The following is an excerpt from Raw Food for Real People by Rod Rotondi (New World Library, 2010). The excerpt is from chapter 7: Dehydration: Crackers, Croquettes, Pizza, and Bread.
My dad explained that a truly great pizza always has three levels. First, the bottom of the crust should be crispy, so the first experience of biting into a slice should be the crispiness. The second level is a slight chewiness where the crispy crust blends with the topping to create a chewy middle ground. Finally, a warm and moist top finishes off the perfect pizza bite. All right, so let’s start with the crust.
Pizza Pizzazz
Makes 1 large pizza
For the Crust:
1 small yellow summer squash, diced (about 1/2 cup)
4 to 5 medium carrots, chopped (about 2 1/2 cups)
1 cup sprouted buckwheat
1/2 cup sprouted sunflower seeds
3/4 cup sprouted lentils
Dash of sea salt
1/4 cup golden flaxseeds, ground
1/4 cup soaked almonds (soaked 8 to 10 hours, drained, and rinsed)
1/8 cup diced yellow onion
For the Cheeze Sauce:
1 1/8 cup chopped yellow onion
1 medium clove garlic
1/8 cup soaked pine nuts or macadamia nuts (soaked about 1 hour, drained, and rinsed)
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 cup mild miso paste
1 cup water, plus additional (up to 1/2 cup) as needed
1 1/2 teaspoons turmeric
1/2 cup sprouted sunflower seeds
For the Marinara Sauce:
1/4 cup chopped yellow onion
2 to 3 medium cloves garlic
1 1/2 cups chopped fresh tomatoes
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh oregano leaves
4 fresh basil leaves
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon cold-pressed olive oil
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, soaked 1 hour if not already soft
For the Rawmesan Cheeze:
1 cup walnuts
1 tablespoon sea salt
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
Chopped basil leaves for garnishing
1. To make the crust: Put the squash and carrots in a food processor and blend well. Slowly add the remaining crust ingredients and continue to blend until the mixture reaches a doughlike consistency. (You may add herbs such as rosemary, tarragon, or basil, or sun-dried tomatoes or olives, for variety.)
2. Remove the dough to a ParraFlex sheet on a dehydrator tray and spread it evenly to a thickness of about 1/4 inch.
3. Dehydrate for 4 to 5 hours, then flip by placing another tray (without a ParraFlex sheet) on top and inverting the crust onto the new tray. Remove the ParraFlex sheet, return the crust to the dehydrator, and continue to dehydrate for another 4 hours.
4. To make the Cheeze Sauce: Put all the ingredients except the sunflower seeds in a blender and blend well. Add the sunflower seeds slowly while blending, adding more water as needed to achieve a melted-cheese consistency.
5. To make the Marinara Sauce: Put all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until you have a nice chunky sauce. Remove half the sauce to a bowl. Blend the remaining sauce until it reaches a smooth consistency. Add the blended sauce to the chunky sauce and mix well. Your sauce should have a perfect texture — smooth but with real chunks.
6. To make the Rawmesan Cheeze: Finely chop the walnuts with a knife or process them in a food processor, and put them in a medium bowl. Add the sea salt and nutritional yeast, and mix well. That’s all there is to it.
7. To assemble the pizza: Generously spread the Marinara Sauce evenly over the crust; the sauce layer should be about 4 inch thick. Top with the Cheeze Sauce (using a squeeze bottle is easiest) and garnish with chopped basil and Rawmesan Cheeze.
8. Put the pizza back in the dehydrator for about 30 minutes to warm it up. The 30-minute warm-up also allows the top part of the crust to marinate in the Marinara Sauce, which softens it and makes it a little chewy. This way, we end up with a crisp bottom of the crust, the softer, chewy top part of the crust, and the warm, gooey, and yummy topping — perfetto! Remove from the dehydrator and serve. Buon appetito!
Printed with permission from New World Library.
For more raw food recipes, read the article, “Raw Food Recipes: Sprouted Chickpea Hummus.”