Sunday, May 22, 2011

Pizza Bianca


This Pizza Bianca is a lowfat alternative to the traditional full fat version.  Its crunchy crust crisps in your mouth at the first bite.  The garlic and parsley flavored ricotta is creamy and rich while the ooey gooey piping hot stringy mozzarella cheese makes this sorta home made pizza sinfully delicious....not to mention healthy, super easy and quick.

I saved time on the crust today by using a Pillsbury pizza crust.  Its not my pizza dough, but it got the job done!  I chose the ready made crust because my craving for Pizza Bianca was so deep and wide.  I had little time to satisfy it on a busy week night, so the ready made crust was the best choice.  I will post my home made pizza dough soon and will link it here in case you want to make it the fully home made way.

Give this lowfat family meal a try. It has all the taste without any of the guilt.  It's a great substitute for the full fat version.  You won't be disappointed.


Ingredients:

  • 1 Pillsbury pizza crusts
  • 1 1/2 cups fat free ricotta, see notes for a trick. You can skip the trick if you want.
  • 1 clove garlic minced
  • 1/4 cup parsley, chopped finely
  • 1/4 cup grated cheese
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper
  • 2 cups fat free or low fat mozzarella cheese, shredded.
  • Olive oil to drizzle, 1/4 cup


Instructions:


Roll your ricotta as in the notes section. Butter or Pam a cookie sheet. Unroll dough on sheet and pull to the edges of the sheet. Bake in a preheated oven at 400 for 7 minutes. Dough will be slightly cooked. Remove from oven, set aside. In a bowl mix ricotta, garlic, parsley salt and pepper. Mix well. Sprinkle mozzarella over pizza dough evenly. Drizzle the olive oil over the mozzarella. Add ricotta a dollop at a time around the pizza. I make mine 3 rows across an 3 down like a tic tac toe board so everyone gets a dollop. Total 9 dollops. Bake an additional 10 minutes or until the crust is deeply golden on the edges. Let the color be the judge, not the timer.



Servings: serves 9 happy people

Total prep and cook time: 27 minutes...I time it!

Notes:

Place ricotta on a plate covered with 5 paper towels. Spread out the ricotta till it covers the entire towel surface. Cover with another 5 towels and roll like a cigar. Let it sit while you get everything else ready, or about 10 minutes. It will soak up a lot of the water leaving you with a firmer consistency. It will stick to the paper towel a lot, so scrape it into your bowl with a big chopping knife, it's worth the effort. If you have the time and can leave it longer, it will roll off and really look like old fashioned basket cheese, very firm and beautiful. I usually like to leave mine for a few hours or overnight.
Print

8 comments:

  1. Hey Julia! We met at blogherfood and I'm loving going through your site. I'm definitely going to add it to my reader. I hope you had a great time at the conference.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Julia, thank you so much for your lovely comment on my blog. I am really happy you like it. It would be very nice to exchange links if you agree. Have a nice day :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Julia!

    I made this on Monday night and it was delicious! You have such a fun, interesting blog... I'm going to Italy this fall and reading your recipes make me even more excited about the food!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Julia, your recipe calls for fat free ricotta but in your picture it shows regular. So which is it?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi catie, thank you for you kind comment. So exciting to have such a special trip planned like Italy. Bring elastic waist pants!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi anonymous. Good eye! It's FF. I tossed my container so reached for another from the fridge :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I really enjoyed this pizza, it was very easy to make. Unfortunately, the preschool set balked at it :( Lucky for me, my teenager liked it, or I would have had to eat it all myself! Not so healthy for me ;)

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...