I’m so glad you asked. White pizza is a culinary mystery with the secrets baked into the crust. There’s a place for it in the Old Country, but the New World had its way with this carb-heavy treasure to deliver a truly extraordinary pie.
White pizza, pizza bianca or a white pie is a style of pizza that does not use tomato sauce. The pizza generally consists of pizza dough, olive oil, garlic, cheese, salt and sometimes toppings including vegetables such as spinach, tomato, and herbs.
What Is White Pizza?
I thought I knew what white pizza was—a plain, thin-crust pizza with a garlicky sauce topped with blobs of fresh mozzarella and herbed ricotta cheese. It was a late-night snacking staple when I was living large on the bustling UES of Manhattan in my early twenties (to be clear, the only reason to be on the Upper East Side on a Friday night was this pizza, but that was a little known secret). If you’re imagining it, you might be thinking that it’s just cheese pizza without the tomato sauce. It’s so much more special than that.
I’ve tried re-creating it—I used the white pizza recipe from Serious Eats. I followed the recipe as it was written. I used my own homemade pizza dough recipe, rolled it out on a lightly floured surface, sprinkled it with minced garlic, drizzled it with olive oil and topped it with mozzarella cheese and ricotta blobs…but it wasn’t quite right.
Something was missing. I then went down an internet rabbit hole. I found that this was only one type of white pizza among many. Mind blown. Sharing is caring, so here’s a breakdown of the types of white pizza and where you find them:
Pizza Bianca, Italian Style
“Pizza bianca” (Italian translation: white pizza), I can safely assume is the O.G. white pizza. The term comes up quite a bit when you’re booping around the internet, but it’s nothing like what I know as the paler pie. Turns out, Roman pizza bianca is something akin to focaccia.
According to Ed Levine, pizza bianca is an experience. He got intimate with the toast with the most on a trip to Rome (read: he knows what he’s talking about). He claims it’s the acme bread for sandwiches—oily, crispy, chewy and tender—there’s no cheese and no sauce.
Apparently, that’s just the type he likes. You can get all sorts of toppings—the Italian term just means there’s no sauce on the pie. Americans kind of ran with the idea and made it their own, to a degree.
What is a pizza without tomato sauce called?
FAQ
Is a pizza still a pizza without sauce?
What is a plain pizza called?
Does Italian pizza not have sauce?
Is a white pizza just no sauce?
What is pizza without tomato sauce?
Pizza without tomato sauce can go by lot’s of names, but it’s most commonly referred to as a white pizza, or pizza bianca. This mostly has to do with the fact that pizza without tomato sauce doesn’t have the characteristic red hue we associate with most pizza today.
Can a pizza have no sauce?
However, national biases aside, a pizza can absolutely have no sauce and still be a real pizza. White pizza, or pizza bianca, is a very popular kind of pizza that doesn’t include tomato sauce. What Is Old World Pepperoni? Why It Makes A Difference & Pizza Recipe
Can a pizza without tomato sauce be considered a white pizza?
This being said, not all pizza without tomato sauce can be considered a “white pizza”. For example, barbeque chicken pizza, which is common in the United States, uses barbeque sauce instead of tomato sauce. However, few if any people would consider a barbeque chicken pizza a kind of “white pizza”.
Does white pizza have tomato sauce?
The sauce provides a tangy, savory flavor. Common toppings for red sauce pizza include pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, peppers, onions. White pizza does not contain any tomato sauce. Instead, it’s made with a sauce like bechamel, ricotta, alfredo, olive oil, or pesto. The lack of tomato sauce gives it a much lighter, paler appearance.