This is my favorite vegan pizza, and that’s saying a lot. It’s got flavor on flavor: pesto, red sauce, and a 4 ingredient liquid mozzarella on top. That’s what tricolore is, the three colors of the Italian flag, which is the most delicious flag you will ever eat.
The mozzarella is a pourable cashew cheese that bakes up creamy and golden, so you just drizzle it right over the sauce. No store-bought vegan cheese needed, which means no shredding and no asking the age-old question: will this vegan cheese melt?
I also love the cherry tomatoes that roast right into it (use multicolored ones if you can find them) and the fresh basil leaves that finish it all off and complete your world.
Pizza is totally manageable on a weeknight as long as you’ve got your crust ready. I included some tips below. There’s a great pizza dough recipe in Vegan with a Vengeance if you want to make your own, or you can grab a vegan pizza dough from the store and not worry about it. Either way, have the dough thawed and at room temperature ahead of time so it’s ready to roll at dinner time, before the hanger sets in.
I’m also going to go ahead and assume you don’t have a pizza stone, a pizza pan, or anything that involves hobbyist pizza-making, so just bake the pizza on a flat baking sheet. No big whoop.
This recipe is originally from I Can Cook Vegan.
Weeknight Tips For The Best Vegan Pizza
Make the marinara ahead, or buy it. The Mom’s Homemade Marinara comes together fast and freezes well, but a good jarred sauce gets you to the table quicker and the main event is really the cheese, so either way.
Same goes for the pesto. The Bestest Pesto is worth making if you’ve got ten minutes, but a jar of vegan pesto works too. Make either one a day ahead and your weeknight pizza comes together in minutes.
Don’t chase a perfectly round crust. Focus on getting the dough thin enough to bake quickly, and whatever shape it lands on just adds to the rustic charm.
Don’t overload the crust, no matter what the toppings are. A thin crust can only hold so much before it goes soggy in the middle, so go a little lighter than feels right and let the bottom crisp up.
I like to cut my pizzas into long strips, the way you see in the photo, rather than wedges. It is an easy, grab-and-share kind of cut, but slice it however makes you happy.
A Little More About The Liquid Mozzarella
This has been in my arsenal for years, you might know it from my cookbooks as “Melty Mozz.” It only needs a handful of ingredients: cashews, nooch and a little miso. The flavors are mellow but there.
I know there are some commercial liquid mozzarellas you can buy, but this recipe is so easy and so much cheaper. It’s also useful beyond pizza. Use it for baked enchiladas, to top lasagna or baked ziti, on top of frittatas…basically anywhere that needs a bubbly cheesy top. I also love to make pizza bagels with this cheese, so go ahead and try that.
Tricolore Pizza (Pesto Pizza with Liquid Mozzarella)
Notes
Ingredients
For the pizza:
- Flour for sprinkling
- 2 store-bought or homemade pizza doughs at room temperature about 2 lbs
- 2 cups marinara (Mom's Homemade Marinara)
- 1 batch pesto (Bestest Pesto)
- 1 recipe Liquid Mozzarella below
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes sliced in half
- Olive oil for drizzling
- About 1 cup fresh basil leaves lightly packed
For the Liquid Mozzarella:
- 1 cup whole unroasted cashews see note
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1 tablespoon mellow white miso
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
Make the Liquid Mozzarella
- Place all the mozzarella ingredients plus ¾ cup water in a highspeed blender and blend until completely smooth. Scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula to make sure you get everything. See note if you don't have a highspeed blender.
Make the Pizza
- Preheat oven to 500°F. Lightly grease a large rimless baking sheet or pizza pan.
- Lightly flour a cold, clean surface for rolling the dough. Place the dough on the surface and shape into a disc, then use a floured rolling pin to roll it out about 14 inches wide. It’s OK if it’s not perfectly round. Transfer to the baking sheet.
- Spread 1 cup or so of marinara on the pizza, leaving about an inch of crust around. Spoon about five dollops of pesto onto the pizza.
- Drizzle Liquid Mozzarella over everything. Place cherry tomatoes artfully across the pizza and drizzle a little olive oil on top.
- Place the pizza on the bottom of the oven (yes, right on the bottom, no rack required). Bake for about 10 minutes, or until the crust is golden. Remove from the oven. It will be very hot (obviously), so be careful. Add basil leaves. When cool enough to handle, slide the pizza onto a cutting board and slice. Then make your next one the same way.
