White Pizza with Ricotta, Mozzarella, and Basil

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Make this gooey white pizza with ricotta, fresh mozzarella, basil, and chili oil for a fun and delicious date night at home.

Pizza has to be one of our favorite foods to riff on, since there are so many different ways to top it, bake it, and eat it. And one of the best things about homemade pizza is how easy it is to make with just a few fresh ingredients. This simple white pizza with ricotta, mozzarella, and basil is no exception!

This spicy white pizza recipe was inspired by a delicious pie from Pizza Shark called the Great White, which is made with ricotta, buffalo mozzarella, basil, and Calabrian chili oil. I’m usually not the biggest fan of white pizza, but the combination of creamy ricotta and spicy chili oil on this pizza easily changed my mind!

The unique flavor and texture of creamy ricotta paired with gooey mozzarella creates an irresistibly delicious white pizza. Topped off with fresh basil and a drizzle of hot chili oil, the beauty of this pizza lies in its simplicity. If you think it sounds too good to be true, then you’ll have to try it and see for yourself!

What This Recipe Entails

This recipe calls for Neapolitan style pizza dough, which we recommend you make yourself! It is both easy and fun to do, and will make your pizza so much better. The dough needs to be made 2 days in advance, so make sure to plan your pizza night ahead of time. Check out the Mastering Pizza cookbook by Marc Vetri for how to make the best Neapolitan style pizza dough!

• Prep time: 25 minutes
• Cook time: 4 minutes
• Cool time: 2 minutes

Make sure you have all your ingredients prepped and ready to go before you start cooking. You will need a cast iron pan for this recipe. The pizza is cooked by first preheating the cast iron pan on the stove, and placing your stretched pizza dough directly on the hot pan. This is why you need to make sure your ingredients are prepped. Once your dough is on the pan, you’ll want to quickly top your pizza and get it in the oven!

White Pizza Ingredients

You only need 7 ingredients to make this restaurant style white pizza at home:

• Neapolitan style pizza dough
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Minced garlic
• Fresh mozzarella
• Ricotta
• Fresh basil
• Chili oil

We highly recommend making your own Neapolitan style dough from scratch for this recipe! You’ll have to prep the dough one to two days in advance, but it’s so worth it. The flavor is incredible, and there’s nothing like relishing in the satisfaction of your hard work while enjoying the final result. We like to use Marc Vetri’s recipe for Neapolitan dough at 70% hydration from his Mastering Pizza cookbook, but any Neapolitan dough recipe will do.

Make sure to grab a ball of fresh mozzarella for this recipe; the gooey results speak for themselves!

Finally, we like to drizzle our white pizza with chili oil before serving. It adds a nice kick that really takes this pizza up a notch. (Also known as “shark-style” where we typically order this type of pizza from!)

How To Make White Pizza With Ricotta, Mozzarella, and Basil

To make a Neapolitan style white pizza in a home oven, you’ll need a super hot oven and a 10-inch cast iron pan. We recommend using one that’s relatively flat, like a griddle, so that it’s easy to get the pizza on and off the pan.

Since relatively no preparation has to go into the toppings, all you really need to do is stretch the dough, assemble the pizza, and bake! Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how to make our white pizza with ricotta, mozzarella, and basil:

