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Light and fresh, but not lacking in flavor, Spring Vegetable Pizza has a lemon, basil ricotta base. Topped with fresh vegetables of the season, this is a delicious pizza as the weather warms up.

A closeup of asparagus, colorful peppers and basil are the colorful toppings on the pizza

There are 2 things you’ll notice about this pizza, 1: there’s no tomato sauce and 2: there’s no mozzarella. If you’ve been to Italy, you’ll know that they do their pizza (and pasta) using simple, fresh ingredients without over-saucing and over cheesing. This helps to achieve a crisp pizza that will never get soggy.

The Italians let the freshness of the ingredients speak for themselves, and that’s what I’m achieving here. The base of the pizza is fresh ricotta with added lemon zest for a bright, fresh flavor.

A slice of spring vegetable pizza closeup

We all have our favorite pizza place that we like to go to or get delivered, but there’s nothing like making your own. It’s hard to get that pizza oven crust at home, so I bought a pizza stone. Now the question was, how do I get my beautifully topped pizza safely onto the pizza stone?

The pizza viewed from overhead showing the pretty vegetable topping

After a little research, I found a tip of rolling the dough out onto a sheet of parchment paper and after topping the pizza, I used the paper to carry the pizza to the stone and it worked! After 5 minutes in the oven, the crust is set enough to be able to slide the paper out from under it.

The dough recipe makes 2, 13-inch (33 cm) pizzas. I like to freeze the other half of the dough so I know I always have some ready to go when the pizza urge strikes. Which is more often than not and since this is a relatively healthy pizza, feel free to indulge whenever you like.

Can you make pizza dough without yeast?

Yes! I have an easy recipe that works perfectly every time. See this link for > Homemade No Yeast Pizza Dough.

A closeup of yeast free pizza dough

What veggies go on a veggie pizza?

Quick answer, anything you want. Depending on what time of the year it is, you can top the pizza with any of your favorite veggies that are in season. 

If you’ve tried this Spring Vegetable Pizza or any other recipe on the blog then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how it turned out in the comments below. I love to hear from my readers!

Yield: 8 slices

Spring Vegetable Pizza

Spring vegetable pizza with colorful vegetables on a pizza board with a pizza cutter

Spring vegetable pizza has a lemon, basil ricotta, asparagus, spring onions and sweet peppers. 

Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes

Ingredients

  • For the dough:
  • 1 cup (236 ml) water warmed to 100– 110 °F (38 - 43°C)
  • 1 package instant dry yeast, 3/4 ounce
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 3 cups (450 grams) all-purpose flour
  • For the topping:
  • 1/4 cup (62 grams) fresh ricotta
  • Zest of 1 large lemon
  • 2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for topping
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 3 mini peppers cut into rings
  • 20 asparagus spears
  • 3 spring onions, thinly sliced
  • 1/4 cup (5 grams) freshly chopped basil for garnish

Instructions

  1. Add the water to a bowl and stir in the yeast, honey, salt and olive oil. Set aside until you start to see the yeast activate and create bubbles.
  2. To a clean work surface pile the flour and make a well in the center.
  3. Add a little of the yeast liquid and use your fingers to slowly incorporate flour. Add a little more liquid as it is absorbed by the flour until you get a nice dough ball. You may not use all the liquid, don't let the dough be too sticky. Knead the dough for 5 minutes until smooth.
  4. Lightly oil a bowl with a little olive oil and transfer the dough to the bowl.
  5. Turn once to coat all sides with the oil. Cover the bowl and put the bowl in a warm area to rise until doubled in volume, about 40 minutes.
  6. Punch down the dough and place it in a lightly-floured surface. Divide the dough into 2 balls. Cover and allow to rest for 20 minutes. You can freeze the other ball for the future.
  7. Position oven rack about 4-5 inches from the top of the oven and preheat a pizza stone and the oven to 450°F/232°C.
  8. For the topping:
  9. To a mixing bowl add the ricotta, lemon zest, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. Mix well and set aside.
  10. Roll the pizza dough out using a combination of your hands and rolling pin to 13 inch round onto a sheet of parchment paper
  11. Spread the ricotta evenly over the dough, leaving a 1 inch border.
  12. Arrange the vegetables and top with a little grated parmesan cheese.
  13. Use the parchment paper to transfer the pizza to the stone and bake for 5 minutes.
  14. After 5 minutes slide the parchment out from under the stone and rotate the pizza, bake for a further 5 minutes.

Nutrition Information

Yield

8

Serving Size

1 slice
Amount Per Serving Calories 230Total Fat 3gSaturated Fat 1gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 2gCholesterol 2mgSodium 436mgCarbohydrates 43gFiber 3gSugar 4gProtein 8g

This nutrition calculation is provided by Nutronix that is only a guideline and not intended for any particular diet.

© Janette
Cuisine: American / Category: Dinner Ideas

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