NYC’s Famous Pizza Shop Motorino Now Offers Vegan Italian Sausage

This week, New York City’s famous Motorino Pizzeria will launch its first vegan pizza. The new La Vegana pizza will be topped with vegan garlic-fennel sausage made by vegan startup Blackbird Foods, along with broccoli rabe, onions, and Gaeta olives. Blackbird Foods CEO Emanuel Storch first reached out to Motorino’s Chef Mathieu Palombino to collaborate on an Italian-style plant-based sausage that mimics Motorino’s traditional pork fennel sausage. “Over time, we successfully developed a recipe with Blackbird’s seitan to make a garlic fennel sausage that tastes just like the real thing,” Storch told VegNews. In addition to Motorino’s specialty La Vegana pizza, customers can request the addition of Blackbird’s vegan sausage on any other pizza on the menu. This year, Blackbird plans to roll out new vegan meat products—which include pepperoni, sausage, and wings—to grocery stores across the country.