10 Vegetarian Pizza Toppings Full Of Veggies

These vegetarian pizza toppings are the most fulfilling pizzas you have ever had. All the veggies are fresh and in season, and each vegetable is attentively paired with the most suitable cheese and seasoning. The combination of flavors and textures is carefully chosen to make these veggie pizzas so exceptional, no one will miss the meat.

Jump to:

• Each vegetable combined with a cheese
• Red pizza vs white pizza
• Best pizza dough for veggie toppings
• Pizza Margherita
• Pizza with Mushrooms and Basil
• Pizza alla Norma: fried eggplants and salted ricotta
• Pizza with zucchini and smoked scamorza
• White Pizza with Fresh Cherry Tomatoes and Buffalo Mozzarella or Burrata
• White Pizza with roasted peppers and parmesan flakes
• White pizza with red chicory radicchio and gorgonzola cheese
• White pizza with zucchini flowers and ricotta cheese
• White Pizza with Pesto and Stracchino
• Fresh Artichoke Pizza with sundried tomatoes and Scamorza
• More veggie pizza toppings
• FAQ
• More types of pizza we eat in Italy
• 📋Vegetarian Pizza Toppings

Pizza originated in Italy as a celebration of vegetables and cheese. That is why Italians don't use too much meat on pizza.

Every Italian pizza feature one or more seasonal vegetables, and never in excess to make sure flavors don't get lost and pizza don't get soggy.

Each vegetable is treated with respect and admiration, its flavor is enhanced by the right combination of cheese and seasoning and only when appropriate, some meat is added as ham, sausage or other cured meat.

You will find these vegetarian pizza recipes everywhere in Italy from pizzeria restaurants to takeaway pizza al taglio or rosticceria.

This selection of vegetarian pizzas are the perfect family dinners as they are healthy, deliciously filling but light enough to ensure a peaceful bedtime with no bloated belly.

Each vegetable combined with a cheese

I will start with a few examples and will add more once the vegetables are in season or if I came across a cheese that is worth melting on pizza.

These are classic Italian combinations of cheeses with vegetables, they are used in pizza as well as in pasta or risotto. They will combine well with each other in terms of flavor and texture.

You can also use these combinations to stuffed dinner bread rolls.

Red pizza vs white pizza

You will find 2 types of veggie pizza:

• Pizza rossa: red pizza with tomato sauce
• Pizza bianca: white pizza without tomato sauce.

Some vegetables and cheeses are better without tomato sauce as it tends to overpower some delicate flavors.

So here is the list of vegetarian pizza toppings:

Best pizza dough for veggie toppings

The classic Italian pizza dough is the perfect base for a vegetarian pizza. It is thin, crunchy and its mild delicate flavor doesn't take over.

To make pizza I use the dough from this article How to Make Pizza Dough without a Bread Machine. If you have a bread machine, it is even simpler. Pour the ingredients into the basket and the bread machine will do the rest.

If you want to make a pizza like an Italian, you should follow those steps:

1. Make the pizza dough the day before
2. Let it rest in the fridge overnight
3. When you are ready to make the pizza, take it out of the fridge at least 1 hour before
4. For each 1 lb - 500 g of pizza dough makes 3 balls, to have a nice thin crust.
5. Cover with a wet towel and let it rest for 30 minutes
6. Put the pizza stone into the oven and turn the oven on to reach 430 F - 220 C
7. Once the oven and the pizza stone are hot, you can proceed.
8. Every time you make a pizza the pizza stone should be very hot, therefore make sure all the ingredients for the toppings are ready.

If you have never made pizza before, read the article: Italian Pizza Dough Recipe And How To Cook It for more information.

Pizza Margherita

This is THE Italian pizza served in every restaurant and pizzerie:

• Simple tomato sauce (no marinara sauce or Italian seasoning, that does not exist in Italy),
• Mozzarella for pizza (the regular fresh mozzarella would be too watery, so if you use that, you need to make sure the water is drained)
• Fresh basil leaves
• Oregano (not always)
• Extra virgin olive oil is added raw, at the end when the pizza is cooked

You can find the detailed recipe in the article: Italian Pizza Dough Recipe And How To Cook It

Pizza with Mushrooms and Basil

I make this pizza often as it is easy to make and the ingredients are easy to find. It is a regular pizza Margherita in which I add fresh portobello mushrooms.

As you can see I don't add too many mushrooms as they tend to release water when cooking and I don't like a soggy pizza. I use regular mozzarella cheese as its sweet flavour well combines with the earthy mushrooms.

1. Lay the pizza dough over the hot pizza stone
2. Pour 2 tablespoon of tomato sauce, add a pinch of salt, and spread the sauce over the dough with the back of the spoon
3. Place uniformly over the dough the mozzarella cut in cubes
4. Add 3 chopped basil leaves and 2 sliced fresh mushrooms
5. Cook in the hot oven for 10 minutes
6. Once ready, place it on a cutting board and drizzle some extra virgin olive oil before serving it

Pizza alla Norma: fried eggplants and salted ricotta

If I go out for Pizza I always order Pizza alla Norma, fried or grilled eggplants with salted ricotta. 

