Lately, anything hanging around in our kitchen becomes an excuse to make pizza and I kind of love it. Since this pizza dough recipe makes enough for two pizzas, I always seem to have some in the freezer. I’m stuck in a pizza loop and highly recommend you get stuck in one too. I posted the recipe for the topping to this pizza, Mushrooms and Kale with Breadcrumbs, last week, alluding to this moment, and today is the day! This garlicky, veggie-loaded pizza, with fluffy clouds of ricotta and a balsamic drizzle (if you’re fancy) is all yours!
charred veggies equal awesome pizza
There’s nothing wrong with a meat and cheese pizza, but the vegetables on this puppy really send it over the top. (That, and all the roasted garlic cooked into the white sauce. Duh🤷♀️) Since the kale and mushrooms are already cooked before they’re loaded onto this pizza, they end up powerroasting while it bakes. That’s a new term I’m throwing out there just for this recipe. Powerroasting (verb): deeply charring food, resulting in irresistibly delicious texture. It’s so good but, just a word of caution, the kale and mushrooms will change colors to dark green and brown… almost black? Don’t be scared, its exactly what you want. Charred perfection.
dreamy creamy white sauce
What are everyone’s thoughts on white sauce on pizza? IMHO, if there’s roasted garlic involved, I’m there, and I can’t think of a better vehicle for garlic than a buttery white sauce. I think it’s the perfect creamy canvas for powerroasted veggies (it’s become part of my vocabulary now, can’t help it) and a nice change from classic tomato-based pizza sauce. Here’s the sauce on the pizza, before all the toppings, high five for the little bit of roasted garlic peeking through:
There’s nothing too difficult in this recipe. If you make the veggies and the sauce while the dough rises, you can have hot homemade pizza on your table in less than 2 hours. When you’re ready to put the cheese on, there’s no shredded cheese – it’s all ricotta and little mozzarella balls that go on after the other toppings. Just use a big spoon to dot the surface of the pie with ricotta and fill in the gaps with mozzarella. (I did not use as much mozz as Joey would have liked – feel free to add more. Live your best cheese life.)
If you’re really into contrasting flavors and like a little sweet/tartness with your creamy goodness… add a drizzle of balsamic glaze on top. This was an afterthought for me but it made me SO, so happy. Enjoy!
Garlicky White Pizza with Kale and Mushrooms
A garlic-bomb of a homemade pizza with creamy white sauce, crispy kale and mushrooms, and oozy ricotta cheese. Finish with a drizzle of balsamic glaze for extra zing!
- Prep Time: 1 hour and 30 minutes, if you are making the dough from scratch
- Cook Time: 18 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour and 48 minutes
- Yield: 1 pizza 1x
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 1 pizza dough (make your own with this Pizza Dough recipe – omit the roasted garlic if you like)
- White Garlic Pizza Sauce (see below)
- a generous amount of Mushrooms and Kale with Breadcrumbs
- 1/2 C ricotta cheese
- 10 mini mozzarella balls (more, if you like)
- flaky sea salt
- crushed red pepper or Aleppo pepper
- olive oil for drizzling
White garlic pizza sauce
- 1 small head of Roasted Garlic
- 2 TBS unsalted butter
- 2 TBS all purpose flour
- 1/4 C whole milk
- 1/4 grated Parmesan
- 1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
- salt and pepper
- In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter, then whisk in the flour. Cook, stirring, for a few minutes until the butter/flour mixture turns light brown.
- Whisk in the milk and cook for another minute or two until the mixture has thickened.
- Squeeze the cloves from the head of roasted garlic into the mixture, add the nutmeg, and stir. Turn off the heat stir in the Parmesan. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 500 degrees and oil a pizza pan or baking sheet with olive oil. Shape the pizza dough on the pan, stretching it to reach the edges.
- Spread the White Garlic Pizza Sauce on the dough and top with the mushrooms and kale.
- Place big dollops of ricotta cheese around the pizza and fill in any big gaps with the little mozzarella balls.
- Drizzle the edges of the crust with olive oil (this helps it brown), and sprinkle the whole thing, including the crust edges, with flaky sea slat and either crushed red pepper or Aleppo pepper.
- Bake, rotating halfway through cooking, until the cheese is melty and the crust is brown on the edges and underneath (use a spatula to check underneath). In my oven, this takes 18 minutes.
Keywords: Homemade pizza, white pizza, vegetarian pizza