White Pizza

This very fundamental, bechamel-based pizza highlights the beauty and malleability of the sauce, and also provides the Parmesan and rosemary that I pair with it a rare chance to show their stuff, without a lot of competition from other ingredients. I call it a starter pizza because it may well be the most basic, efficient way to start trying the pizzas in my book, My Pizza. For this one you can concentrate on preparing your first crust and not have to think about much more than that.–Jim Lahey

LC Tighty-Whitie Note

If you have a rather tight definition of white pizza, this pizza probably isn’t for you. It’s not what you’re likely to find at your local Italian place when you ask for a slice of white. Instead, bread baker and pizza dough flinger Jim Lahey gilds this superlative yet slightly unconventional pizza with a thin sheen of béchamel, then tops it with three cheeses. It’s on the tippy top of our list of things to serve to guests as a little something to nosh with wine. Speaking of wine, Lahey is a little conflicted regarding specific suggestions to pair with this—or any—pizza. “It’s pretty difficult to go wrong with anything that’s decent,” he says. “The whites, naturally, tend to go best with the milder pizzas.” Same goes for beer, Lahey continues, suggesting a light lager or mild ale for sweeter, more delicate pies such as this. “But, in the end,” he says. “My advice—with beer or wine—is to go with what you want.”

Special Equipment: Pizza stone

White Pizza Recipe

• Quick Glance
• 10 M
• 1 H
• Makes one 10- to 12-inch pizza

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Ingredients

Directions

Electric Oven Variation

• The elements of the electric ovens are generally designed to turn off when the oven reaches 500°F (260°C) or 550°F (288°C) and the door is closed—even if it’s the broiler doing the heating and not the baking element. When you completely understand how I use my gas broiler continuously to force the stone to be hotter on the surface and also to cook the pizza (door closed) so the crust chars properly and the toppings cook quickly, the electric’s shutdown feature may strike you as a potential problem. It’s easily solved.
  
  For electric ovens that have a broiler in the oven, turn off at 500°F (260°C) or so, place the stone on a rack about 4 inches from the top heating element (not the 8 inches called for with gas) and preheat, on bake, at 500°F (260°C) for the usual 30 minutes. Then, to boost the heat of the stone without the oven’s elements shutting down, open the oven door a few inches and leave it ajar for about 30 seconds. Some of the ambient heat will escape, but the stone will stay just as hot. Now close the oven door and switch to broil for 10 minutes to heat the surface to the maximum. Open the door and slide the pizza in to broil. Because the stone is so close to the element, you may need to pull the rack out a few inches to get the pie centered on the stone; do it quickly and don’t worry about losing too much heat. With the door closed, broil for roughly 2 minutes longer than specified for gas—until the crust is adequately charred but not burnt and the toppings are bubbling. Remember, it’s the visual cues that count most. Check a couple of times; the pizza will cook quickly.
  
  For electric ovens that have a gas broiler in a bottom drawer of the oven, start with the stone in the broiler at the lowest level or on the floor of the oven. Preheat on low broil for about 20 minutes, and then switch to high for another 5 minutes, or if you just have one setting preheat for 25 minutes. Slide in the pizza, close the drawer, and broil as instructed by the recipe (often 3 1/2 to 4 minutes), until bubbling and properly charred, checking to be sure it’s not burning.

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