If you're anything like me (Beth), you want a lot of flavor on your pizza, and you miss cheese terribly. Navigating the next level of the pizza will take a bit of space here as I cover varying allergy severity.
Gluten-free only:
Use cheese! Top with whatever you want! Go eat pizza!
Gluten-and-Kind-of-Dairy-Free:
I can have sheep and goat cheese without much pain, so I generally cheat. Pecorino Romano is a Parmesan-like hard cheese which is made from Sheeps' milk. In fact, it's Romano cheese made from milk from pecora (sheep). It's really strong which is great, but doesn't do the stretchy-mozarella thing. I did find a sheep mozarella once, but it was horrifically expensive. I also use Manchego, which is a sheep cheese from Spain which is kind of stretchy and kind of sharp, but it does have a distinct Mediterranean flavor. I get it in bulk at Costco (the Intolerant Foodie's friend for cheaper stuff!) and get over the fact that it's not an Italian Cheese. Again, it's about perspective. If it irks you at all to use manchego but you wanna try, add some fancy olives and artichoke hearts and make it a Med Pizza.
Generally, though, I make a creamy-ish sauce thing using garbanzo flour, white wine, and salt, and I'll toss in some grated Pecorino Romano. Generally, when we want cheese, we're craving salt and acidity. Hence salt, and wine! If you're doing something like pepperoni only or BBQ, use whiskey instead so it's not so froo-froo tasting. That recipe will be below.
Gluten-free and Absolutely Dairy-Free:
K. Bear with me. There is no substitute for cheese, but you know that by now. You can try out different kinds of vegan cheese, and maybe you'll find something that you like! If not, or if it's too pricey, try this:
1 Tbsp garbanzo flour
2-3 Tbsp white wine, or whiskey
What I do is odd, but it makes everything come together and taste good. And that's what matters to me. For each pizza, I cop all the ingredients I want, put them in a bowl like a tossed salad, sprinkle the flour over the mix and toss to coat. Then I drizzle the wine or whiskey over it, sprinkle with extra salt and toss again. I put that over my pizza sauce and spread it out to the edges, then bake as normal. Here are some examples:
The Extravaganza Pizza:
chop and mix: spinach, white onion, mushroom, tomato, bacon, jalapeño, green onion, black olive. Toss in a bowl, sprinkle with G-flour and salt, toss. Sprinkle with Whiskey and toss.
If I were to use Hot Italian Sausage instead of bacon, I'd do white wine.
Pepperoni:
If it's just pepperoni, chop them into quarters and then toss as directed above. But I like pepperoni and mushrooms and olives.
the Med:
black olive, green olive, white onion, tomato, artichoke hearts, Chicken (or fish!). Do the G-flour/salt/wine toss thing, and then spread on your crust, with or without red sauce. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with coarse sea salt and cracked pepper. That's right.
Gluten-free only:
Use cheese! Top with whatever you want! Go eat pizza!
Gluten-and-Kind-of-Dairy-Free:
I can have sheep and goat cheese without much pain, so I generally cheat. Pecorino Romano is a Parmesan-like hard cheese which is made from Sheeps' milk. In fact, it's Romano cheese made from milk from pecora (sheep). It's really strong which is great, but doesn't do the stretchy-mozarella thing. I did find a sheep mozarella once, but it was horrifically expensive. I also use Manchego, which is a sheep cheese from Spain which is kind of stretchy and kind of sharp, but it does have a distinct Mediterranean flavor. I get it in bulk at Costco (the Intolerant Foodie's friend for cheaper stuff!) and get over the fact that it's not an Italian Cheese. Again, it's about perspective. If it irks you at all to use manchego but you wanna try, add some fancy olives and artichoke hearts and make it a Med Pizza.
Generally, though, I make a creamy-ish sauce thing using garbanzo flour, white wine, and salt, and I'll toss in some grated Pecorino Romano. Generally, when we want cheese, we're craving salt and acidity. Hence salt, and wine! If you're doing something like pepperoni only or BBQ, use whiskey instead so it's not so froo-froo tasting. That recipe will be below.