It is a typical combination used in Sicily around Catania, they add eggplants everywhere and everything becomes "Norma": pasta, arancini, pizza.

On the blog, I have the recipe for a regular Pasta alla Norma and Pasta with swordfish ragu and fried eggplants also originally from Catania.

Here I use fried eggplants, but if you want to keep it healthier you can use grilled eggplants.

For more appetizers with eggplants, check out the story: 15 Authentic Italian Eggplant Recipes

Salted ricotta is not the usual ricotta, the salt is used to preserve it for longer, therefore the ricotta salata is hard and can be grated.

If you cannot find salted ricotta you can substitute with Pecorino or Parmesan.

1. Peel and cut the eggplants into slices
2. Fry them in abundant hot olive oil
3. Once they are ready place them over a paper to absorb as much oil as possible
4. Season them with salt

5. Lay the pizza dough over the hot pizza stone
6. Pour 2 tablespoon of tomato sauce, add a pinch of salt, and spread the sauce over the dough with the back of the spoon
7. Place over the dough uniformly the mozzarella cut in cubes
8. Add a few slices of fried eggplants
9. Grate some salted ricotta (or parmesan) on top and some basil leaves
10. Cook in the hot oven for 10 minutes
11. Once ready, place it on a cutting board and serve

Pizza with zucchini and smoked scamorza

This pizza is very similar to the previous one, instead of eggplants we have fried or grilled zucchini.

To complement the flavor of the zucchini I added a smoked scamorza.

I always recommend buying thin zucchini as the large ones have too many seeds. Although as you need to cut them lengthwise, don't buy the Albenga trombetta zucchini or the very very small ones.

If you prefer a lighter version of this pizza you can simply grill the zucchini.

If you cannot find smoked scamorza, you can use another strong cheese, but look for a cheese made with spun-paste like the mozzarella. The process is called "filatura"

You can read more about the type of cheese in the article: Italian Pizza Dough Recipe And How To Cook It, section Using the right ingredients

Making the pizza with fried zucchini

1. Cut the zucchini in long slices, lengthwise
2. Fry in abundant hot olive oil
3. Once ready, lay them on a paper to absorb all the excess oil
4. Season with salt
5. Cut the smoked scamorza into slices

5. Lay the pizza dough over the hot pizza stone
6. Pour 2 tablespoon spoons of tomato sauce, add a pinch of salt, and spread the sauce over the dough with the back of the spoon
7. Place uniformly the slices of scamorza
8. Lay the zucchini slices over the scamorza
9. Add some basil leaves
10. Cook in the hot oven for 10 minutes
11. Once ready, place it on a cutting board and serve

White Pizza with Fresh Cherry Tomatoes and Buffalo Mozzarella or Burrata

This is also a very simple pizza with fresh tomatoes instead of tomatoes sauce.

Pizzas without tomatoes sauce are called White pizza in Italian Pizza Bianca and it is usually made with fresh vegetables whose taste can be overpowered by a tomato sauce.

You can make this pizza with cherry tomatoes, but use enough so that the pizza will be nicely moist.

As cheese you can use either buffalo mozzarella, regular fresh mozzarella or burrata.

Add some fresh extra viring olive oil at the end and it becomes a melted Caprese. 

Do not even think of adding Balsamic Vinegar, I am not sure who had the idea of adding Balsamic over the Caprese.

Definitely no one in Capri!

1. Lay the pizza dough over the hot pizza stone
2. Place uniformly a few slices of mozzarella or burrata
3. Spread the cherry tomatoes cut in half around the mozzarella slices
4. Add 3 chopped basil leaves
5. Cook in the hot oven for 10 minutes
6. Once ready, place it on a cutting board and drizzle some extra virgin olive oil before serving it

White Pizza with roasted peppers and parmesan flakes

My uncle Mario always said: "God made roasted peppers and parmesan to be together" and I never dear to challenge that.

It is the best combination ever!

The peppers are roasted in the hot oven to remove the skin. I usually do 5 at once then I season them with extra virgin olive oil and garlic and keep them in the fridge to serve as a side or simply with cheese.

The parmesan is added after in this pizza but if you prefer you can add it before.

