French Bread White Pizza Recipe
Homemade pizza is great, but it's not the easiest thing to make. As recipe developer Michelle McGlinn admits, "Making your own dough takes time, and thawing and proofing frozen dough can be a pain." With french bread pizza, however, there's no need to bother with all of that. McGlinn calls this particular recipe "a fun take on a classic freezer meal," although unlike the kind made famous (and possibly developed) by Stouffer's, hers has no red sauce nor mozzarella cheese. Instead, it's a white pizza with a Parmesan cream sauce topped with a contemporary combination of onions, prosciutto, and arugula.
McGlinn does say, though, that "you can customize it as much as you want," so obviously you can change up the toppings to suit your own preferences if you don't care for meat, onions, and/or greenery on your pizza. Other toppings McGlinn suggests include sausage, pepperoni, and peppers as well as the ever-trendy hot honey. She says you can use red sauce in place of white, as well, or even swap out the bread. As she tells us, "Italian bread works great, as well as sourdough loaves, ciabatta, or even baguettes ... any loaf-type bread will do."
Gather up the ingredients for this french bread white pizza
To make the white sauce, you'll be using butter, flour, milk, Parmesan, garlic, salt, and pepper. For the pizza crust you'll need a loaf of french bread and for the toppings you should pick up some prosciutto, a red onion, and some arugula. (With the leftover arugula and onion, you could always make a salad to accompany the pizza.)
Make the white sauce
Preheat the oven to 450 F, then melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the flour to make a roux. When you have a smooth paste, stir in the milk slowly so the sauce doesn't get lumpy. Cook it for about a minute until it thickens up a bit, then add the Parmesan, garlic, salt, and pepper. Keep cooking the sauce for another minute so it thickens up even more, then turn the heat off once it's nice and creamy.
If you don't want to bother making a white sauce, McGlinn says you can skip this step and just sprinkle the bread with Parmesan, mozzarella, cheddar, or a combination of these before you bake it. She does mention, though, that "the sauce is great for keeping things moist and adding a nice garlic flavor."
Build the pizzas
Slice the loaf of bread in half, then slice each half through the middle. Once you're done with the slicing, you should have four open-face pizza planks. Put them on a baking sheet, then spread ¼ of the sauce over the cut side of each slice. Top the sauce with the prosciutto and onion.
Bake the pizzas
Cook the pizzas for about 10 to 12 minutes. When they're done, the sauce should be bubbling, the onions should be soft, and the prosciutto should be crisp. McGlinn cautions, "Don't leave it in the oven for too long or the bread will dry out or char."
Once the pizzas come out of the oven, top each one with ¼ of the arugula, then cut them into slices. McGlinn notes that you can also slice the bread very thinly to make white pizza crostinis, something that will help stretch it out to feed more people as an appetizer. She says that when the pizza is put to this purpose, "People can grab pieces easily and both prep and cleanup are mindless."
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 1 cup milk
- ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan
- 1 clove garlic, minced or grated
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 1 loaf french bread
- 4 slices prosciutto, torn into pieces
- ½ red onion, halved and thinly sliced
- 2 cups arugula
- Preheat the oven to 450 F.
- Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat.
- Stir the flour into the butter until smooth, then add the milk, stirring constantly.
- Cook the sauce for about 1 minute until it thickens slightly, then add the Parmesan, garlic, salt, and pepper. Cook the sauce for another 1 minute until it thickens to a creamy consistency, then turn off the heat.
- Cut the loaf of bread in half, then slice it through the middle to make 4 open-face pieces.
- Put the bread on a sheet pan and spread each piece evenly with the white sauce.
- Top the sauce with the onion and prosciutto.
- Bake the pizzas for about 10-12 minutes, until the onions are soft and the prosciutto is crispy.
- Remove the pizzas from the oven and top them off with the arugula.
- Slice and serve warm.
| Calories per Serving | 382 |
| Total Fat | 13.3 g |
| Saturated Fat | 7.1 g |
| Trans Fat | 0.2 g |
| Cholesterol | 38.2 mg |
| Total Carbohydrates | 47.4 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 2.2 g |
| Total Sugars | 7.5 g |
| Sodium | 1,014.2 mg |
| Protein | 18.4 g |
