Bloody Mary Pizza. Introducing A Cocktail Inspired Pizza Series

While everyone in the world is doing "Dry January" and foregoing gluten, I'm over here eating cocktail inspired pizzas. But many of you, or at least I hope many of you, have other New Year's resolutions like eating vegetarian, or vegan, or maybe even just cutting back on meat or dairy generally. I'm here to show you that whichever path you choose, you can still have pizza on Super Bowl Sunday. In fact, you can have really really good pizza on Super Bowl Sunday. Specifically, you can have this pizza. 

I came up with the idea for this series when talking to my best friend, who also happens to be a very successful food blogger {check out her vegan recipes here}. She had the idea to make this awesome brunch pizza, and I, being the ridiculous vegan human that I am, immediately thought, not of bacon and eggs, but of cocktails. And so, this series was born. Over the next week, I'm going to be posting 2 more cocktail-inspired pizza eats that are perfect for your veg-friendly New Year's resolutions and football/The Bachelor watch parties.

So what makes this pizza a "Bloody Mary" pizza you ask? Vegan vodka sauce! This sauce is seriously life changing. Not only will you want it on your pizza, but you'll probably find yourself putting it on everything in your kitchen: pasta, tacos, wandering children, etc. This sauce has just the right amount of spice to elevate your pizza game from drab to fab, but not so much that you're running to the nearest glass of water. The olive and eggplant bacon toppings really tie all of the flavors together into the perfect pizza interpretation of a bloody mary. However, don't feel compelled to drink what you eat. This pizza can be served with beer, water, or any other cocktail that might be floating your fancy.... 

Ingredients
Pizza dough (store bought or homemade is fine. I used the Pillsbury pizza dough, and yes it's vegan!)

Toppings
1 cup of pizza cheese from Follow Your Heart (or any other vegan mozzarella mix you like)
1/2 cup of grated Field Roast Chao Original Cheese
1/2 cup of roughly chopped Eggplant Bacon (recipe here)
1/2 tomato thinly sliced
1-2 tsp red pepper flakes or to taste
1/4 - 1/2 cup of green olives
Optional Celery leaves for garnish

Vegan Vodka Sauce
1 cup of chopped onion
1 tbsp minced garlic
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp thyme
3 leaves of fresh basil roughly chopped
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 28 oz can of whole peeled tomatoes
1 tsp smoked salt
1 tsp pepper
2 tsp vegan Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 cup hot sauce
1/2 cup vodka
1/2 cup coconut milk
*Note: depending on the size of your pizza, you may not use all of the sauce. Feel free to save the leftovers and serve it on your favorite pasta, or use it as a dipping sauce for bread sticks.

Method
1. Prepare the vodka sauce first by sautéeing the garlic and onion in olive oil on medium heat until translucent.
2. Pour in the entire can of whole tomatoes, including the liquid, and all in all remaining ingredients excluding the vodka and coconut milk. Bring the sauce to a boil then reduce the heat and allow it to simmer for 20 minutes.
3. Gently stir in the vodka and allow the sauce to continue simmering for another 15 minutes. The whole tomatoes should be falling apart in the sauce, but if not, or if the chunks are too big for your liking, gently squish them with your spatula or spoon.
4. Stir in the coconut milk and allow the sauce to cook for an additional 5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside. Note: at this point, if you would prefer a creamy sauce feel free to purée the sauce to remove any chunks. I personally did not purée my sauce and did not find the chunks to be noticeable, however, you may want to if you have a particularly picky eater.
5. Prepare your pizza crust according to its recipe or packaging. For example, mine required me to bake the crust alone for 6-8 minutes before putting the sauce and toppings on and baking it for another 8-10 minutes.
6. Top your crust with a thick layer of vodka sauce and your toppings. Bake as directed by the crust packaging instructions or recipe. Remove from the oven and allow it to cool 5 minutes before cutting and serving. This pizza makes for some awesome leftovers, so don't be scared if you can't finish it all in one sitting {you probably will}.

Stay tuned for the next pizza coming soon....