White Pie (Ricotta & Garlic)
No red sauce — just ricotta, mozzarella, garlic, and olive oil on a NY crust. Creamy, garlicky, and addictive.
Recipe by ThePizzaPlanet.com · Published
Essential tool for this bake
White pies live and die by garlic management. Sliced too thick, garlic burns before the cheese sets. Sliced too thin, it disappears. We aim for the thickness of a coin shaved with a sharp knife — about 1mm. The ricotta needs to be dolloped, not spread; you want pockets of cool, tangy ricotta sitting next to molten mozzarella. A drizzle of finishing oil after the bake brings everything together. Fresh basil or parsley at the end isn't optional — it's the herbal note the cheese-heavy base needs. Cheese over a sauceless base browns fast, so watch for the point where the cheese colours before the crust is cooked.
Flour: King Arthur Bread Flour (12.7% protein) — read the review
Dough Formula
| Ingredient | Grams | Baker's % |
|---|---|---|
| Flour (12.7% protein) | 996 g | 100.0% |
| Water | 627 g | 63.0% |
| Salt | 19.9 g | 2.0% |
| Yeast | 5 g | 0.5% |
| Oil | 30 g | 3.0% |
| Sugar | 10 g | 1.0% |
Makes 4 balls of ≈422 g
Ingredients
Dough
- Pizza dough (see formula above)4 balls
Toppings
- Ricotta200g
- Low-moisture mozzarella200g, shredded
- Garlic4 cloves, thinly sliced
- Olive oil28 g
- Red pepper flakespinch
- Fresh parsley or basilhandful
Instructions
- 1
Make the dough: mix per the formula above, then follow the calculator schedule for New York — 27 h bulk/cold ferment before shaping (hands-on 20 min).
- 2
Stretch dough and brush with olive oil.
- 3
Drop dollops of ricotta across the surface.
- 4
Add shredded mozzarella and garlic slices.
- 5
Drizzle olive oil, sprinkle red pepper flakes.
- 6
Bake at 260-290°C (500-550°F) for 6-8 minutes.
- 7
Finish with fresh herbs.
Tips
- →Hands-on time is about 23 minutes; allow the dough its full ferment — see the calculator schedule
- →The ricotta should be in dollops, not spread flat
- →Thin garlic slices — thick ones won't cook through
- →This pie benefits from a longer bake to toast the garlic
Video by Tom's Test Kitchen · 2.4K views · 5 min · on YouTube
Shop this bake
Flour
King Arthur Bread Flour
The first bag to buy if you bake in a domestic oven. At 12.7% protein with added amylase on the label it gives you chew and colour at 250 °C, which is exactly what an unmalted 00 will not.
$13.42· as of Nov 5, 2026, 03:49 UTCCheck price on Amazon →Read the review →i
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon.com at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.Ingredient
Polly-O Low Moisture Whole Milk Mozzarella
Thick enough to cube for a Detroit rim, where shreds burn to lace — and four ingredients against a coating of rice flour, cellulose and natamycin that no bake removes.
$39.00· as of Nov 5, 2026, 03:49 UTCCheck price on Amazon →Read the review →i
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon.com at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.Ingredient
SAF Instant Yeast
Instant, so it goes in dry with the flour: no warm-water step means no step at which the yeast can be cooked, which is where an active-dry dough most often dies.
Check price on Amazon →Read the review →Equipment
Original Baking Steel
6.4 mm is the home compromise: enough stored heat to bake two pies back to back, in a slab that will never crack the way a cordierite stone eventually does.
$139.00· as of Nov 5, 2026, 03:49 UTCCheck price on Amazon →Read the review →i
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon.com at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.Equipment
Skyflame Aluminium Pizza Peel (14 × 16 in)
The single peel to own if you own one: thin enough to launch from, rigid enough to turn and retrieve with, at the size a home oven door takes.
$27.99· as of Nov 5, 2026, 03:49 UTCCheck price on Amazon →Read the review →i
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon.com at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
If this goes wrong
Cheese burns before the base cooks
The top of your oven is running far ahead of the bottom. Get the slab hotter so the base needs less time, move the pizza down away from the grill element, and use a whole-milk low-moisture mozzarella — it carries more fat and browns more slowly than part-skim.
Pizza base is soggy in the middle
Not enough heat is reaching the centre of the base fast enough to drive the water out before the crust sets. Bake on a fully preheated steel or stone rather than a tray, give it 45–60 minutes at maximum, and cut the water you put on top.
Pizza base is pale and floppy
The surface of your base never got hot enough for long enough to brown. Bake on a fully preheated steel at maximum, bake it longer than feels right, and switch to a malted bread flour or add 1–2% sugar so there is something there to brown.
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