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My take on the classic white pizza (pizza bianca)! This white pizza is made without ricotta cheese, loads of mozzarella cheese and olive oil, an abundance of garlic, and the easiest thin crust for a restaurant-quality pizza right at home!
Homemade White Pizza (Pizza Bianca)
Every time I go to a pizzeria, I’m always so torn as to what to order. I tend to go with the classics – a plain cheese pizza or an extra-loaded pepperoni pizza. However, years ago, I tried a white pizza, also known as a pizza bianca on some menus, and my goodness. I fell in love with the absence of red sauce. Give me all the cheese and garlic, please! Some high quality extra virgin olive oil on top and for dipping, too!
Usually white pizzas have ricotta but when I made this homemade version, I omitted it as I didn’t have it on hand at the time and trust me – it’s still just as good! It still has all the garlicky and cheesy flavors.
What Is White Pizza?
If you’re wondering what the heck white pizza is, white pizza is a pizza that is made without red sauce (tomato sauce). It’s topped with white cheeses and typically has an olive oil and garlic base. It is often times called white pizza on menus but can also be called pizza bianca, pizza bianco, or pizza blanco.
How to Make White Pizza
Making white pizza at home is super easy. You can either use store-bought pizza dough or make your own thin crust pizza dough with this recipe! Then, all you really need are basic ingredients like olive oil, garlic, and cheese!
Tips for Making White Pizza at Home
- Grate your own cheese! It helps it melt so much more beautifully and smoothly. Store-bought cheese contains a bunch of add-ins to prevent clumping, and that can make your pizza topping starchy and chalky.
- Just the right amount of cheese and not more! We love cheese, but if you load on too many toppings, your pizza is going to get soggy.
- Invest in a pizza stone or pizza steel. It makes the pizza crust turn out SO much better and crispier. The ability to retain high heat really helps when making pizzas at home.
Storage and Reheating Instructions
Allow leftovers to cool then individually wrap pizza slices in plastic wrap or foil and refrigerate for up to 3 days. To reheat, use an air fryer (preferred method) until warmed through or use a toaster oven until warmed through. A microwave can work but the air fryer and toaster oven keeps the pizza nice and crispy!
White Pizza
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 recipe for pizza dough
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 ½ teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 cups (224 g) shredded whole-milk mozzarella cheese
- 1 ½ teaspoon Italian seasoning
- Salt, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit and lightly flour a 13-inch pizza pan.
- Using your hands, gently stretch the dough in the pizza pan.1 recipe for pizza dough
- Leaving a 1-inch border from the edge, brush olive oil and minced garlic all over the dough. It's okay if the minced garlic doesn't cover all the space. Sprinkle garlic powder evenly over the oil and garlic.3 tablespoons olive oil, 3 cloves garlic, 1 ½ teaspoons garlic powder
- Sprinkle mozzarella cheese all over top then the Italian seasoning and salt.2 cups (224 g) shredded whole-milk mozzarella cheese, 1 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning, Salt
- Bake for 12-13 minutes or until cheese is bubbling and the crust has browned around the edges.
- Allow to cool for about 5-10 minutes before slicing and serving.
Nutrition
Photographs by Meg McKeehan Photography
Your pizza sounds good, but needs one little tweak. True white pizza also has ricotta cheese on it. After the mozzarella, put a few spoonfuls around! Delicious!
White pizza from NE Ohio does not have ricotta in it! But it does have hot pepper oil in the “sauce” and yellow hot pepper rings on top.
We used to try to find the “hottest” white pizza in NE Ohio (Warren Youngstown) that we could in the later 1980s.
@Nadine Burns, from NE Ohio myself (Youngstown) that area is by far the pizza capital! Lol We travel now in RV full time and this is an excellent recipe for us. I added the hot pepper rings, naturally.This is The best white pizza recipe on Pinterest .
@Cheryl, PGH here, I don’tnothing NYC has anything on the Youngstown area with regards to Italian food!
Made my first pizza tonight. Used this recipe. Easy and delicious ty.
Looks awesome
Whole wheat it can be gluten-free then right? You probably meant the toppings only right that are gluten-free?
If you are coming to my site from Pinterest or another site that is labeling my recipes for me based on their “generator,” please do not use that as your guide because they’re wrong 90% of the time . They have said recipes of mine are “dairy-free” when there’s clearly milk in the recipe. I didn’t state this recipe was gluten-free at all in my post so please disregard what you have read from whatever site you are coming from. :)
I had no idea White pizzas could be so easily made! I’m so excited to try and my mouth is watering.
Awesome white pizza
do you have to use whole wheat crust or can you just use normal pizza crust? I’ve never had white pizza before.
You can use normal pizza crust
Love, love, love white pizza. I’m going to try this. I usually buy Red Baron cheese french bread pizza (no red sauce) because it is easier for one. On pets : the last 5 pets (3 dogs,2 cats) have all been shelter or rescue saves. Wish I could afford more.
White sauce pizza trumps red sauce any day! Looks soooo yummy! That crust looks perfect. Not too thick, not too thin. Score!
Love love love white pizza! We’re finally getting SoulCycle in Chicago and I’m excited to try it. We have FlyWheel, which I love, so I’m interested to see what the difference is. Have you taken FlyWheel before and can compare?
No, I haven’t taken at FlyWheel before BUT my good friend who I go to SoulCycle with is from Chicago and has taken FlyWheel and says they’re both awesome!