Gluten-free and Absolutely Dairy-Free:
K. Bear with me. There is no substitute for cheese, but you know that by now. You can try out different kinds of vegan cheese, and maybe you'll find something that you like! If not, or if it's too pricey, try this:
1 Tbsp garbanzo flour
2-3 Tbsp white wine, or whiskey
What I do is odd, but it makes everything come together and taste good. And that's what matters to me. For each pizza, I cop all the ingredients I want, put them in a bowl like a tossed salad, sprinkle the flour over the mix and toss to coat. Then I drizzle the wine or whiskey over it, sprinkle with extra salt and toss again. I put that over my pizza sauce and spread it out to the edges, then bake as normal. Here are some examples:
The Extravaganza Pizza:
chop and mix: spinach, white onion, mushroom, tomato, bacon, jalapeño, green onion, black olive. Toss in a bowl, sprinkle with G-flour and salt, toss. Sprinkle with Whiskey and toss.
If I were to use Hot Italian Sausage instead of bacon, I'd do white wine.
Pepperoni:
If it's just pepperoni, chop them into quarters and then toss as directed above. But I like pepperoni and mushrooms and olives.
the Med:
black olive, green olive, white onion, tomato, artichoke hearts, Chicken (or fish!). Do the G-flour/salt/wine toss thing, and then spread on your crust, with or without red sauce. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with coarse sea salt and cracked pepper. That's right.
DID WE FORGET TO MENTION PIZZA SAUCE?
You can use whatever sauce you like, but when you try Jen's pizza sauce, you may not want to eat any other pizza sauce again. You might give up on going out for fancy pizza entirely because it just won't ever compare to:
Jenny B's MUTHER[expletive deleted]CKING Pizza Sauce
2, 6oz can tomato Paste
1 16oz can tomato Sauce
1 cup diced white onion
4 tbs olive oil
2 anchovy filets (NOT OPTIONAL)
4-6 Tbs white wine
4 garlic cloves
1/4-1/2 tsp salt
black pepper, 6 grinds...so like 1/2 tsp?
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 Tbs dried oregano
1 Tbs dried basil
1 tsp dried rosemary, ground
1 tsp fennel seeds
1. Blend in Food Processor
2. Add more wine by the tablespoon if you need more liquid in the sauce, but it should be pretty paste-y. It will thin when warm.
3. Serve on pizza if you can make it that far.
Jen's General Tasting-Rule-of-Thumb:
If you keep tasting and tasting and tasting it for flavor, without adding anything, you should call it good and save it before you eat it all.
And Finally...
Jenny B's MUTHER[expletive deleted]CKING Pizza Sauce
2, 6oz can tomato Paste
1 16oz can tomato Sauce
1 cup diced white onion
4 tbs olive oil
2 anchovy filets (NOT OPTIONAL)
4-6 Tbs white wine
4 garlic cloves
1/4-1/2 tsp salt
black pepper, 6 grinds...so like 1/2 tsp?
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 Tbs dried oregano
1 Tbs dried basil
1 tsp dried rosemary, ground
1 tsp fennel seeds
1. Blend in Food Processor
2. Add more wine by the tablespoon if you need more liquid in the sauce, but it should be pretty paste-y. It will thin when warm.
3. Serve on pizza if you can make it that far.
Jen's General Tasting-Rule-of-Thumb:
If you keep tasting and tasting and tasting it for flavor, without adding anything, you should call it good and save it before you eat it all.
And Finally...
Actually baking your Pizza
So, when you actually do bake your pizza, or grill your pizza, you want to use a perforated pan.
We think the best texture for the crust come from using a frozen pre-baked crust (almost no risk of a soggy center). While frozen, spread with sauce and top with your toppings, then bake at 45o-500F for that nice crispy topping feel. It could take 10-15 minutes to cook through the toppings. Just watch for burning and listen for sizzling. Same thing if you grill them.
If using a baked-but-not-frozen crust, treat the same. The only difference is that the center of the crust might be a bit soggy, you might need to cook it a bit longer to let juices evaporate. Or use a thicker, less runny pizza sauce.
Even if it's a bit soggy, it will be amazingly delicious and you won't care all that much.
There, you have it, friends. PIZZA IS BACK ON THE MENU!
Feel free to leave comments and questions!
We think the best texture for the crust come from using a frozen pre-baked crust (almost no risk of a soggy center). While frozen, spread with sauce and top with your toppings, then bake at 45o-500F for that nice crispy topping feel. It could take 10-15 minutes to cook through the toppings. Just watch for burning and listen for sizzling. Same thing if you grill them.
If using a baked-but-not-frozen crust, treat the same. The only difference is that the center of the crust might be a bit soggy, you might need to cook it a bit longer to let juices evaporate. Or use a thicker, less runny pizza sauce.
Even if it's a bit soggy, it will be amazingly delicious and you won't care all that much.
There, you have it, friends. PIZZA IS BACK ON THE MENU!
Feel free to leave comments and questions!