Hi, I’m Moritz. At the beginning of September, Klausi and I competed with this pizza at the Austrian Pizza Competition in Kaindorf and ended up in 6th place out of 31 teams in the evening. In the report, Klausi promised that the recipe would follow. Here it is.
White sauce instead of tomatoes, a cream made from beetroot as a lattice on top, roasted vegetables, and finally a citrus oil. Completely vegetarian.
🍕 Vegetarian Pizza with Beetroot: What Goes On Top
The idea behind it: many components, but each has a clear task. The beetroot brings color and sweetness, the roasted vegetables bring roasted aromas, and the ricotta sauce makes it creamy instead of heavy.
Ingredients for one pizza (approx. 33 cm):
- 1 dough ball of Neapolitan pizza dough, 270 to 290 g (for example, according to Klausi’s basic recipe)
- 50 to 70 g white ricotta sauce as a base
- Beetroot cream made from cooked beetroot
- Fior di Latte, torn into pieces
- Broccoli, artichokes, and mushrooms, roasted
- After baking: citrus oil
- For home use, optional: fennel, raw marinated
- Semolina (durum wheat semolina) for spreading
I don’t have exact quantities per pizza, honestly, it’s hard to say. I top it by eye, and sparingly at that.
By the way, beetroot is called Rote Bete in Germany. Same vegetable, different name.
🥣 Beetroot Cream: Cook until soft and purée
We bought already cooked beetroot, which is vacuum-packed in every supermarket. At the competition, they were put into a cast-iron pan and covered in the pizza oven at low temperature. No water added, just cooked until soft, until they are very soft.
Then we put them through a food mill. That’s a device with a crank that pushes the mass through a sieve.
At home, I would skip that: cook the beetroot covered at low temperature until soft, in the oven or in a pan, and then purée finely with an immersion blender. It works just as well.
The finished cream goes into a squeeze bottle with a tip. You’ll use this to draw the lines on the pizza later.
🥦 Roasting Vegetables: Broccoli, Artichokes, Mushrooms
Clean the broccoli and mushrooms and roast them together with the artichokes in the cast-iron pan. The vegetables should get a nice color, not just warm up, because the pizza needs exactly these roasted aromas.
At home, you can do this normally on the stove.
🧑🍳 How to Top the Pizza
- Spread the dough ball with semolina to about 33 cm.
- Thinly spread the ricotta sauce with a spoon, leaving the edge free.
- Draw stripes of beetroot cream over the white sauce with the squeeze bottle. Then draw them across, creating a lattice.
- Distribute Fior di Latte, broccoli, artichokes, and mushrooms evenly.
- Into the oven.
- Then across, the lattice is finished
🔥Baking
At the competition, our pizza oven ran at 445 degrees. The pizza is ready in well under 90 seconds.
Topped and ready on the peel, shortly before it went into the oven
At the competition, there was a clear rule: all ingredients had to be baked in the oven. So, raw ingredients were out of the question.
At home, I would add fennel, nicely marinated and put on raw after baking. This adds bite, crunch, and a fresh kick.
🌿Marinade for the Fennel
Olive oil
- Salt
- Pepper
- Lemon juice
- Marinate the fennel with this and place it on the finished baked pizza.
🍋 Finally: Citrus Oil
After baking, drizzle with Vola Lemon Oil, a seasoning oil made from native olive oil and lemon. It brings freshness to the sweet beetroot and the mild ricotta sauce.
This is how it came out of the oven: our competition pizza from Kaindorf
I’m curious to see how you make it: exactly like at the competition or with raw fennel on top? Write it in the Facebook group PizzaLiebhaber Österreich, and if you recreate the pizza, show me how your lattice turned out.
How can you use beetroot (red beet) on pizza?
Most recipes put slices on. We turn it into a cream: cook the cooked beet until soft, puree finely and use a squeeze bottle to draw stripes or a lattice over a white base.
Do I need a food mill for the beetroot cream?
No. We used it in the competition, at home a hand blender is enough. The only important thing is that the beets are completely soft beforehand: cook until soft covered at low temperature, without water.
Can I also put raw vegetables on the pizza?
Yes. In the competition, every ingredient had to go into the oven, but that’s not the case at home. I would marinate fennel with olive oil, salt, pepper, and lemon juice and put it on raw only after baking, then it stays crispy and fresh.
What sauce do I use instead of tomato sauce?
As a base, we use Klausis Ricotta Sauce, 50 to 70 g per pizza, spread thinly with a spoon. Another cream base is the Zucchini Cream.
Vegetarian Pizza with Beetroot, Artichokes & Broccoli
Vegetarische Pizza mit Roten Rüben, Artischocken & Brokkoli
Ingredients
Für eine Pizza (ca. 33 cm)
- 1 Teigling neapolitanischer Pizzateig 270–290 g
- 50–70 g Ricotta-Sauce als weiße Base
- Rote Rüben (Rote Bete), gekocht abgedeckt weichgegart und püriert
- Fior di Latte in Stücke gezupft
- Brokkoli geputzt, angeröstet
- Artischocken angeröstet
- Champignons geputzt, angeröstet
- Vola Zitronenöl nach dem Backen
- Semola zum Ausbreiten
Optional für zuhause
- Fenchel roh, mariniert, erst nach dem Backen
- Olivenöl, Salz, Pfeffer, Zitronensaft für die Fenchel-Marinade
Instructions
- Gekochte Rote Rüben abgedeckt bei niedriger Temperatur ohne Wasser ganz weich garen, mit dem Stabmixer (oder der Flotten Lotte) fein pürieren und in eine Quetschflasche füllen.
- Brokkoli, Artischocken und Champignons in der Gusseisenpfanne anrösten, bis sie Farbe haben.
- Teigling mit Semola ausbreiten und die Ricotta-Sauce dünn verteilen, Rand frei lassen.
- Rote-Rüben-Creme in Streifen über die Sauce ziehen, dann quer darüber, sodass ein Gitter entsteht.
- Fior di Latte und Gemüse verteilen und im Pizzaofen backen (Wettbewerb: 445 °C, unter 90 Sekunden).
- Nach dem Backen mit Vola Zitronenöl beträufeln. Optional: Fenchel mit Olivenöl, Salz, Pfeffer und Zitronensaft marinieren und roh drauflegen.
