Spicy Fennel Seitan Sausage Grilled Pizza

Spicy Fennel Seitan Sausage Pizza, on a patriotic plating.

With even more patriotic color play, this is a close up of the topping; check out the grill marks!

Burying the lede a bit: here's the grilled crust.

Who says vegans can't have grill marks?!

Spicy Fennel Seitan Sausage and Porcini Mushroom Mixture

Notes
Recipes, Substitutions, and Tips

1. Crust

I followed the Vegan with a Vengeance Pizza Dough Recipe, using whole wheat pastry flour, a pinch of ground black pepper, and ample amounts of semolina to prevent tackiness in the humid East Coast weather. This recipe was really easy and though it requires a bit of forethought to prepare, the time spent making it is almost entirely passive. Worried about equipment? If you're thinking "Yeah, this looks awesome, but I couldn't possibly without a rolling pin," you'd be wrong. I bet you have one of these:

It's a shot glass, a double shot (or 2.5 ounce glass) to be precise. I actually thought this "tool" worked really well given the small size of the crusts and the subtle transference of body heat through the glass kept the dough pliable. Also, the heft of a wooden rolling pin would have caused the delicate dough to tear. A word of caution: friends have told me I have "kindergartener hands;" if yours are larger or stronger, roll with caution or else the marinara won't be the only red sauce you're adding to the dish. Once you've shaped the dough, place a few drops of olive oil--I used white truffle olive oil to kick up the smoky flavor--on either side of the flatted crust and spread to coat with a brush or your fingers. Heat a grill pan (or grill if you're so lucky) and then grill for about three minutes at a time on a side, flipping four times to create hatched grill marks. You'll need to watch the crust closely to ensure the grill marks develop but that it doesn't overly brown. Once cooked, set the crusts on a baking sheet covered with foil.

2. Spicy Fennel Seitan Sausage

I followed The Artful Vegan Seitan Sausage Recipe. However, instead of making the seitan from scratch, I used store bought and made a few other adjustments. I started by putting 1/2 cup dried porcinis in 1 cup of boiling water with 2 bay leaves to reconstitute. I chopped three cloves of garlic and fried them for about three minutes in 1 TBSP of white truffle olive over medium heat in a small sauce pan. I then added a box (8 ounces) of West Soy Ground seitan and cooked for another five minutes. To this mixture, I added the seasonings suggested in the Artful Vegan Recipe, omitting the Chili Powder, Paprika, Sage, and Tamari, and adding a TBSP of chopped fresh rosemary and 1.5 TBSP fresh basil. I then added in the dried porcinis, bay leaves, and reconstituting water and allowed them to simmer for about twenty minutes or until most of the cooking water had evaporated.

3. Assembly

While other things were going on, I reheated1 cup of frozen Viva Vegan! Basic Onion-Pepper Sofrito over medium heat in a sauté pan. The mixture is essentially green bell peppers, onions, garlic, salt and pepper, chopped and sautéed. While this was caramelizing, I chopped five slices of Tofutti Mozzarella Cheese. I then coated each crust with about 2 TBSPs each of Middle Earth Tomato Basil Marinara, added half of the chopped cheese, about 1/2 cup of the porcini mixture, and 1/2 cup of the sofrito or pepper mixture. I then placed the crusts under an extremely warm broiler for four minutes; again, be extremely attentive so that the soy cheese melts without scorching.

Tasting

Honestly, if I had been served the seitan-porcini mixture at a non-vegan restaurant, I would have sent it back thinking that the kitchen had made a mistake. It has everything that good Italian sausage has: ample seasoning, fattiness from the truffled olive oil, umami savoriness from the porcinis and their reconstituting sauce, protein and chewiness from the seitan. The crust was also perfect: smoky and earthy (obviously enhanced by the truffle oil), with a density that could stand up to the weighty toppings despite its small dimensions. The other components round out the dish nicely: the cheese is light but fatty and actually melts, unlike many other vegan cheeses, and the caramelized onion and pepper mixture add another flavor dimension of smoky sweetness. In closing, please note: the bay leaf is an inedible garnish, as are the quilt and cutting board.