The Ultimate Homemade Veggie Pizza Recipe

ERIC BOST IS feeling the heat. It’s dinner service at Wildland, the expansive restaurant he co-owns in Carlsbad, California. His wood-fired oven—its furnace-like temps can reach upwards of 900°F—is blasting out pizzas topped with maitake mushrooms, Broccolini, and arugula pistachio pesto. “It’s giving people something they already know, but in a surprising way,” he says.

“Surprising” because, yes, Bost is topping his pies with ingredients you might otherwise find at a Whole Foods salad bar. But also because he’s building some of the best pizza in the country by leaning on his background in fine dining.

Bost has two other Carlsbad-area restaurants, Jeune et Jolie and Lilo, both with Michelin stars. And he’s not the only capital-C chef who has recently traded tweezers for pizza peels. In the process, this new class of professional chefs turned dough slingers is making the whole pizza-eating experience a little bit healthier. They’re lightening up on the cheese, going heavy on the vegetables, and trading pepperoni for stronger proteins.

You don’t need to visit Wildland to taste this better-for-you American Pizza Revolution. (But really, you should.) Because you can re-create the recipes in your own backyard, all summer long, whether you have a dedicated pizza oven or a plain ol’ grill.

Call it a pizza party.