I wanted something quick and easy for dinner recently and since I had some homemade pizza dough in the fridge from a few days earlier, pizza seemed like an obvious choice. The only problem was I realized I didn’t have any tomato sauce handy. I did have the ingredients on hand to make a quick batch but I wasn’t in the mood. I started browsing through my Baking Illustrated book and came upon a few recipes for white pizza which sounded delicious, and more importantly, simple. I combined bits and pieces of a few recipes to come up with one that worked with the ingredients I had available. I haven’t included quantities in the list of ingredients below because I don’t believe any two people like exactly the same amount of cheese on their pizza. So, feel free to use as much or as little as you like to achieve the right level of cheesiness. I used about 1/3 – 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, 1/4 – 1/3 cup ricotta cheese and a few tablespoons of Parmesan cheese.
I liked this pizza so much more than I expected to when I dug in! Something about the simplicity of the dough with a little olive oil, garlic and cheese just really worked for me. I ate it for dinner one night and then had leftovers for lunch the next day I liked it so much!
Three Cheese White Pizza
adapted from Baking Illustrated by the editors of Cook’s Illustrated
1 recipe for pizza dough (recipe can be found here – please note, this recipe makes enough for 3 pizzas – the remaining 2 pieces of dough can be frozen for up to several weeks)
extra-virgin olive oil for brushing the dough
1 garlic clove, sliced very thinly
shredded mozzarella cheese
ricotta cheese
grated Parmesan cheese
dried thyme
Make the pizza dough (or use store bought for an even quicker meal!). Place a pizza stone on a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 500 F.
Lightly brush the dough with olive oil. Scatter the garlic slices around the dough. Sprinkle the dough evenly with the mozzarella cheese, leaving a 1/2-inch border uncovered. Dot with the ricotta cheese and sprinkle with dried thyme, if desired.
Slide the dough onto the heated pizza stone. Bake until the crust edges brown and the cheeses are golden and bubbling, about 8 to 12 minutes. Remove pizza from the oven and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Cut into wedges and serve immediately.
While not something that I could have, and not likely to make, this looks super great.
This looks absolutely delicious Tracey. I love cooks illustrated, rarely do I find that a recipe doesnt work for me..
That pizza looks amazing. I bet that it would also be so good with some goat cheese on top, yum!
I LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEE WHITE PIZZA!!! Yummmmmmmmmmmmm…
Looks amazing!!! I can’t wait to try this; I love cheese pizza and garlic fingers; my mouth is watering!
The pizza looks very tasty! Love all of the cheese!
Yum, that looks delicious. You can never go wrong with cheese and bread.
I love Cooks Illustrated too. Your pizza looks great. hmmmm…maybe homemade pizza this weekend for us. Thanks for the idea.
I’ve never made a white pizza before, but I want to! This looks so delicious.
I haven’t made my own pizza in a long time. Yours looks wonderful. I should make some again!!
Homemade pizza is the best! Multiple cheeses is always a good thing.
I love white pizza! Yours looks positively DELISH!!
this looks great, I make a spring form pan pizza, great pictures
Mmmmm, I love white pizza! I just discovered your blog and it’s got some great stuff!
That looks great! I make pizza about once a week, and I have leftover mozarella from this week and lots of extra ricotta from the SMS turnovers; I guess I know what I’ll make next week.
I love pizza of all stripes. This looks FAB. I write about my pizzas, and other foodstuff, on my blog: eastofeaten.blogspot.com
Oh, Tracey, this pizza looks totally fabulous. I’m usually a big fan of the sauce, but your pictures have me craving white pizza! Plus, you used all of my favorite cheeses. Sorry that it’s taken me so long to get to your posts; I was out of commission all last week 🙁
I love a simple pizza recipe. I wish I could have some of this one for lunch today.
I made this for dinner tonight and it was excellent; so happy I saw it here last week!
Love this. We are always buying white pizza..Home made is always the best.