Healthy homemade pizza recipes

You don’t feel like cooking, but you want something relatively healthy and appetizing. Don’t call for pizza delivery; it’s not great value for your money and not nearly as good as homemade pizza. With store-bought pizza dough (or homemade if you have the time), you can make a much more delicious pizza with minimum effort -- all in the time it takes for a delivery to arrive.

Pizza basics: dough, sauce, cheese
Dough, tomato sauce and cheese – that’s all you need for the basics. Here's the quickest recipe using quick-rising or instant yeast. You can adjust it by replacing up to two-thirds of the flour with whole wheat, whole spelt or multigrain flour if you wish (I personally prefer about one-quarter to one-third whole wheat or spelt); if you prefer, use traditional yeast (sprinkle it over some of the warm water until it foams, then mix in with the remaining water, which should be just lukewarm):

Basic Quick Pizza Dough recipe
Whisk together 2-3/4cups/675 mL all-purpose flour (or mixed flours) 2 tsp/10 mL quick-rising (instant) yeast, 1 tsp/5 mL salt and a generous 1/4 tsp/1 mL black pepper. Stir in 1-1/4 cups/300 mL hot (120F/50C) water and 1-1/2 tbsp/22 mL olive oil until ragged dough forms. Turn out onto lightly floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, adding up to 1/4cup /60 mL more flour as necessary. Place in greased bowl, turning to grease all over. Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour, or let rise in refrigerator 24 hours. (Freeze in plastic bag for up to 1 month; thaw in refrigerator for 24 hours) Makes about 1-1/2 lb/750 g dough, enough for one 14-inch/35 cm pizza.

Easy sauce
The easiest tomato sauce you can use is simply bottled strained tomatoes (passata). I sometimes use it myself when I don’t feel like a real sauce, but a really good quick and easy sauce is Tomato Pizza Sauce.

Neapolitan
You have the dough and the sauce, now some cheese. Personally, one of my favourites is a Neapolitan pizza (named after the birthplace of pizza, Naples). This means a little fresh mozzarella, then bake it and top the hot pizza with fresh basil leaves. I usually will sprinkle a small handful of finely grated Romano or Parmesan over the sauce, too, and I will always top it with some anchovies. Olives are nice, too. A pinch of dried hot pepper is nice, too – the list goes on.

Cheeses
Other wonderful cheeses are regular mozzarella for the cheesy texture, regular or aged provolone for extra flavour. Fontina cheese makes a luxurious topping (see Spinach and Fontina Pizza), while Asiago gives a little bite. Parmesan and Romano and other pecorino (sheep’s milk) cheeses can add a real boost of flavour. Lately smoked cheeses, as used in our Zucchini and Smoked Provolone Cheese Pizza, have come into favour.
Gorgonzola is one of my favourite cheeses and this classic blue cheese makes a wonderful pizza with lots of different bases. For the simplest, try just a little olive oil and garlic with black pepper; spread it over the dough (add a few pinches of chopped fresh rosemary if you like) and top with Gorgonzola cheese. It’s heaven.
You can add the cheese at the beginning or bake halfway through and add then add it just to melt and heat, not brown. Both are good. Onions make a terrific and traditional base for Grogonzola cheese dishes, as in our Onion and Gorgonzola Pizza with Arugula. For mushroom lovers, try the Mushroom and Gorgonzola Pizza.

Peppers as Sauce
Roasted peppers make a lovely base for pizza, as in the Sausage and Roasted Pepper Pizza. The puréed roasted pepper sauce can be used as a basic sauce for almost any kind of pizza; use it as you would a tomato sauce. I find it goes especially well with cured meats or eggplant.

Vegetable Pizzas
All sorts of vegetables cook well on pizza, some you might not even imagine. When I wanted to develop a fresh artichoke recipe, I thought I would have to cook the artichokes first, but I gave it a try with thinly sliced raw artichokes. It was wonderful and remains one of my favourite pizzas; try it yourself with our recipe, Artichoke and Provolone Pizza.
Asparagus can top pizza, too. Thick asparagus should be blanched first, as in our Asparagus and Lemon Ricotta Pizza, but pencil asparagus can be used raw on pizza– just put it under a nice coating of cheese and it cooks to perfection as the pizza bakes. If you don’t mind the trouble of slicing thick asparagus lengthwise, you can use it too this way.
Arugula makes a great fresh topping for pizza after it’s baked, as in Gorgonzola pizza already mentioned and in a pizza inspired by the salad of the same name, the Niçoise Arugula Pizza. Green onions form the base of the unusual Green Onion and Prosciutto Pizza.

Foreign pizzas
Sometimes, other cultures can inspire really good pizzas. The Greek meze of shrimp with feta inspired my Greco-Roman Shrimp Pizza. Armenian pies are the basis for the Little Lamb Pizzas, which make a terrific snack or party appetizer.

Solid and warming pizza
A really substantial cold-weather Pizza that I love to make is the Eggplant and Onion Pizza. The whole-wheat crust recipe is one you can use with almost any other kind of pizza, although I find it goes best with really robust toppings.
So save the pizza delivery for the real emergencies and those days when absolutely no cooking is the only way out. With just a bit of effort, you can make for yourself, your family or friends a fantastic, nourishing and delicious pizza in a snap.

Find more fresh meal ideas in the Cooking Tips & Advice section in Food & Recipes.

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