This white pizza sauce recipe might change the way you make homemade pizzas. The sauce is creamy and flavorful.
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I don’t make pizzas too often, probably 3 or 4 times a year, and I’ve never made one with a white sauce. Bon Appetit magazine sends me daily recipes and things that they are doing. Well, this was a recent recipe they had from Philadelphia’s Pizzaria Beddia. The recipe is in the cookbook, Pizza Camp by Joe Beddia.
So this post is a review of Joe Beddia’s white pizza sauce recipe which I followed as written. But I will give you my recommendations for making this and share my pizza dough recipe which makes a crispy, thin crust.
Ingredients For White Pizza Sauce
The white pizza sauce recipe has heavy cream, fresh basil, fennel fronds, chives, garlic, lemon zest and juice, a few red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper. A nice combination of flavorful ingredients.
The recipe made a ton of white pizza sauce. Like enough for 4 or 5, 14″ pizzas. I’m going to present a reduced quantity recipe for you to use since the pizza crust recipe I use makes two 14 to 16-inch crusts.
The exact ingredients and amounts are in the recipe card.
The Mixing Process
I used a food processor to chop this up, but an immersion blender would also work. It only takes a few seconds in the processor to finely chop the ingredients. As you can see, this little bit of high-speed blending makes the cream thicken to a nice consistency for spreading on the crust.
The sauce turns quite liquid in the oven as you can see from the first photo. By all means, use parchment paper under the pizza which will catch any overflowing sauce.
I use baking stones in the oven which hold the heat for baking bread or a pizza. They are Dough-Joe Pizza and Baking Stones. The 5-piece set makes a 15 by 18-inch baking surface and the 3/4-inch thickness holds lots of heat. In a 550-degree oven, the pizza took 8 minutes to bake.
The toppings used were just curly kale and red onions. They were a perfect complement to the sauce and mozzarella cheese. Mary Jo and I made a second pie and added thinly sliced tomatoes. It turned out that the taste was good, but the fresh tomatoes let off lots of juice when cooked which made the pizza wet and sloppy. I think that sun-dried tomatoes could be chopped up and incorporated with the sauce and that combination would be good without adding extra moisture.
Additional toppings to try would be spinach leaves or arugula and they would be excellent. Mushrooms would be good, but I would put the mushrooms in the microwave for about 30 seconds…enough time for the mushrooms to let off some of their moisture. The white pizza sauce is quite rich as it is and I don’t think any meat would be appropriate with this…maybe crumbled bacon bits?
I’ll be making this white pizza sauce recipe again and making this pizza, kale and fennel fronds and all!
The Best White Pizza Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
Pizza Crust
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 pkg Active dry yeast, (2 1/4 tsp)
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 2 tsp dried thyme
- 2/3 cup water, 105 to 110 degrees plus a few more teaspoons if needed.
White Pizza Sauce
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
- 2 tbsp chopped fennel fronds
- 2 tbsp fresh chopped chives
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 garlic clove minced
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1/4 tsp each...salt and pepper
Pizza Toppings
- olive oil for brushing on the crust
- 4 large curly kale leaves, torn into bits, discarding the larger stem parts (about 2 leaves per pizza)
- 1/2 large red onion, thinly sliced
- 8 ozs. low moisture mozzarella cheese grated
- 3 ozs fresh mozzarella cheese torn into small pieces
- Other toppings as desired.
Instructions
Pizza Crust
- Mix all dry ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer.
- Using the dough hook attachment of the mixer, add the water and mix on speed #2 pushing the flour down with a long handled spatula to incorporate.
- Add additional water, 1 or 2 teaspoons at at time until the dough forms into a dry ball.
- Knead the dough on #2 speed for 20 minutes.
- If mixing the dough by hand, mix the ingredients and knead on a floured surface...20 minutes will make the glutens in the flour form links which makes the dough not spring back as much when rolling it out.
- Keep the dough in the mixing bowl and cover with a dish towel, 1 hour to let the dough rise.
- Remove the dough from the bowl and place on a floured surface and separate the ball into two equal pieces, then cover again to rise a second time for 30 minutes.
- Use a rolling pin to form the crust keeping the working surface floured so the dough doesn't stick. Place the formed pizza dough on a sheet of parchment to prepare for toppings.
White Pizza Sauce
- Place the sauce ingredients in a food processor or a bowl if using an immersion blender. Pulse until the ingredients are chopped into small bits and the sauce thickens.
Pizza Toppings
- Preheat your oven to 550 degrees with a pizza stone or Dough-Joe blocks, if using. If you don't have either of these, place the dough on parchment paper on a large baking sheet. The baking time will probably take a few more minutes. Once the cheese starts to brown slightly, the pizza should be done.
- Lightly brush the crust edges with olive oil then add a layer of the white sauce, keeping the sauce about an inch from the edge of the crust.
- Add the grated mozzarella cheese, (3 or 4 ounces), and bits of fresh mozzarella, (1 1/2 ounces). Next, add the torn pieces of kale then finally 1/2 of the red onion slices.
- Use a pizza peel sliding it under the parchment paper and slide the pizza on to the stones if using.
- Bake for 8 minutes until the cheese begins to brown, remove from the oven and let cool slightly, then slice.
- Repeat for a second pizza if you are making two. The second ball of dough can be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, then in a plastic freezer bag and placed in the freezer for later use.
Notes
Nutrition
Caroline
Joe, you should get an award for this recipe.
My husband drools over this pizza recipe of yours and calls it, โThe Fancy Adult Pizza!โ
Anything to get the kids to leave it all for him, he loves it so much.
It is truly a masterpiece!
Everyone should try it and I dare (the adults especially) that it will become their most fave.
If I need my hubby to tackle the โhoney-do list,โ I make this pizza for him and he is very obligingly.
I personally call this pizza, โThe Wifeโs Secret Weapon!โ
You are a genius, Joe.
Joe
Hey Caroline,
Wow, another thumbs up for a recipe. Thank you so much and I’m glad this one makes you and your husband happy.
I truly appreciate the nice comment.
Joe
Kay
I love that you use fennel! I have so much fennel and am trying to figure out more ways to use it. Maybe also sautรฉed fennel bulb on top too?
Joe
Hi Kay. Sauteed fennel would be wonderful. Check out Roasted Fennel and Shrimp and Sausage Stew for other ways to use fennel.
MaryJo
Crispy crust with herbs, luscious sauce, healthy kale and tasty onion, this pizza has it all!