Italian rocket veggie pizza, you disappeared too fast.
Last April, before I made the choice to become vegan my mom, grandma, and I traveled to Italy to celebrate my grandma’s birthday.
We (of course) had delicious food, but one pizza in particular stuck out in my opinion. We were in a quaint little town called Camogli on the Ligurian coastline. This pizza was thin crusted, fresh and warm from the stone oven, with melty cheese, sweet tomato sauce, and fresh rocket, cherry tomatoes, and shaved parmesan on top.
Fast forward a little over a year later and I’m finally tackling the task of veganizing( I’m making this a word) and recreating this pizza at home. And so my Italian rocket veggie pizza is born.
I use whole wheat pastry, cornmeal, and spelt flours to make the pizza dough for my Italian rocket veggie pizza. I also added rosemary.
I simply topped this Italian rocket veggie pizza with tomato sauce, vegan parmesan (inspired by Minimalist Baker ), zucchini, fresh tomatoes, basil, red onions, and rosemary.
Then I added with fresh rocket( otherwise known as arugula) and tomatoes.


- For the dough
- 1 cup warm water (105-15degrees farenheight)
- 2 1/4 tsp (1 packet) active dry yeast
- 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
- 1/3 cup spelt flour
- 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 Tbsp cornmeal
- 1 tsp fresh rosemary
- Cashew "Parmesan"
- 1/2 cup raw cashews
- 1/4 cup pine nuts
- 3 Tbsp nutritional yeast
- 3/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- Toppings
- 3-4 cloves chopped garlic
- marinara sauce or paste
- 1 small zucchini
- shredded basil
- thinly sliced red onion
- kale or spinich
- cherry tomatoes
- optional: olives, artichoke hearts ect
- fresh arugula
- cherry tomatoes
- Add water to the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook or a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle yeast on top and leave to sit for 5-10 minutes, or until foamy.
- Turn the mixer on low and gradually add flours, olive oil, and salt. Increase speed to medium-low and mix for about 5 minutes.
- Remove dough from the mixing bowl, and use your hands to shape it into a ball. Grease the mixing bowl (or a separate bowl) with olive oil then place the dough ball back in the bowl and cover it with a damp towel. Place in a warm location and let it rise for 30-45 minutes until the dough has nearly doubled in size.
- Preheat oven to 475°F( and pizza stone, if using). Otherwise, lightly grease two baking sheets. Dust a surface with cornmeal and divide dough into two balls. Roll out into two 12 inch rounds.
- Carefully transfer onto baking sheets or pizza stone and lightly poke holes with a fork to allow air to escape. Lightly brush with olive oil and sprinkle with rosemary.
- Next, spread on sauce and add garlic. Add onion, kale, half of the cherry tomatoes, basil, zucchini, olives, artichoke hearts and, "cheese."
- Bake for 11-16 minutes, or until crust looks golden and crispy.
- Slice and pile on fresh arugula and cherry tomatoes.
- If you want to make the dough ahead of time, put dough in the fridge to rise for between 6 and 24 hours. Then, continue.
- My parmesan recipe was adapted from http://minimalistbaker.com/
Looks wonderful, Mikayla! In the winter (too hot and busy right now), I will make it with a gluten-free pizza dough recipe and let you know how that turns out. Pizza and pasta dishes are your grandpa’s and my favorites.
Italian food brings great joy and family love…I learned that from my Grandpa Cannistra who came to the US from Italy when he was a very young man!
Congrats on your delightful blog. Keep cooking and sharing!
Thank you!