Ricotta pizza
The delicious combination of crispy pizza crust and melty-cheese-savory glory make this mozzarella pizza sure to please everyone!
Servings: 4
Ingredients
Pizza dough
- 1 easy pizza dough (or your fav dough)
Mozzarella topping
- 1 cup (250 grams) full-fat ricotta
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
- ½ teaspoon dried basil (or 1 Tbsp of chopped fresh basil), plus more to serve (optional)
- 1 garlic clove, grated
- ¼ to ⅓ teaspoon dried chilli fakes (or 1-2 sliced fresh chilli), to taste
- ½ teaspoon fine salt, plus more to taste
- freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
Pizza dough
- Follow the easy no-knead pizza recipe through step 5, including shaping the pizza and preheating the oven.
Ricotta topping
- Make the cheese mixture: Add the ricotta, olive oil, garlic, basil, chilli, salt and pepper to a bowl and mix with a spoon until fully combined and creamy. Taste and adjust the seasoning and overall flavor to your liking, feel free to add a bit more garlic or chili flakes if you like. Once the ricotta is well combined with the other ingredients, set aside.
- Shape the dough: When the dough is ready follow step 5, preheat the oven and place the parchment paper onto a pizza peel or onto the back of a rimmed baking sheet. Then place the dough on this parchment paper, and starting from the center, gently press it out with your fingers until you get approx a 9×13 inch pizza.
- Add the topping: Spread the ricotta mixture over the pizza dough, add extra fresh chilli flakes, fresh chili, or more black pepper if you like. Finish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil (if you skip it know, you can add olive oil at the end of the baking time).
- Bake the pizza: When the oven is hot, use the pizza peel to carefully transfer the pizza onto the preheated pizza stone. Bake the pizza until the crust is nicely browned, approx 10-15 minutes. But each oven is different, keep an eye on it ( in a forced fan oven it will take about 8-10 minutes).
- Serve: allow the pizza to cool for a minute or two before serving, then scatter with fresh basil leaves and sea salt flakes (optional). Slice, serve immediately, enjoy!
Notes
What to use instead of a pizza stone? A rimmed baking sheet or a large cookie sheet that you can invert it and place on the lowest shelf of your oven work fine. When the baking sheet is right-side up, taking the pizza in and out of the oven will be easier and the preheated baking sheet will make a nice and crisp pizza crust.
How to measure flour? I use both US cups and grams. The cups of flour are leveled, which means you have to fill the measuring cup all the way to the top letting the flour flow over a little. Then, use the back of a knife to level the top off. But a digital scale is an excellent kitchen tool and gives a more correct weight.
Ricotta pizza leftovers: cover leftover pizza tightly and store in the refrigerator up to 1 day or freeze up to 3 months. Thaw and reheat the pizza leftovers in the preheated the oven (350 F/180 C) and bake for about 8 minutes or until warmed through, crispy and the cheese is melted. Enjoy!