Chris Bianco’s Bianco Verde with a twist…

Written By Brad English

As many of you saw in a recent Guest Column, my sister finally made the trip to Pizzeria Bianco last month (a trip, I have yet to make)!  If you read her story, you can see how she tortured me for years – teasing me about her trips to visit family in Phoenix and the possibility of going, and then after, baiting me with texts and emails; or her plans “got in the way” and she couldn’t make it.  She thought she was soooooo – ooooh so funny.  She thought it was finally payback for the Big Brother thing!  But, as you read, who really suffered – missing all those opportunities to enjoy pizza at that level? 

So now I’m on my tomato quest, using Chris Bianco’s new organic tomatoes – Bianco DiNapoli Organic Tomatoes.  I am making pizzas that will allow me to really taste these tomatoes as I try them out for the first time here at home.  As I browsed Pizzeria Bianco’s menu online, a pizza jumped off the page at me – the Biancoverde Pizza!  It has Fresh Mozzarella, Parmigiano Reggiano, Ricotta, and Arugula.  That sounds delicious.  But, there are no tomatoes!  What to do?  Wait!  The bells went off. The sassy sister had the Biancoverde, but had added some tomato sauce to it.  I thought that would not only be a perfect pizza to try to make, but also

 another chance to nudge her around a little more.

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  The same can be said of taste.  As I write this, I realize that may be another one of those fun things about pizza, from an ordering and eating stand point.  When we order most pizzas, we really have the opportunity to guide the pizzaiolos to create something unique and original for us.  You can choose from a large list of ingredients and build your own meal.  You can often even add something not on the list that they may have in the kitchen.  You don’t get that opportunity with a normal dinner.  You may drop this, or ask for something on the side.  But, you really don’t get to look at the building blocks – choose your ingredients and have that much interaction with most meals.  Again, I have been hitting on how pizza is fun lately, and this is perhaps another reason that we all love this food so much.

My sister loved her Biancoverde. It really represented a pizza epiphany for her.  She went in thinking one thing and found out, after eating there, how truly great good pizza really can be.  And we’re on a quest for Great Good Pizza!  I thought this would be a fun pizza to make.  And, I have to say, it was delicious.

Keke’s Bianco Rossa-Verde Pizza:

I used a Central Milling 00 Dough
Hand Crushed Bianco DiNapoli Organic Tomatoes
Fresh Mozz
Ricotta
Parmigiano
Fresh Wild Arugula

Shape your dough

Add the crushed tomatoes

Add chunks of fresh mozzarella and Ricotta

*Think about how the cheeses will melt together into the sauce to gauge how much you want to use.

Into the oven it goes…

When it came out, I sprinkled a little parmigiano on the hot pizza. 

Add the Arugula and sprinkle a little more parmigiano on top.

Slice, serve and enjoy!

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