Cauliflower Crust Pizza Marinara

There are many things I love about President’s Day. First of all, it is perhaps arguably the only Federal holiday free of convention. It arrives without any tradition attached to it: no fireworks, no barbecue, no parade, no turkey. There’s no pressure whatsoever to spend the day in a certain predetermined or, worst, prepackaged fashion.
Some may argue that this is the reason why it’s confusing: no ritual to follow, no fun.
Are you kidding me? Seriously, are you freaking kidding me?
You got 24 hours of free time that you can devote to yourself, and instead you’re rumbling in discontent about it?
Let me tell some of the things you can do with your free time.
First off, you can revise some facts about American history. It’s President day after all so let’s put it to good use. There are many fun anecdotes about Pres. Washington or Lincoln never mentioned during your high school history class but worth knowing.
You can also workout. Always a wise thing to do.
Finally, you can cook something healthy and delicious.
As for myself I did all of these three things. I studied, trained and cooked.
The most relevant activity was the latter. I baked my first ever paleo pizza. Now, that was quite something.
I wasn’t sure at all at the beginning but I have to admit that what came out of the oven was a straight passport to pizza-heaven. So surprisingly good.




The crust is made of cauliflower, mozzarella cheese, egg and seasoning. It holds together really well and you can easily eat the pizza with your hands.
For the topping I skipped the cheese (as there’s already some in the crust) and just focused on tomato sauce, olives, capers and anchovies.
According to my friend Freddy (aka the pizza expert) pizza sans cheese is called Pizza Marinara.
So there you have it: a paleo pizza marinara. Grain-free, gluten-free, low carb, low calories, good and healthy. Honestly worth a shot.


Paleo Pizza Marinara Print this recipe!
Adapted from Recipe Girl

Ingredients
Yields a 12-inch pizza (feeds 4)

Crust

1 small head cauliflower, cut into small florets (should yield about 3 cups once processed)
½ cup / 1.7 oz / 50 gr mozzarella, shredded
1 large egg, lightly beaten
½ teaspoon fine grain sea salt½ teaspoon oregano
pinch of ground black pepper

Topping

2 ladlefuls tomato sauce
3 tablespoons green olives, sliced
3 tablespoons black oilives, sliced
1 tablespoon capers
1 tablespoon oregano
anchovy fillets (optional)
Olive oil as needed

Directions

Preheat oven to 450°F (220°C) and place a rack in the middle. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and grease liberally with olive oil.
In a food processor rice the cauliflower. Transfer to a microwave dish and microwave on high for 8 minutes, until cooked.
Place the cauliflower rice in a tea towel and twist it to squeeze out as much moisture as you can (I squeezed out more than 1 cup of liquid). This is very important. The cauliflower rice needs to be dry. Otherwise you’ll end up with a mushy dough, not a crusty one.
Transfer the cauliflower flour to a mixing bowl and add egg, mozzarella, oregano, sea salt and pepper.
Using your hands, press the mixture onto the baking sheet and shape into a thin pizza “disc”.
Bake for 15 minutes, until golden.
Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes.
Spread tomato sauce evenly on the dough; top with sliced olives, capers and anchovies (if using). Sprinkle oregano on top and drizzle with olive oil. Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes.
Serve warm.

Nutrition facts

The whole pizza pie yields 490 calories, 25 grams of fat, 38 grams of fat and 40 grams of protein.