Serves a Crowd
White Pizza with Winter Spinach, Ricotta and Olive Oil
- Makes 1 baking sheet of pizza
Author Notes
White pizza is made without tomatoes. It feels lighter, with more space for the single ingredients but the absence of tomato sauce doesn't lessen that feel good pizza pleasure at all. I make mine with crisp winter spinach, ricotta, some olive oil, infused with garlic, and some crushed black pepper. The dough is light and crisp, it soaks some oil, but not too much, a bit like a Focaccia. The spinach is crisp and has some bite as in winter it’s a bit thicker while the ricotta brings a touch of velvety smoothness. —Meike Peters | eat in my kitchen
What You'll Need
Ingredients
- For the dough
-
12.5 ounces
plain flour, plus more for mixing
-
dry yeast, a package for 1 pound of flour
-
190 milliliters
water, lukewarm
-
3 tablespoons
olive oil
-
1 teaspoon
salt and pepper
- For the topping
-
9 ounces
fresh spinach, rinsed
-
9 ounces
fresh ricotta
-
4 - 6 tablespoons
oilve oil
-
1 clove
garlic, cut in half
-
salt and crushed black pepper
Directions
- Combine the flour with the yeast and salt, add the olive oil and the lukewarm water, slowly, not all at once (you might not need all of it). Mix with your dough hooks for a few minutes. The dough shouldn’t be moist and sticky at all, more on the dry side.
- Continue kneading and punching with your hands until you have an elastic dough ball, not too hard, not sticky. Put the dough back in the bowl, cover it with a tea towel and let it rise in the warm oven (35°C / 95°F) for 40 minutes. This works really well but make sure that your oven is set to top/ bottom heat and not to fan.
- When the dough is well risen, roll it out on a very well floured (this is very important!) working surface. It should be a bit smaller than the size of your baking sheet. Cover with a tea towel and let it rise for another 10-15 minutes.
- For the topping: Warm up the olive oil together with the garlic for 2-3 minutes.
- Set your oven to 500°F. My oven has a special pizza setting but you can use top / bottom heat as well. Put the baking sheet right on the bottom of your oven to heat it.
- Take the hot baking sheet out of the oven, flip it over and place it carefully on two stable wooden boards or mats as it will be very hot.
- Place your risen dough carefully but quickly (best done by two people) on the baking sheet, push it gently into place if necessary.
- Sprinkle the olive oil and the ricotta in lumps on top.
- Put the baking sheet back into the oven, on the bottom again, and bake for a few minutes until the pizza is golden.
- Take it out and spread the spinach on top immediately. Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle some more olive oil on top if you like and enjoy!
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