1. Place the peppers in a very hot oven or under the grill
2. Once the skin on the top of the peppers is burned, turn them around and put them back in the oven
3. Do that until all sides of the peppers are burned
4. Place the hot peppers in a paper bag and keep them closed until they cool down. Their steam will help to separate the skin from the flesh
5. Once cold you can easily remove the skin from the peppers

6. Remove the seeds and place the slices of the peppers in a bowl
7. Season with salt, extra virgin olive oil, and basil

8. Lay the pizza dough over the hot pizza stone
9. Place uniformly the mozzarella cut in cubes
10. Lay the roasted pepper stripes across the pizza
11. Cook in the hot oven for 10 minutes
12. Once ready, place it on a cutting board and drizzle some extra virgin olive oil
13. Top with parmesan flakes, few basil leaves, and serve it

White pizza with red chicory radicchio and gorgonzola cheese

The combination of red chicory and gorgonzola is often used in Italy, not only they make pizza but also risotto, gnocchi or even served raw as antipasto.

You definitely do not want tomato sauce in this pizza as the flavor or the two ingredients combined is just perfect as it is.

Choose some small and tender red chicory or cut the chicory in thinner slices so it can be easy to bite if you are eating the pizza by hands.

As it takes longer for the chicory to cook, it is best to roast it in the oven for few minutes before putting it on the pizza. Usually 15 to 20 minutes should be enough.

Like for the peppers, you can make a larger amount and keep the rest in the fridge and serve it as a side dish for some other meals.

1. Cut the red chicory in slices, place it on a baking tin over parchment paper
2. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt
3. Bake in a hot oven 350 F - 180 C for 15 to 20 minutes

4. Lay the pizza dough over the hot pizza stone
5. Place uniformly the mozzarella cut in cubes
6. Lay the roasted red chicory slices across the pizza
7. Spread some gorgonzola over the chicory
8. Cook in the hot oven for 10 minutes
9. Once ready, place it on a cutting board and serve it

White pizza with zucchini flowers and ricotta cheese

Zucchini flowers and ricotta cheese are just the perfect combination of light sweet flavours.

A delicate pizza to enjoy during the summer when the zucchini flowers are blossoming.

The zucchini flowers cook very quickly so you don't need to precook them. You can add them raw over the pizza before you put the pizza in the oven.

However, the ricotta is not a fat cheese, I therefore recommend to drizzle some extra virgin olive oil over the pizza so the flowers don't burn in the hot oven, but gently fry.

You don't need a lot of flowers per pizza so if you have any leftover you can either make zucchini flowers frittes or use them with the ricotta as a pasta sauce.

1. Cut the flower sepals (the small green mini leaves that covers the base of the petals)
2. Open the flower to make sure there are no insects inside
3. Wash the flowers with running water
4. Place them upside down in a colander to drain out any water from inside the flower

5. Lay the pizza dough over the hot pizza stone
6. Place uniformly the mozzarella cut in cubes
7. Lay the zucchini flowers cut in half
8. Add the ricotta cheese and drizzle with some extra virgin olive oil
9. Cook in the hot oven for 10 minutes
10. Once ready, place it on a cutting board and serve

White Pizza with Pesto and Stracchino

This Pizza is another favourite. Every time I go to Italy I stock up on Stracchino and fresh basil to make the pesto.

You can read more about it in the article: Traditional Italian White Pizza With Pesto

Fresh Artichoke Pizza with sundried tomatoes and Scamorza

I don't use canned artichokes, pizza is much better made with fresh vegetables.

Canned artichokes tends to have an acidic taste as they are preserved in vinegar to prevent botulism.

Frozen artichokes release too much water.

You can find all the instructions on how to clean and cook a fresh artichoke in the post: Fresh Artichoke Pizza with sundried tomatoes and Scamorza

More veggie pizza toppings

These recipes are just few ideas, but there are many more combinations that would work well.

• Once the pizza is cooked, add some fresh rocket and cherry tomatoes, they work well with many pizzas, often sprinkled with some Grana cheese flakes.
• Broccoli rabe and sausage is a classic pizza in Naples: salsiccie e friarielli. For a vegetarian version you can replace the sausage with a strong cheese like provolone
• Pissaladiere: a pizza typical from Nice in the South of France made mainly with onion, no cheese.
• Pizza with potatoes: is a classic in Rome. The potatoes are cut very thin to make sure they cook thoroughly.
• Baby chard: never in excess as they tend to release a lot of water when cooking
• Asparagus: they are perfect with Parmesan cheese

Vegetables I would never put on pizza are: kale, corn, cabbage, carrots, parsnip, Brussels sprout, fennel, green beans, cauliflower.

FAQ

Pizza has now become a source of lively discussions on social media: what should and shouldn't be a pizza topping. But while very few people take the debate seriously, most of the time those discussions are exchanges of some funny jokes and images.

More types of pizza we eat in Italy

And don't forget to check also these other classic Italian Pizza:

• Fried Pizza and panzerotti
• Pizzette Mini Pizza Bites
• Pissaladiere Nicoise
• Focaccia Pizza
• Pizza with Nutella

If you are making any of these vegetarian pizza toppings or you have more ideas you would like to share, leave your comment below I would like to hear from you. You can find more delicious ideas if you FOLLOW ME on Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.