During the summer and fall when the garden blesses us with tomatoes, eggplants, figs, chili peppers, garlic, onions, mushrooms, herbs, and other fresh stuff, our pizzas often look like salads. When there’s fresh stuff to use, we use it! What follows are simple tips, techniques, and ingredients that we’ve dialed in to make pizza the way we like it.

The Base

After you’ve shaped your dough ball into a pizza, it’s time to put down your base. According to the pizza industrial complex, (Dominos, Pappa Johns, et al), that’s tomato sauce. But not for us. With all the fresh vegetables and herbs available during summer and fall, we prefer different options that allow those ingredients to shine. Here’s what we most commonly use:

Extra Virgin Olive oil. We drizzle it on and spread it around. This base works great with shavings of Parmigiano-Reggiano and roasted garlic.
Whole Milk Ricotta. A thin layer of ricotta makes a great base. It’s creamy and slightly sweet, which complements other toppings like roasted peppers, and eggplant.
Pesto. So many options. Basil pesto. Parsley pesto. Arugula pesto. Tomato pesto. A light layer of any of these makes a great base for mushrooms, shaved asparagus, or sausage.
Artichoke & Garlic Spread. We’re addicted this stuff that we get at Whole Foods. A little goes a long way. We often layer it on ricotta for a multidimensional base. It goes with everything. (Also, taste the magic that happens when you mix a spoonful into scrambled eggs.)

Honk If You Love Cheeses!

Honk! We love cheeses! But with our summer/fall pizzas we use them with restraint so they don’t overpower our fresh vegetables and herbs.

Here are go-tos:

Dry whole milk mozzarella. A pizza staple. Most often we opt for a smoked version, which works great with pancetta or prosciutto. We always choose whole milk, not part skim. So much better.
Fresh buffalo mozzarella. Also a pizza staple but with a very different appearance and taste. Creamy and slightly sweet without the saltiness of dry (or hard) mozzarella.
Whole milk ricotta. We use it as a base but also put dollops on some pizzas because why not.
Burrata. If ricotta and fresh mozzarella had a baby, it would be burrata. We often plop half a ball in the middle of a pizza and let it melt into the other ingredients
Goat cheese. A powerful taste. We add it in small chunks strategically placed.
Gorgonzola. A very powerful taste that we use sparingly. Goes great with sweet components like fresh figs or apples or jams.
Parmigiano-Reggiano. The real deal is kind of expensive, but worth it. A somewhat less expensive alternative is Grana Padano. Shaved or grated, added before baking or after, adds a salty zing.

Meats

Prosciutto, Pancetta, Sausage

The pizza industrial complex would have us believe that all pizzas must be completely covered with pepperoni. That’s not our way. While many of our pizzas have some meat, it’s in a supporting role. That doesn’t mean it’s not important - Batman needs Alfred, Forrest Gump needs Jenny. But it’s not the focus.

We mostly use thinly sliced prosciutto, chopped pancetta, and Italian style sausages - hot or mild, made from pork or chicken. There’s not enough time for raw sausage to cook through on a baking pizza. So we precook it on the stove or the grill.

Vegetables, Greens, and Flowers

Onions, Garlic, Tomatoes, Artichokes, Asparagus, Eggplants, Peppers, Mushrooms, Arugula, Spinach, Onion flowers, Mouse garlic flowers

We grow all of these, except for artichokes. We often roast or sauté them before adding them to our pizzas. But some work raw as well, such as onions, garlic, peppers, and asparagus. We never pre-cook our beautiful vine-ripened tomatoes. Greens and flowers go on after the pizza comes out of the oven.

Herbs

Basil, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, Thyme, Oregano, Lovage, Lemon Balm

We have these herbs growing year-round. They can be chopped and added both before and after baking.

Other Stuff

Figs, Olives, Capers, Sun-dried Tomatoes, Calabrian Pepper Sauce, Savory Jams, Sweet Jams, Toasted pine nuts, Honey

These are some other ingredients that we often use to take a pizza in a particular direction. Sweet things like figs, jams, and honey go great with pork and strong cheeses. Olives and capers are a great way to add saltiness. Sun-dried tomatoes and capers add tanginess. Calabrian pepper sauce brings the heat. Toasted pine nuts for a crunchy texture and nutty flavor.

Pizza “Recipes” - Putting It All Together

Assembling pizzas with fresh ingredients — When we make pizza, we put out all the ingredients and then pretty much wing it. Each person uses their intuition and inspiration to bring their pizza vision to life.

Over the years we’ve hit on some really good preparations that we wanted to recreate. Then we came up with the brilliant idea of writing them down.

What follows are notes about some of those big winners. We won’t tell you how much of each ingredient to use. That’s up to you. But we think these combinations are to die for.