Arugula Dressing for Pizza: Laci Doczi's Emulsified Green Sauce

Some toppings make a pizza, and a great green sauce is one of them. In this post Laci Doczi walks us through his arugula dressing, a silky, complex, perfectly balanced sauce that works beautifully drizzled over pizza. It is built like a mayonnaise, but with no eggs at all, and there is a neat trick that keeps it stable.

The Ingredients

You will need:

- Arugula (rocket), washed - Red onion (one medium onion) - Mustard (this is the key emulsifier) - A neutral oil - Sugar - Vinegar (tarragon vinegar is used here) - Apple juice - Soda water - Salt and freshly ground black pepper - A food processor or blender

A note on quantities: the final volume of the sauce depends on how much mustard you use, because the mustard is what emulsifies the oil. Use too little mustard and you simply cannot make as much sauce. The batch in the video is large, so it uses a lot of mustard, roughly half of a 440 g jar.

Why Mustard, Not Egg

This is essentially an eggless mayonnaise. Because there is no egg, the mustard does all the emulsifying work, so it has to be ready to grab the oil. That also means the sauce takes the oil a little more reluctantly than an egg-based mayo would, so patience at the start is everything.

Building the Emulsion

Start with the aromatics and the base:

- Peel and roughly chop a medium red onion. It does not need to be fine; the machine will take care of it. Blend it smooth first, so there are no lumps. - Add the mustard, then a couple of teaspoons of sugar. - Add the tarragon vinegar (this gets adjusted at the end, so go steady).

Now the critical part, the oil. Pour it in very slowly, in a thin stream, aiming for the centre so the blade throws it straight back out. If you dump it in all at once, the emulsion breaks and the whole thing is ruined. As it starts to take, you will hear the sound change as it thickens, and the little crater in the middle will close up. Only once it is clearly emulsifying can you get a touch braver with the pour, but even then, stay careful. There is a fine line between not yet and too far.

You now have a thick, creamy base.

Loosening It With the Soda-Water Trick

If you started feeding arugula into that thick cream, it would seize up fast. Instead, loosen the base first. Add apple juice and soda water. It is important that it is soda water specifically: there is acid in it, and the acid is part of what holds the sauce together. This is what lets you keep blending and folding in the greens.

Once it is loosened just a little, start adding the washed arugula bit by bit. Keep it moving in the machine.

Seasoning and Final Touches

Hold the salt until near the end, then add it carefully. Watch out here: because of all the acid, salt can run away from you quickly, so go gradually. The whole batch in the video used about three and a half spoons of sugar in total, balanced against the acidity to taste.

Finish with freshly ground black pepper, and adjust the balance of acid and sweetness to your own palate. If the sauce is too thick, thin it with a little more water; if it is too thin, it will keep for less time.

Flavour and Storage

The result is remarkable. If you do not know what is in it, you taste something genuinely complex: velvety, balanced, with the acidity and sweetness in harmony. You serve it by the drizzle, not the spoonful, because it is rich in acid and oil.

This works with almost any green, not just arugula. Lettuce or other herbs will do, but it is best with something intense, since you use it sparingly as a finishing sauce.

For storage, aim for a sauce consistency: dip a spoon in, draw it across, and the line should hold without running back together. That is the texture you want. Kept in the fridge, it will hold for a week without trouble. The thinner you make it, the shorter it lasts.

Spoon it over a fresh pizza as a finishing touch and your guests will be impressed, especially once they taste it. Happy pizza making.