Our Margherita Pizza Is the Simplest Thing on the Menu, and That’s the Point

Most of what we make at Plant Italia has three or four components stacked on top of each other. The margherita pizza has four, and every one of them shows. There’s the flatbread crust, our own marinara, a vegan cheese blend, and a handful of fresh basil and tomato. Nothing hides a weak ingredient here. If the marinara tastes flat, you’ll know it. If the cheese doesn’t melt right, you’ll see it.

What’s actually on it

We start with a thin flatbread base, not a thick, chewy dough. It bakes fast and stays crisp at the edges, which matters more than people expect on a pizza this simple. We spread our own marinara across it. It’s the same sauce we use for the toasted ravioli and the pastas. We make it from scratch, with crushed tomatoes, garlic, and a short list of herbs. Then we add the vegan cheese blend, fresh tomato slices, and torn basil leaves. We do that after the pizza comes out of the oven, so the basil doesn’t wilt into nothing.

Why fewer ingredients is harder, not easier

A pizza with ten toppings can cover for a mediocre crust or a thin sauce. A margherita can’t. We tested a few different marinara ratios before we landed on the version we use now. It’s thick enough to hold on the flatbread without soaking through, but it still tastes like tomatoes instead of paste. The basil timing took a few tries too. Too early and it turns brown and bitter from the oven heat. Too late and the leaves never wilt into the cheese the way they should.

The cheese, explained

Our vegan cheese melts just like dairy cheese would. Some vegan cheeses turn rubbery under high heat or refuse to brown at all. The blend we use now stretches enough to look and act like real melted cheese. It also browns slightly at the edges, the way dairy mozzarella does. Getting that right meant testing several brands side by side in our own oven, at our own temperature. One finally behaved the way we needed it to.

Order it yourself

You’ll find the margherita in the flatbread pizza section of our menu. It sits next to pizzas with more going on, like the chik’n pesto and the mushroom alfredo. We’d point you here first if you want to taste what our marinara and cheese do on their own. Nothing else competes for attention. It’s not the most exciting thing on the menu. It might be the most honest.