VIEW SLIDESHOW: Top This: Bianca Pizza (a la Ragazza)
A bonafide tomato/tomato sauce enthusiast, I'm certainly guilty of dismissing white pies as 'boring.' That's until I tried the Bianca at San Francisco's Ragazza—a masterpiece of salty-tangy-fresh flavors. Chef Sharon Ardiana, the mastermind behind the Lower Haight hotspot (not to mention Gialina, one of the original Bay Area pizza destinations), blends sharp, aged provolone, preserved Meyer lemon, and a straight-up dangerous onion crema to form the Bianca's base. This is topped with a sprinkling of snappy fresh arugula, and a pour of extra virgin olive oil. Ardiana serves the pizza whenever the restaurant can get their hands on a batch of Meyer lemons, but the balance of fresh and rich flavors will make this pie a winner year-round in your home kitchen.
What You'll Need (for one pizza)
- 1 dough portion (Ragazza's crust definitely flirts with the Neapolitan style, but has a bit more heft and chew to support the farm-fresh toppings. The Pizza Lab's primer on Neopolitan dough should do the trick for your at-home Bianca.)
- Onion crema (get the recipe here)
- Diced preserved Meyer lemon (non-Meyer lemon works too)
- Garlic
- Aged Provolone*
- Italian parsley
- Wild arugula
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- Salt and pepper
*Ardiana uses Argiform aged Provolone piccante from Italy (in the Piedmonte region), but any medium-hard Provolone should work.
Ragazza
311 Divisadero Street, San Francisco CA 94117 (map)
415-255-1133; ragazzasf.com
About the author: Lauren Sloss is a bicoastal food-lover who is based in San Francisco. Some of her favorite things include The Black Keys, goat gouda, and guacamole. You can follow her on Twitter @laurensloss.