Simple White Pizza Recipe
When you want white pizza, but you don't want the thick, ricotta-based or alfredo-like sauce that comes with most white pizza recipes, this is the one for you. There's only one ingredient in the "sauce"—heavy cream—and it creates a creamy, yet fresh-tasting result that you'll be thinking about long after the last slice is gone.
Makes: 1 (12- to 14-inch) pizza
Cost: $10
Equipment
- Cutting board and knife
- Rolling pin (optional)
- Large rimmed baking sheet or baking stone/steel
- Pizza peel (optional)
- pastry brush
Ingredients
- 1 (14- to 16-ounce) ball pizza dough
- Extra-virgin olive oil or melted bacon grease, for coating the dough
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 2 cups (or more) sliced or chopped fresh vegetables and/or herbs (For this pizza, I used 4 scallions, thinly sliced lengthwise into ribbons and ¾ cup quartered cherry tomatoes)
- ⅓ cup (or more) torn cured meat or cooked chopped bacon (optional, I used 4 thin slices of prosciutto, torn into bite-size pieces)
- ½ to ⅔ cup shredded cheese (I used aged gouda, but any cheese you love is perfect)
- 5 tablespoons heavy cream, divided
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 500°F (if using a baking sheet) or as high as it will go (if using a baking stone/steel; place the stone/steel in the bottom third of the oven before you start preheating). Let the oven preheat for at least 30 minutes. Then, if you’re using a baking stone or steel, switch the oven to Broil on high.
- Stretch or roll out your dough to a 12- to 14-inch circle, then transfer it to a baking sheet / pizza pan or a lightly floured pizza peel (if using a baking stone/steel).
- Drizzle the dough very lightly with olive oil or bacon grease, and use a pastry brush to spread the oil all the way to the edges of the dough. Season with a hefty pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Scatter on your veggie and/or meat toppings, then the cheese (if using). Drizzle half of the cream evenly over top and season with another big pinch of salt.
- Transfer the pizza to the oven and bake until the crust is golden around the edges and evenly browned on the bottom—8 to 10 minutes on the baking sheet, 6 to 8 minutes on the baking stone/steel.
- Remove the pizza from the oven. Immediately drizzle the remaining cream evenly over top and season with a pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Let the pizza sit for 5 minutes or until the cream has congealed, then slice and serve.