White Clam Pizza Pie

Eating a white clam pizza at Pepe’s in New Haven continues to be on my food bucket list. In the meantime, I figured why not take a stab at making my own version?

I adore pizza. New York style, traditional from Naples, Chicago deep dish, wood burning oven, dessert style (chocolate raspberry calzone, anyone?) – bring them all on. I was very excited to see CookingLight.com ‘s recent roundup of 25 Favorite Healthy Pizza Recipes (it’s time for me to invest in a new pizza stone.)

But yes, pizza can be healthy. Load up on the veggies. Try making your own dough (and add in some whole grain flour.) Use a little less cheese but really, really good cheese. Amp up the herbs and spices.

Or top with seafood. When it comes to clams – not only are they low in fat but these babies are super high in iron and a great source of other minerals like selenium, manganese and phosphorus.) Now I did resort to canned clams – while I’m fairly comfortable cooking shellfish, the convenience of canned vs. fresh won out on this particular day (though I know nothing beat the taste of freshly steamed clams…I’m dreaming of summer shore days right now.)

For the dough, I used the recipe from Citizen Mom which Sally of Real Mom Nutrition featured in her great post entitled “Best Compliment Ever: Mom, Did You Order This Pizza?” For my dough, I used 2 cups bread flour + 1 cup white whole wheat flour and reduced the salt to 1/2 teaspoon.

And I know many say it’s a no-no to combine cheese with seafood but I break that rule just about every time I eat shellfish. Freshly grated pecorino over seafood linguine or clam pizza? Bring it.

White Clam Pizza Pie

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• Yield: 8 (2 slices per serving) 1x

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Ingredients

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• Pizza dough (enough for two 12-inch pizzas.) I used a variation of Citizen Mom’s recipe
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 (10 ounce) can whole baby clams, drained with 1/2 cup clam juice reserved
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• Cooking spray
• Cornmeal
• 4 ounces fresh mozzarella, diced
• 2 tablespoons grated Pecorino cheese
• Flat leaf parsley
• Extra red pepper flakes, optional

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Instructions

1. To make the sauce, heat oil in a medium skillet. Saute garlic and 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes for 4 minutes, stirring frequently as not to burn the garlic.
2. Add clam juice and white wine; bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes (sauce will reduce and become thicker.)
3. Stir in clams and cook down another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.
5. Roll out dough into two 12-inch pizzas. Form a slight lip at the edge of the dough (to prevent sauce from dripping off pizza.) Place on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray and sprinkled with cornmeal.
6. Spread half of the clam sauce over top one pizza. Repeat with other pizza.
7. Top each pizza with 2 ounces of mozzarella cheese and 1 tablespoon of Pecorino cheese.
8. Bake (one at a time) for 8 – 10 minutes or until the sides are golden brown. Remove and top with fresh parsley and extra red pepper flakes, if desired.

What are your favorite toppings for pizza? What’s the best pizza you’ve ever had as take out or at a restaurant? What’s your opinion on the seafood and cheese rule?