and marinara sauce?
Some people swear by cooking their tomato sauce before putting it on the pizza, arguing that it helps to concentrate the flavors and results in a richer, more complex sauce.
Others, however, argue that cooking the sauce can actually detract from the bright, fresh flavor of the tomatoes and that a raw sauce is a way to go.
We like to cook it slightly!
Extend the pizza dough.
It is important to stretch the pizza dough ball delicately to keep as much as air in, so after you make a dough ball the size of a baseball, stretch it slightly with your fingers and then place it in the oiled baking pan, pressing with your finger from the center to the edges.
Step 1: Flour to a pizza baking dish with hard durum flour.
Step 2: Extend the pizza dough, keeping as much air as possible, starting from the center.
Step 3: Pour and extend the marinara sauce.
Step 4: Add dried oregano and take the pizza to the oven.
Step 5: Place the sliced garlic cloves on top and a drizzle of olive oil.
💡 Baking Tips
The moment to put the pizza in the oven is perhaps one of the most important because wrong cooking could nullify all our sacrifices in the blink of an eye!
Remember that the oven must be heated very well first, to at least 250 degrees (the high temperature is essential to cook the pizza at its best).
If you have an electric oven, remember that this tends to heat up more in the back, so remember to rotate the pizza from time to time to obtain homogeneous cooking.
Put a container with water on the bottom of the oven to ensure the heat is even in the oven.
Top tip: don't open the oven until the pizza is cooked!
👨🏻🍳 Flour
To have an airier pizza, use half all-purpose flour(Type 00) and half strong flour (Type 0). If you do, allow at least one extra hour for proofing, as type = flour has more strength to proof, given that it has a larger protein content; thus, more time allows for the proofing to fully develop.
You can even use 100% Type 0 flour, in which case, allowing for a minimum of 4-6 hours of proofing and even overnight would be ideal.
📖 Variations
This easy homemade pizza sauce can vary with simple ingredients because you can easily replace Marinara sauce's components with kitchen staples like Italian seasoning. You can also use onion powder and garlic powder to replace the fresh condiments version.
Even dried oregano works well. The only ingredient I wouldn't change to make the sauce delicious is the fresh basil, as dried basil doesn't really taste the same.
See all the tips for making a great homemade marinara sauce that can be used as spaghetti sauce pasta, dipping sauce for crostini, or as a base for a vegetarian lasagna.
If you have more time and are feeling fancy, we recommend this roasted tomato pizza sauce we made for a change. We loved it!
🥢 How to serve
Fresh Green Salad: An spinach and arugula salad or a simple mix of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and a lemon and olive oil dressing will complement the freshness of the marinara pizza perfectly.
Antipasti Platter: Put together a platter with olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and slices of Italian pickled eggplant. These Mediterranean flavors will enhance the taste of the pizza.
Roasted Vegetables: Roast a tray of veggies. If you need inspiration, check out our previous post for vegan honey-roasted vegetables.
Infused Water: Refresh your meal with cucumber and lemon-infused pineapple ginger cucumber water.
Light Red Wine: A glass of light red wine, such as Chianti or Pinot Noir, will pair perfectly with the flavors of the marinara pizza.
📚 More dough recipes
See how to make your own vegan pasta dough, vegan empanadas dough, Italian pagnotta easy bread loaf, basic pizza dough, and focaccia bread.
📋 Recipe
Marinara Pizza Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
Dough
- 1 lb bread flour (500 g) If you want a more airy pizza, replace half the quantity for full strong manitoba flour. Remember, you need extra flour to manage.
- 2 tablespoons olive oil extra-virgin
- 2 teaspoons sea salt fine
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- ¼ ounce dry brewer’s instant yeast approx. 2-¼ teaspoons, or 7 g
- 11 fluid ounces warm water (325 ml)
Optional
- 2 tablespoons hard durum wheat for dusting the pizza
Sauce
- 2 ½ cups tomato sauce
- 4 garlic cloves
- 2 tablespoons oregano dried
- 2 tablespoons olive oil extra virgin
- 1 bunch basil fresh
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions
Sauce:
- Chop the garlic and fry in the olive oil on medium heat for 30 seconds.
- Add tomato passata sauce, the oregano and basil leaves, sugar and salt.
- Cook the sauce on medium-low heat with a lid for 20 minutes until the liquid has reduced one-third. Stir it halfway.
- Remove from heat and add the remaining basil leaves. Adjust.
Dough:
- Dilute the sugar and dry yeast in the warm water. Let the liquid sit for 10 minutres. You should see bubbles on top of the mixture.
- Meanwhile, mix in a large bowl 14 ounces (400 grams) of flour and salt.
- Add the yeast mixture and olive oil and start kneading.
- Take out of the bowl and stretch and fold it for 20 minutes, adding more flour if needed.
- Divide the dough into four pieces. Stretch and fold like making an envelope, closing the bowl from below.
- Place each dough ball on an oiled baking sheet with olive oil, and cover each one with plastic wrap, leaving space between them.
- Let the dough rise for a minimum of two hours. The dough should be close to a warm place, like a heater, or you can put the baking sheet in the oven with the light on.
- Pre-heat your oven at 480ºF (or 250 ºC).
- Put an oven-resistant container on the bottom of the oven with a cup of water
- Oil pizza tin with olive oil and optionally dust with semolina (durum wheat).
- Stretch the dough ball, keeping as much air inside the dough to make your pizza fluffier.
- Add ¾ cup of tomato sauce and spread it widely. Don't add too much sauce, or it will make the dough soggy. Add some extra oregano if you like.
- Bake for fifteen minutes without opening the oven.
- Add some extra fresh basil leaves and serve hot.
Notes
Nutrition Facts
Nutritional Disclaimer
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.
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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.
As the lead content writer and recipe developer at Our Plant-Based World, he combines his passion for health and sustainability with a Plant-Based Nutrition Certification to create accessible, delicious vegan recipes. His expertise in plant-based cooking supports the blog's mission of fostering a healthier, environmentally conscious lifestyle through simple and seasonal dishes. His commitment to making vegan cooking enjoyable and inclusive for everyone shines in each recipe and article.
Lucy
This homemade pizza is so much tastier than store bought, it will be a regular weeknight meal now. I love how clear your instructions are to follow, thank you.
Gus
Thank you for trying our pizza Lucy, and for your kind words about our instructions. We're glad you enjoyed it!
Katie
This recipe is beyond delicious! Definitely my new favorite!!
Gus
Thank you for trying our recipe, Katie! We're so glad you enjoyed it and we hope you'll make it again soon.
nancy
adding brown sugar to the pizza dough made such a big difference! What an excellent tip! My family always asks for pizzza night now!
Jacqui
I never tried adding brown sugar to my pizza dough, so I had to try and it is so good! Thank you for sharing
Gus
you are welcome, Jacqui! Yep, sugar helps the yeast to develop its leavening process. I am glad you liked it!
Ana F.
This is one of my favorite pizza recipes! So easy to make and delicious. I’m hooked on this Pizza Marinara!
Shadi Hasanzadenemati
My family is going to love this! Thank you for this amazing recipe.
Claudia Lamascolo
My kind of pizza love that kind of sauce and its a favorite in our home!
Mahy
I don't know a single person who doesn't love pizza. I mean, there is just nothing better than a hot slice in the evening...