Cheese Pizza

In its simplest form, pizza is a base, sauce, cheese, and toppings. Cheese pizza simplifies this one step more by eliminating everything about the cheese! (and the sauce, if you like). In this article we will look at some tips and tricks to give your home made cheese pizzas a bit of a kick! Check out my previous article for a recipe for pizza dough.

The first decision you need to make is, as we have mentioned, whether to include sauce on your cheese pizza. This is a popular choice - tangy, sweet sauce pairs up very well with crispy browned cheese as we all know. Thinking outside the box a little, you could try many different kinds of sauce. I love using a plum sauce on my cheese only pizzas. You could also use basil pesto or even BBQ sauce if you think it would pair well with the cheese you are using.

Now on to the most important choice you will make - the cheese! We are lucky these days to have an excellent choice of gourmet cheeses as close as the supermarket but if you can travel to an artisan cheese maker you might find some regional specialties that are very worth experimenting with.

For best results, try combining two or more of these cheeses to get the benefit of their characteristics together.

Mozzarella

Mozzarella is the classic melting cheese and it is very hard to go past it on any pizza. It is generally mild in flavor, lacking the bite of matured cheeses but with a wonderful soft taste and consistency. We are all familiar with the packaged pale yellow blocks or balls from the supermarket, and these make a perfectly acceptable starting point. Mozzarella also comes in the form of large or small white balls, often seen floating in brine. The small balls are sometimes called Bocconcini. In this form, mozzarella is usually quite a lot moister than the packaged form but it may have a fresher flavor. If using this form of mozzarella, use it more sparingly to avoid a soggy pizza base.

Parmesan / Pecorino

Parmesan is a very tasty cheese with a sharp bite. It is quite a hard cheese, and is sold pre grated or in wedges. A good quality, well aged parmesan may have quite complex fruity, tangy flavors. Dried, grated parmesan sold in a package will have a much milder flavor in comparison. An interesting alternative to parmesan is pecorino. This cheese is not as common but has a comparable (although less bitey) flavour. Either of these cheeses add interest to a cheese pizza. For best results, shave thinly or grate and sprinkle over the top of your pizza.

Blue Cheese

Blue cheese is sadly often overlooked on pizzas! It can actually have quite a sweet, rich flavor depending on the style of blue cheese you buy. For example Roquefort can have a tangy, sweet flavor with a smoky note. This might pair well with a sweeter sauce like a plum or BBQ sauce. Gorgonzola can have a sweet, creamy flavor with a strong 'funky' or earthy note. This might pair well with pesto. Whatever blue cheese you decide to experiment with, use it sparingly. The best approach is to scatter crumbs or small pieces over your pizza.

Smoked Cheese

Using a smoked cheese can give your pizza a very unique flavor, reminiscent of a wood fired oven pizza. There are lots of varieties, experiment to find one that works for you!

Soft Cheeses

Perhaps the most underused cheeses on pizza, camembert and brie both have mild, earthy, creamy flavors. They could either be cut into chunks, or cut open and smeared over a cheese pizza. I would recommend using them as the bottom layer of cheese as they may not brown well.

Other Toppings

Although it is bending the definition a little bit, using other toppings carefully can make a cheese pizza really superb. Some ideas that spring to mind are tasty, fresh herbs like basil, thyme, oregano or rosemary. Or try scattering over some fresh rocket once your pizza is cooked. A few pieces of tasty prosciutto would be sublime with a cheese pizza too. Whatever you do, use extra toppings sparingly so that the focus is on the cheese!

This covers some of the major categories of cheese. However there are plenty more to discover out there, so get experimenting! And here are some more ideas to make perfect pizza at home.