White Pizza

Hmmm, seems that pizza is showing up quite frequently...reference the previous post on dinner around Christmastime :). Tonight's version was a white pizza which, just as the last pizza used BBQ sauce instead of marinara because I didn't have any, used a garlic cream sauce instead of marinara. I have made several renditions of the white pizza over the years, including use of sun dried tomatoes, pesto or mushrooms, tonight I took a simple approach (i.e. easy).

White Pizza

1 pkg whole wheat pizza dough

dried oregano, garlic powder and olive oil for dough seasoning 

2 T butter

2 T all purpose flour

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup milk (plus or minus depending on how think you like your sauce)

12 oz. mozzarella cheese, shredded and divided

1 15 oz. container ricotta cheese

Roll out the dough and season with dried oregano, garlic powder and a drizzle of olive oil. 

Preheat oven to 350 deg F. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter of medium heat. As soon as the butter is melted, add the minced garlic and sautee about 30 seconds. Add in the flour and whisk together until a paste forms. Cook about another minute to cook the flour taste out.

Slowly pour in the milk, whisking continuously until all of the clumps dissolve. Once the sauce begins to thicken, add 4 oz of the shredded mozzarella and stir until melted. If the sauce is too think, add more milk about 2-3 tablespoons at a time. 

Remove sauce from heat and cool slightly. Pour the sauce evenly over the pizza dough. With a spoon, scoop out dollops of the ricotta cheese and "sling" it evenly across the pizza so you have small clumps of ricotta all around (but not so much that the clumps are touching). Top with remaining mozzarella cheese.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until cheese is melted and dough is cooked through.