Deep pan pizza
A pizza tray is useful for this recipe. If you don't have one, you can divide the dough into half and make two smaller pizzas on baking sheets. Apparently using a pizza stone is best, but I've never tried it myself.
Pizza base
350g bread flour
175-200ml lukewarm water
1 x 6g sachet fast action yeast
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp dried herbs (optional)
Sift the flour into a bowl and add the yeast, salt, olive oil and herbs if using. Make a well in the middle of the flour and gradually stir in the water. If the dough starts to get sticky, stop adding water. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes, adding more flour if it gets too sticky and more water if it's too dry. Sprinkle some flour onto the base and sides of the bowl, cover with a tea towel and leave somewhere warm for an hour for the dough to rise.
Preheat the oven to 220c. When the dough has risen, knock the air out of it and knead for another few minutes. Roll out onto the pizza tray. Add toppings of your choice and bake for about 20 minutes or until the base and toppings are cooked.
Pizza sauce
Tomato sauce is the standard sauce to spread over a pizza base, you can make your own from fresh or tinned tomatoes, or use a tomato-based pasta sauce or some tomato puree.
As an alternative to tomato sauce you could spread vegan pesto or houmous over the base.
Vegan pizza toppings
A few suggested combinations:
Giardinera
Asparagus spears, artichoke hearts, red onions, sliced tomato, sliced
flat mushrooms and pine nuts
Hawaiian
Pineapple, vegan ham, mushrooms and green peppers
Hot and spicy
Black olives, vegan pepperoni, red chillies and red peppers
Spicy Mexican
Jalapenos, pre-cooked vegemince, chilli powder, onion, sweetcorn and red
peppers
Spinaci e ricotta
Cooked spinach leaves and crumbled tofu (see spinach and tofu pasta shells
for recipe ideas)
Sweet savoury
Sweet red peppers, pineapple, sundried tomatoes, onion, green olives and
ground chilli flakes
Vegetariana (the standard vegetarian pizza topping in
restaurants in Verona)
Tomato slices, cooked spinach leaves, crumbled tofu (ok, so the original
was ricotta, but that's not vegan) and artichoke hearts
Or make your own combinations from:
artichoke hearts
asparagus
aubergine
basil
vegan cheese (see note below)
courgette
garlic
vegan ham
dried herbs
jalapenos
leek
chestnut or button mushrooms
flat mushrooms
olives
Parmazano
vegan pepperoni
vegan pesto
red or white onion
peppers (red, orange, yellow, green or sweet pointy ones)
pine nuts
pumpkin seeds
vegan sausage slices
sauce (e.g. BBQ sauce, sweet chilli sauce)
seitan
spinach
sundried tomatoes
sweetcorn
crumbled tofu
tofu slices or chunks
tomatoes
Vegan cheese as a pizza topping
First of all, let me say that cheese, vegan or otherwise, is not a compulsory ingredient for a tasty pizza. It may be what we're used to, but if the Italians don't need it then neither do we.
If you do want to use cheese, the main difference between vegan cheese and dairy cheese is that vegan cheese doesn't spread out in the same way as dairy cheese when it is heated - it goes soft but it does tend to keep its shape a bit more. Experiment with it to find a result you like. I sometimes use it cut into cubes rather than grated onto pizza. Using a bit of olive oil helps to add that greasy feel you sometimes get from pizza cheese.