1. First, preheat the oven as high as it can go – around 500 or 550 degrees F.
2. Then, flour a clean work surface and shape the dough into a roughly 10-inch circle. Start by flattening it into a disc and gently pressing around the edges to form a small crust, then use two hands underneath the dough to stretch it from the center outwards. Gently coax it into the shape of your pan.
3. Once the oven is hot, switch it to the broiler setting. Then, preheat a 10-inch cast iron pan on the stove over medium-high heat for about 10 minutes, until it’s super hot.
4. While the pan preheats, make sure all your toppings are ready and place them within reach of the stove. You’re going to top the pizza right on the pan, so you’ll want to move fairly quickly.
5. To top the pizza: gently place the dough on the hot skillet and then turn the stove off. Spread the olive oil onto the dough in an even layer, leaving about a quarter-inch around the edges for the crust. Then, top evenly with the minced garlic. Next, lay down slices of fresh mozzarella, and then dollop the ricotta into the empty spaces in between the mozzarella slices. Finally, top with the fresh basil and then transfer the pan to the oven.
6. Cook under the broiler for about 4 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through for even cooking, until the crust is golden and the cheese is gooey.
7. Then, remove the pizza from the oven and carefully transfer it to a cooling rack. Cool for at least 2 minutes before transferring to a cutting board.
8. Finally, drizzle the pizza with chili oil before slicing and serving.

FAQs

Can I use shredded mozzarella instead of sliced mozzarella?

Technically, you can use shredded mozzarella in this recipe – but we don’t recommend it. Shredded mozzarella and fresh, sliced mozzarella yield vastly different results when melted due to their texture and water content. For the best results, stick with sliced mozzarella!

How can I make this pizza with regular store-bought pizza dough?

You definitely can make this pizza with regular, store-bought pizza dough. Most store bought doughs are larger than the Neapolitan dough we recommend for this recipe, so you may need to 1.5x or 2x the toppings to have enough.

We would also recommend following the baking directions on the package, instead of using the broiler and cast iron pan method outlined in our recipe. This technique works particularly well for high-hydration Neapolitan style doughs, but isn’t the most suitable for store bought dough.

What’s the point of preheating the oven and then switching it to the broiler before baking the pizza? And why do I need a hot skillet?

According to Marc Vetri in his Mastering Pizza cookbook, this is the best way to mimic a real pizza oven at home. First, you get the oven super hot inside – then you switch on the broiler so there’s a direct flame cooking the top of the pizza. But you also need a hot surface to cook the bottom of the pizza, hence the super hot cast iron pan. 

If you’re eager to learn more about making delicious pizza at home, pick up a copy of his cookbook here! It’s how we learned to make all kinds of pizza dough from scratch, and how to cook pizza properly at home.

Does ricotta go on pizza before or after baking?

Ricotta can go on pizza before or after baking – both methods work, but they will yield different results. We like to put ricotta on pizza before baking since it gets a nice shell-like texture on the surface while remaining creamy on the inside. If you choose to put the ricotta on after baking, you’ll have cold bites of creamy cheese throughout your pizza. So really, it depends on the temperature and texture you want.

How do you cut pizza without messing up the cheese?

We struggled with this very question for a long time, having relied on a cheap pizza cutter for far too long. Our recommendation: ditch the pizza cutter and get yourself a nice pair of pizza scissors! These pizza scissors have an angled handle so you can easily cut pizzas of any size. Plus, the bottom is padded so it’ll protect whatever surface you’re cutting on, which means you can slice right on a cooling rack or pizza pan without worrying about damaging it.

A high quality, sharp pair of pizza scissors will slice easily through any toppings, cheese, and crust so that you won’t mess anything up. But if you don’t have pizza scissors, you can try using a large, sharp chef’s knife. Transfer your pizza to a cutting board, and use a rocking motion with the knife to slice the pizza instead of dragging it (which most certainly will mess up the cheese, and won’t even cut the pizza cleanly).

Serving Suggestions

This elegant and unique white pizza is perfect for at-home date nights, served with a side salad and a glass of wine! We definitely recommend making an appetizer or side dish if you plan on making one pizza for two people. Or, have dessert ready to go for later 🙂

We also love to make two different kinds of Neapolitan pizza to share between the two of us on date nights. If you have two 10-inch cast iron pans, you can easily cook them at the same time. If you only have one pan, you can cook them back to back, since these pizzas bake very quickly. Pair our spinach and artichoke pizza or prosciutto and goat cheese pizza with this spicy white pizza for an Italian restaurant style pizza night at home!