This mushroom pizza recipe is straightforward once you have got the technique down.
Mushroom pizza on a white base is one of the finest vegetarian pizzas you can make in a pizza oven. The earthiness of the mushrooms, the richness of the cheese, and a finish of truffle oil create something genuinely special that doesn’t need meat to be satisfying. The key technique — pre-cooking the mushrooms — takes 5 minutes but makes an enormous difference to the result.
Ingredients (Per 12-inch Pizza)
- 1 pizza dough ball
- 80g fresh mozzarella, torn
- 30g parmesan, finely grated
- 150g mixed mushrooms (chestnut, oyster, shiitake), sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- Fresh thyme leaves
- 3 tbsp olive oil (divided)
- Salt and black pepper
- Truffle oil to finish
- Fresh parsley, chopped (to finish)
Why You Must Pre-Cook the Mushrooms
Raw mushrooms on pizza release a large amount of water during cooking. At 450°C, this steam has nowhere to go — it collects under the mushrooms, making the base soggy and preventing the mozzarella from browning properly. Pre-cooking evaporates this moisture before the pizza goes in the oven, so the mushrooms arrive concentrated, golden, and flavourful rather than wet and pale.
Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a pan over high heat. Add the sliced mushrooms in a single layer and cook without stirring for 2–3 minutes until they start to colour. Don’t stir too early — contact with the hot pan is what creates browning. Season with salt, add the garlic and thyme, and cook for a further 1–2 minutes. The mushrooms should be golden and any liquid should have evaporated. Set aside to cool slightly.
Choosing Your Mushrooms
A mix of mushroom varieties gives the best result. Chestnut mushrooms are meaty and hold their shape. Oyster mushrooms have a more delicate texture and slightly seafood-like flavour that pairs well with garlic. Shiitake adds an umami depth that regular mushrooms lack. If you can only find chestnut mushrooms, that’s fine — use 200g and add a small amount of dried porcini (soaked and drained) for extra depth.
Avoid button mushrooms — they have very high water content and bland flavour. They work in a cooked sauce but not as a pizza topping in a high-heat oven.
Building and Cooking the Pizza
Stretch your dough and lay it on a semolina-dusted peel. Drizzle 1–2 tablespoons of olive oil over the base, leaving a 2cm border — this is a white pizza (no tomato sauce), so the oil is the base. Scatter the torn mozzarella, then distribute the pre-cooked mushrooms and garlic slices evenly. Add the grated parmesan over the top. Season with black pepper.
Cook at 430–460°C for 60–90 seconds, rotating every 20–30 seconds. The mozzarella should be melted and bubbling, the mushrooms deepening in colour, and the cornicione properly blistered and charred in spots.
The Truffle Oil Finish
Immediately out of the oven, drizzle with a small amount of truffle oil — half a teaspoon is enough for a 12-inch pizza. Apply it while the pizza is still steaming. The heat causes the truffle aroma to bloom and spread across the whole pizza. Too much truffle oil is overwhelming; less is always better. Scatter fresh parsley over the top and serve immediately.
On truffle oil: genuine truffle oil made with real truffles is expensive. Most supermarket truffle oil uses synthetic truffle flavour (2,4-dithiapentane), which smells more intensely “truffle” than real truffle oil but can taste artificial in large quantities. Either works on this pizza — just use it sparingly.
Variations
- Mushroom and taleggio — replace mozzarella with taleggio for a richer, more pungent result that pairs especially well with shiitake
- Mushroom and egg — crack an egg onto the pizza after 45 seconds of cooking; the yolk should still be runny when you take the pizza out
- Porcini base — soak dried porcini, blend with a little of the soaking water into a paste, and use as the base instead of olive oil for a more intense mushroom flavour throughout
- Mushroom and gorgonzola — dot small pieces of gorgonzola alongside the mozzarella; the blue cheese melts into sharp, creamy pockets that cut through the earthiness of the mushrooms
