This pizza is a product of our experimental cooking and iterative learning style. We attempted to make a white pizza when we made our Kale Pizza Crust, but we ran into a few unforeseen issues on that attempt. That pizza had two catastrophes associated with it: 1. The way we built it made it so the crust didn’t cook at the proper rate, and 2. Our cottage cheese ran over the edges as it cooked, and it created a soggy crust on the bottom.
After contemplating our process for that pie, we made two changes to avoid repeating our issues: 1. We rolled up the edges of the dough to create a raised perimeter to avoid spill-overs during baking, and 2. We put the dough on the hot stone before adding our toppings to give it a head start at cooking.
With our changes, everything worked well, and we are happy to post our recipe now. We also hope that sharing our evolution of this recipe inspires you to reflect on things that don’t go quite according to plan, and then change up a few things to make it better on your next attempt!
Time: 25 minutes (more if making your own crust)
Ingredients:
- Pizza crust or dough (check out our homemade dough options)
- Tomato
- Cottage cheese (we used 1% milk fat)
- Parmesan cheese (fresh or grated)
- Seasonings. We used basil, oregano, red pepper flakes, and garlic powder
Method:
- Place your pizza stone in the oven, and preheat to 425 degrees F.
- Prep your toppings:
- Scoop your cottage cheese into a bowl, and stir in your Parmesan cheese and seasonings.
- Slice your tomato thinly.
- Prep your dough (given that Cottage Cheese can leak a little, it’s important to do a little extra work with your crust to ensure crispiness):
- Lay out some parchment paper, and work your dough into the size and shape you want.
- Roll the edges up a little so that there is a raised area around the edges of your dough.
- Place your dough on your hot pizza stone. The easiest way on this one is to just lift your parchment paper, and place it on your pizza stone.
- Spread your cottage cheese thinly atop your pie, and then layer on your tomato slices. You should be able to spread the cheese pretty close to the edges since they are raised.
- Place in your oven, and bake for 20-25 minutes until your crust is to your desired crispiness. Part way through, you can always sprinkle more Parmesan cheese atop your pizza.
- Plate, devour, and enjoy!
