33 Comments

Jane

I am following a vegan low fat diet. Low fat for me means a limit of 3 grams of fat per serving and no more than 30 grams of fat per day. I'm wondering if you have any suggestions about how this recipe could be modified to meet the low fat standards. It is rare to find a pizza recipe with no cheese!

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Jane, hi! What tool do you use to calculate fat serving? My Fitness Pal? I imagine one of those tools would be able to tell you the fat grams per serving here, and from there I think it would be a matter of reducing the amount of olive oil if it's above 3 g per serving.

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The sesame seeds are a good idea. I was thinking maybe I could add a umami like yondu or a balsamic drizzle on top of the pizza.

I am more concerned about the oil used in preparing the crust. It looks like it is not mixed into the dough, could it be ignored? I often replace oil in a recipe with water, but I've never tried it with a yeast/flour concoction. If nonstick surfaces are used, could that work instead of oil? Moisten it's surface with water before you let it rise so it doesn't stick to the bowl? Or is there something else about the dough that it requires oil? The baked crust looks so scrumptious! I make pizzas with flat-out or lavash, but I really miss the pizza crusts like this recipe has. There must be a way.

I don't use a calculator. Most of the recipes I find have nutritional breakdowns. If they don't it is easy to look at the ingredients and calculate the fat grams. Olive oil has 14 grams of fat per tablespoon and I usually just avoid it. I don't worry about other things too much, except for salt, but that is usually easy to modify.

When I find time, I'm going to play around with making pizza. I'm only about 8 months into this diet, so I have lots of learning to do. I love your recipe/blog/books and have followed you for what seems like a long time. Thanks, Jane

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I just found my kindle copy of pizza night. It will look there for some answers. Thanks

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Hi Jane!

Yes, the oil could be ignored, and I suppose a nonstick surface or parchment paper could work, though I do still worry about sticking. What about a very fine misting of a nonstick spray over the parchment? Or just the parchment alone... do be careful with some brands of parchment, which are not nonstick. I love the If You Care brand and Reynolds.

I wouldn't worry about moistening the surface with water before it rises — a tight lid will take care of that.

Good luck and thank you for your kind words :)

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I'm not vegan, but I'm both lactose- and far-intolerant, so no cheese for me either. Often, we just sprinkle a generous layer of sesame seeds all over the top - once baked and toasty, they add incredible flavour. Nigella seeds are great too, but they're quite strong, so you can't add as much.

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That sounds delicious!

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We love it - we buy sesame seeds by the kilo, haha. When they get all golden and toasty, they're sooo good.

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Mini caveat re sesame seeds: They also contain fat, so you have to factor that into the overall fat content of your focaccia.

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We make this pizza a lot since my youngest daughter has a mild case of lactose intolerance and loves onions. I never thought to marinate the tomatoes and onion. So clever.

I do enjoy learning how to up our homemade-pizza game. Thank you!

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So nie to hear, Kathleen. Thank you! My oldest daughter LOVES onions — asks for them in her scrambled eggs, sandwiches, pizza... basically if it has onions on it, she's into it :)

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What is the baking steel you use? How does the baking steel compare to a ceramic pizza stone? Thank you! I have been making your pizzas weekly. With a senior and sophomore in high school we are trying to savor the moments with them.

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Awww so sweet. I get that. I have the Baking Steel pro (https://bakingsteel.com/collections/steels/products/baking-steel-pro-package) but it is very very heavy, and I only recommend it if you don't mind lugging something so massive around or if you have two ovens. For years I had the Original Baking Steel, which I can't recommend enough (https://bakingsteel.com/collections/steels/products/baking-steel) I gave it away only bc I had to do something with it in NYC and couldn't move a hot steel back into my car after the event.

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Hi,

I’m keen to make gluten free pizza for my grandson and I don’t think I can by King Arthur gluten free flour in Canada.

Any advice on how to proceed?

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My feeling about gluten-free flour is that recipes need to be written specifically for each flour because they all behave so differently, namely in how they absorb water, which makes it impossible to write a general recipe. A few thoughts: you could find a Canadian brand of gf flour and google a recipe made with it or follow the recipe on the bag. Alternatively, you could order a bag of gf flour. My favorite is Antimo Caputo fiore glut flour, which is readily available online.

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What size pan/cookie sheet for Nonna’s foccacia, please?

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They one I'm using is 16x12 — anything roughly that size will work.

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How would I make a sourdough version of this?

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You could use this sourdough focaccia recipe as the base: https://alexandracooks.com/2019/03/22/simple-sourdough-focaccia-a-beginners-guide/

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I made this with heirloom and cherry tomatoes, 240g of dough, and a quarter sheet pan an ended up with a thin crust version that still was fantastically delicious! I’ve been wanting to make this since I saw Elizabeth’s IG post. Thanks for sharing.

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Great to hear, Frank! It looked fantastic, too 👏👏👏👏

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This looks insane, must make!

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Hello Ali,

As always, thank you for sharing your recipes and thank you for your videos!!!

This pizza looks delicious and is on my to do list for this weekend 😊

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This looks so crazy delicious.

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Thank you for this delicious no-cheese pizza. We have had to eliminate cheese from our diet, so this recipe is most appreciated!

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My pleasure :) You may love this recipe, too, for pizza marinara, which has no cheese: https://pizzaeveryfriday.substack.com/p/tomato-pie-pizza-marinara

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This looks delicious! I have most of the ingredients but only half of the necessary tomatoes. I'm going to try using thinly sliced zucchini in place of the missing tomatoes. It will be different than the original but also in the spirit of using what one has.

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That will be delicious!

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The zucchini worked really well! However, there was a lot of liquid, mostly from the tomatoes, I think. I didn't strain any of the liquid out but may try that in the future. Did you find that necessary?

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Hi Alexandra!

Can I let the dough sit overnight before I deflate it? Just finished step 3 and it’s started its 6-10 hour rest but I won’t be here later tonight to punch it down and form a ball! Can I do that tomorrow morning and then let it sit in fridge before I cook it off tomorrow eve? Thank you!

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Yes! It's very forgiving.

Can you give me a rough timeline though: what time is it were you are now? And how long has the dough been rising?

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Finished step 3 at 11:15A EST (it’s sitting on countertop now 6-10 hours)

I’m leaving my house at 4P for a concert and won’t be home until midnight EST. Might be too “tired” (cough cough ;) when I get home to do much with the dough.

Planning to cook it tomorrow late afternoon / early evening, probably around 5P EST.

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This looks amazing!

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