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Three Cheese White Pizza

When Ryan and I lived in DC last summer for his internship, I discovered the beauty and wonder of the "white pizza". It was completely by accident. 

Ryan had driven across the country to DC a couple weeks before with our car, while I stayed home for my concert, and flew out with the manchild later. The flight into Baltimore was much cheaper than flying right into Ronald Regan in DC, and thankfully the manchild slept the entire time. I knew he would conk out if I caught a flight later in the day.

Unfortunately, this made quite the little drive to our apartment, and we ended up getting into DC pretty late. I was starving, and would have eaten anything at that point. But lucky for us, a couple streets away from our new apartment, there was a small hole-in-the wall pizzeria (still open!) Without thinking much of it, we ordered just two slices of random pizza and headed outta there. Little did I know what beauty we ordered until I opened the box...

The slices were HUGE - practically 1/4 a pizza each. Ryan had ordered pepperoni and I crankily ordered "that white pizza over there" (I was still breastfeeding and just wanted to get out of there to do my business with the manchild). I thought it was some kind of chicken Alfredo pizza with random ricotta all over it (one of my usual favorites, the ricotta was new), but it was something pleasantly different. Something perfectly and surprisingly exciting: the mighty white pizza. The salty Parmesan cut through the creamy mild ricotta, the mozzarella cheese was bubbling and toasted and the sauce was practically heaven spread over fresh made-from-scratch pizza dough (I think it was rosemary dough). It was ridiculous, and I've honestly craved it ever since.

That is, until yesterday afternoon when I made this. All three of us inhaled this stuff like filthy heathens.

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Three Cheese White Pizza

Dough: 
1 batch of Simple No-Knead Pizza Dough

Sauce: 
2 T EVOO
1 medium onion, chopped
2 large cloves garlic, minced 
1 C heavy cream
salt & pepper

Ricotta Topping Mixture:
1 1/2 C Ricotta Cheese (we used low fat skim)
1 t chopped fresh thyme (it's worth it to use fresh)
salt & pepper
1/2 t garlic powder
1/3 C Parmesan cheese, shredded

Toppings:
2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
3 T fresh Italian parsley, chopped

Prepare your pizza dough and pre-bake according to it's directions.

If you're making my pizza dough, prepare the dough 2 hours ahead of time. When properly risen,  preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Roll your pizza dough out on a slightly greased and dusted pizza pan (ours is huge, so if you have a smaller pan, use only half the dough in my recipe, or else your dough will be way too thick). Attack the dough with a fork (except for the crust edges), and throw into the oven for about 8 minutes (I usually sprinkle mine with a little EVOO and garlic powder after pricking the dough with a fork).

Prepare your sauce. In a pan, over medium, heat olive oil and add in onions. Cook until almost translucent, and add in your garlic (careful to not let garlic burn at all). When garlic is wonderfully fragrant, stir in heavy cream and simmer. Add salt and pepper to taste.

While your dough is cooking, and the sauce is simmering, prepare your topping mixture. Mix together all ingredients. Add salt & pepper to taste. Set aside.

The dough should be done by now. Spread white sauce all over dough, and sprinkle on mozzarella cheese. With about a tablespoon-full at a time, dollop and slightly spread your ricotta cheese mixture in blotches over mozzarella. Throw into oven for 20 minutes (checking pizza often). After 20 minutes (and my dough was pretty thick), I turned the broiler on low to get that beautiful toasted color.

Remove from oven and sprinkle Italian parsley.

*recipe loosely based on Serious Eats


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Comments

  1. jumbo slice? they are overwhelming and best consumed at 2.45 in the morning, although I'm definitely more of a julia's empanada kind of girl . . . love my town!

    gorgeous pictures, lady!

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    1. Thanks so much Sarah! Jumbo slice indeed! I think the 2:45 sounds like a perfect idea! I can't say No to pizza!

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  2. This looks and sounds totally amazing! I just want to take a giant bite out of that thick crust. YUM!!

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    Replies
    1. The crust was my favorite (even with all the beautiful cheese toppings!) We had some extra crust, and usually I make them into rolls for sliders, but this time we turned them into cinnamon/sugar twists - so yummy! The crust/dough/bread is a winner.

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  3. Yum! I love white pizza! Can't wait to try it out. megan

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  4. I am definitely trying this. AND going to look at your pizza dough recipe also! Thanks for sharing!

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  5. YUM is all I can say ;) Thanks for linking up at LLR this week. Have a fabulous weekend!! xo Kelly

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  6. I'm featuring this pizza... look out for it this weekend! Thank you so much for linking to Foodie Friday!

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  7. One of the best pizzas I have ever eaten had ricotta and spinach on it. I have never tried to re-create it in my own kitchen, but now that I have seen your recipe, I think I will have to attempt it!!

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  8. This looks amazing! I'm not much of a pizza eater but white pizza is my favorite!

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  9. This pizza looks so delicious!! Can't wait to try it. We are huge pizza fans!! Thanks for sharing on our "Strut Your Stuff Saturday". Hope you come back next week. -The Sisters

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  10. Gosh - I'd definitely loooooooooooooooove a huge slice of this pizza :)

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  11. Oh, my even before breakfast this looks delicious!
    Visiting from Vintage Gwen and the Show & Share party!

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    Replies
    1. haha! thanks so much Sonya - I've tried to not food blog before breakfast.. it makes me way too hungry! .. yet, here I am... before breakfast...

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  12. Replies
    1. Thanks Adelina! I don't think you can ever go wrong with pizza - they're so versatile! You can make them any flavor you want - and add anything you want to the recipe. Thanks for stopping by, again :)

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  13. That looks delicious! I'm not a huge fan of a ton of tomato-y pizza sauce, and this looks much better!

    Noreen
    http://craftyjournal.com

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  14. I'm a east coast transplant now living in the mid-west.... I LOVE white pizza and this looks delicious!! I will give it a try! Over here from Cast Party Wed.

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  15. This looks absolutely delicious! I would love for you to share this at our weekly link party http://herestohandyandy.blogspot.com/2012/06/pinteresting-link-party-week-44.html

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  16. I love white pizza! The sauce is so much better than a tomato based one. Thanks so much for sharing on Tout It Tuesday! Hope to see you next week.

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  17. Now that is an amazing looking pizza! We make a white sauce pizza but I never thought to add ricotta to the top...I can't wait to try it!!! Thank you so much for sharing on Trick or Treat Tuesday!!!

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  18. This looks so yummy, I wish I could reach through the screen and grab me a slice! ;) I featured your recipe last week at my Unveil Your Genius link party (http://taylornorris.blogspot.com/2012/06/unveil-your-genius-link-party-16.html) and I am so truly sorry for not jumping over here to let you know! I'm right in the middle of a move and I've been a slacker! (eeek! so sorry) I hope you'll link up with me again soon! (Also, go grab a featured button!)

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  19. That is so crazy. My family moved from Utah to Alexandria to go to law school in DC. What's the name of the pizza place you stopped at?

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