Dreaming of a white pizza (and maybe wedding bells?)

Pizza doesn’t need sauce, and it doesn’t need cheese — though it almost always needs a least one of the two. I previously wrote about a cheese-less “pizza marinara” made in the shape of a heart for Valentine’s Day in 2021. Here’s the other end of the spectrum, a “quattro formaggi” or four cheese pizza, no sauce in sight.

It’s a hit pretty much every time I serve it, though I should point out I’ve made some substantial alterations to the original recipe, as noted below. (There’s also a claim by MT that this is why we are a couple, but I hope that’s an exaggeration — though maybe I subconsciously make it fairly often just in case).

I took this one into the newsroom. Full disclosure, I dropped it off and went back home to do some other stuff, leaving MT to hand out samples and report responses.

“I loved it,” page designer Toni Pennello said. “Usually, I like sauce on pizza but all the cheeses tasted so good together I didn’t miss the sauce.”

Page designer Lyndsay Bartos came at it from the opposite preference. “I loved it. I’m not a big sauce-y pizza fan, so for me this is perfect. Thank you so much! “

Columnist Bill O’Boyle gave high praise. “This tasted so much better than any other white pizza I’ve had before. It’s very good. You could open a pizza shop and sell this, no problem.”

Um, thanks, but no. I ran my own bike shop once. I admire small business owners who stay at it, but it’s not for me.

“I like the blend of cheeses,” reporter Jennifer Learn-Andes said. “The taste that really came through for me seemed to be Swiss.” Well, Gruyere is a Swiss cheese, even if it isn’t what most think of when talking about “Swiss cheese,” so that tracks. “All around, I enjoyed it very much.”

Jen also noted, and liked, the whole wheat crust. I use half whole wheat and half all-purpose flour, it gives the dough just the right amount of nutty flavor to set it apart from the same stuff made with all white flour, and it makes it OK for health-conscious MT to indulge in my pizza and Stromboli

Speaking of MT, she told the newsroom taste testers that “Mark made this for me before we were married.” Lyndsay suggested “So that was one of the reasons you married him,” to which MT replied “Of course!”

Then came the big test, the taster of sterner palate, sportswriter John “Erz” Erzar. In my defense, he tasted it long after it was out of the oven and at room temperature. “I should have heated it up,” he said, “but it was acceptable.”

Actually, that’s practically a gold star from him.

Taking Erz’s advice, reporter Ryan Evans heated up the last of the pizza.

“The onion really jumps out at me, and I have a fondness for that flavor,” he said. Ah yes, the onion. One of my variations. The recipe calls for half a small red onion, which I initially followed, but always found it lacked enough onion flavor. I’ve used a whole yellow onion for years.

“I also have a soft spot for Gruyere,” Ryan added. “Whenever I make mac and cheese I use some smoked Gruyere and it’s out of this world. …This was a nice change of pace, compared to what we’re used to for pizza. I like the crust, too.”

There is one last response, though it’s not to the taste of the pizza. Despite the fact that he almost never samples anything MT and I bring in, I asked Managing Editor Joe Soprano if he wanted to try a four cheese pizza. “Four cheeses?” he said, “that’s three too many!”

My variations:

The original recipe calls for making four smaller personal pizzas, but I think I only did that once before deciding it was too much work. I always make a full sized, single round pizza.

Which probably explains why I put so much more of everything on it. It just looks like all that surface area beckons for more. A whole onion instead of half, 8-10 ounces of mozzarella instead of 2, and at least 4 ounces each of the Gruyere and Parmesan. Who measures Parm by the tablespoon for pizza, anyway? Oh, and as regular readers know, I’ll always use Parmigiano Reggiano if it’s available and handy (it was this time).

In my earlier iterations of this, I went light on the blue cheese. These days I add extra. And I’ve never worried about finding Saga Blue, but did always use some crumbled stuff — until this version. Schiel’s Family Market didn’t seem to have any, so I bought a wedge of creamier blue cheese. I though it worked better in both texture and taste, and may make the switch permanent.

Dobru Chut!

Quattro Formaggi (Four Cheese) Pizza (Pasta & Pizza Presto)

Basic pizza dough:

1 ½ cups flour (I use ¾ cup each whole wheat and white)

1 teaspoon rapid rise yeast

¼ teaspoon salt (I always skip this; there’s enough salt in the cheese for anyone)

1 teaspoon rapid-rise yeast

1 tablespoon olive oil

⅔ cup luke warm water

Topping (I use a lot more of the cheeses than called for):

1 tablespoon olive oil

½ small red onion (I use a whole yellow onion)

2 ounces Saga Blue Cheese

2 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded or cut into cubes

2 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Black pepper

To make the dough, lightly whisk flour, yeast and salt (if using) to mix ingredients, leaving indentation in flour. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and the warm water (the first time you make it, you may want to add 1/2 cup to start, and add the rest a little at a time until you get a good consistency, sticking together but not sticking to your hands). Mix with a wooden spoon or something similar until it holds together, and finish combining by hand into a ball. Place in greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. let sit about one hour or until doubled.

Heat oven to 425°. If using a baking sheet, grease it. If using a pizza stone, don’t put anything on it but it should be brought up to temperature with the oven.

Punch down dough and roll into pizza shape.

Brush the olive oil onto the pizza base. Note that you can make garlic oil in advance by peeling 3-4 garlic cloves and placing them in a small jar or bottle with 1/2 cup olive oil. It will keep up to a week in the fridge. I used to make it, but don’t think it adds enough to be worth the effort, and I usually forgot about the unused oil.

Arrange the onions on the pizza, then the blue cheese and mozzarella. mix the Gruyere and Parmesan together. You can add a tablespoon of chopped fresh thyme if you like, I skip that. top with plenty of fresh ground black pepper. Bake for 15-20 minutes, but keep an eye on it after 10 minutes. You want the dough and cheese to be a golden brown.