What Is White Pizza?

Pizza is a nearly universally loved food and it’s easy to understand why. You’ve got your crust, you’ve got your cheese, and you’ve got your pizza sauce. But what if there was a pizza with no tomato sauce? Well, lock your doors and hide your grandmas, because that tomato sauceless pizza actually exists! It’s known as white pizza. I’ve heard of the White Stripes, but white pizza? What is white pizza? What is on white pizza? Let’s answer all your questions about this white pizza pie!

What is white pizza?

White pizza is pizza without any tomato sauce. Pizza with tomato sauce or marinara is red pizza and pizza without tomato sauce is white pizza. If you want to be a fancy person, you call white pizza, pizza bianca. Sounds pretty simple and straightforward, right? Well, like all things having to do with pizza, people like to argue. People especially love to argue about regional variants. A slice of New York style white pizza with just mozzarella and ricotta on a garlicky crust is pretty different from a creamy white pizza topped with barbecued chicken from the California coast. But both are white pizzas.

What is on white pizza?

White pizza can be made either with sauce or without sauce. When white pizza is made without sauce, it usually features several white cheeses. When it has sauce, it’s usually a creamy white sauce. The sauce people and the non-sauce people like to argue over who is right, but the real answer is they both are. White pizza can feature a creamy, alfredo-like sauce or be covered in dollops of mozzarella and parmesan shavings, or it can have both. Whether saucy or just a cheese delivery system, it’s all white pizza.

What is in white pizza sauce?

If you’re going the sauce route, white pizza usually has a cream-based sauce. Some people like to use a straight up alfredo sauce. But if you’re going from scratch, white pizza sauce consists of a combination of butter, flour, milk or cream, and cheese, usually parmesan. You can get fancier and throw in some herbs and salt and pepper and whatever else you like.

What are white pizza toppings?

First and foremost, you need your cheese. White pizzas feature an array of cheese. Popular cheeses to use are big hunks of mozzarella, ricotta, and shredded parmesan. Whether you’re going saucy or cheesy, white pizzas will usually be veggie forward. You’re not going to see a lot of pepperoni or meat lovers white pizzas. Some favorite white pizza toppings and ingredients are spinach, broccoli, artichoke, arugula, and mushrooms. If you want to throw some meat on there try bacon, chicken (like Buffalo chicken or chicken alfredo), prosciutto, or seafood like clams or shrimp. 

If you aren’t into tomato sauce or just looking for a change in your pizza behavior, try a white pizza. You might just find out you should have been going sauceless all along.