Ortolana pizza — the recipe
The greengrocer's pizza — ortolana means “of the vegetable garden,” and it's Italy's answer to the loaded veggie pie without the loading. Grilled zucchini, eggplant and sweet peppers over tomato and fior di latte: char first, pile second, so the vegetables taste roasted instead of steamed.
This is a pan recipe — everything below is weighed for the Roman teglia and scales with its area, and the table covers the common sizes. The airy, high-hydration al taglio dough comes from the Teglia preset; cut it in squares and the garden does the rest.
What goes on top
Per pizza, on the default 40 × 30 cm pan — in layering order:
a thin spiral over the vegetables
Different pan? Dough and toppings scale together with the pan’s area — the common sizes:
| Pan | Dough | Crushed tomatoes | Fresh mozzarella | Zucchini | Eggplant | Bell peppers | Extra-virgin olive oil | Fresh basil |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 × 22 cm | 383 g | 80 g | 70 g | 45 g | 45 g | 45 g | 7 g | 4 leaves |
| 33 × 23 cm · 13 × 9 in | 440 g | 95 g | 80 g | 50 g | 50 g | 50 g | 8 g | 4 leaves |
| 35 × 25 cm | 507 g | 110 g | 95 g | 60 g | 60 g | 60 g | 9 g | 5 leaves |
| 33 × 33 cm | 632 g | 135 g | 120 g | 75 g | 75 g | 75 g | 11 g | 6 leaves |
| 40 × 30 cm | 696 g | 150 g | 130 g | 80 g | 80 g | 80 g | 12 g | 7 leaves |
| 46 × 33 cm · 18 × 13 in | 880 g | 190 g | 165 g | 100 g | 100 g | 100 g | 15 g | 8 leaves |
The dough
Ortolana is built on Roman teglia dough. High-hydration pan pizza, airy crumb, cut al taglio. For 4 pans:
| Ingredient | Baker's % | For 4 pizzas |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 100% | 1526 g |
| Water | 78% | 1190 g |
| Salt | 2.2% | 34 g |
| Olive oil | 2% | 31 g |
| Yeast | 0.23% | 3.5 g |
The yeast is weighed for an example 8 h rise at 21°C — your kitchen disagrees, and that’s the point: set your real schedule in the calculator and it reweighs the pinch.
How it’s done
- Make the dough: 4 pans of Roman teglia dough — the calculator weighs everything for your pan size.
- Stretch the dough into the oiled pan and let it relax into the corners.
- Top with 150 g crushed tomatoes.
- Top with 130 g fresh mozzarella (torn and well drained).
- Top with 80 g zucchini (sliced thin lengthwise, grilled or roasted dry first).
- Top with 80 g eggplant (salted, pressed and grilled before it goes on).
- Top with 80 g bell peppers (roasted, peeled and cut into strips).
- Top with 12 g extra-virgin olive oil (a thin spiral over the vegetables).
- Bake at 250 °C / 482 °F — no steel or stone needed: the pan is the baking surface; set it low-to-middle in the oven.
- After the bake: 7 fresh basil leaves — torn over the hot pizza.
Questions from the counter
Why grill the vegetables first?
Because raw zucchini, eggplant and peppers are full of water, and a pizza is no place to release it — you'd flood the cheese and steam the crust. Char or roast them dry first: they shed their water, gain sweetness, and land on the pizza already cooked, so the oven only has to warm them through.
Can I add other vegetables?
It's a garden — invite who you like. Roasted cherry tomatoes, red onion, artichokes, olives, or a handful of rocket after the bake all belong. Keep two rules: cook out the water first, and don't crowd the pan — an ortolana is grilled vegetables with pizza underneath, not a salad on bread.
Is this the same as a pizza vegetariana?
Close cousins. “Vegetariana” is the catch-all menu name for any meatless pie; ortolana is the specific one built on grilled garden vegetables. This recipe is vegetarian as written — the cheese is the only animal product — and the party planner counts it among the meatless pies.
Get the dough
The Roman teglia preset weighs the pan and writes the schedule — mix, rise, pan, dimple, bake.
The clock is a suggestion. The dough is the boss. In bocca al lupo!
Impasto is a free pizza dough calculator for Neapolitan, New York, Roman, Sicilian, Detroit, thin crust and focaccia doughs — flour, water, salt and yeast weighed in baker's percentages, with the fermentation schedule written for you.