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This delicious Florentine Pizza has bold flavors of garlic, a blend of cheeses, and is topped with bright green spinach - all on top of an easy no-rise whole wheat crust. This vegetarian homemade pizza is wonderfully easy to make and is the perfect weeknight meal! It also tastes great with chicken if you'd like to add it on top. You won't want to miss the chewy center and crispy crust of this delicious pizza!
With fresh ingredients and a crispy, thin crust, this florentine pizza recipe is great for the whole family and is ready in about 30 minutes! It serves 4 people, so if you have big eaters in your family, you may want to make a second for pizza night. Make sure to have plenty of paper towels on hand because no one will be able to put these slices down!
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Why is it called a Florentine Pizza?"Florentine style" can refer to two things: 1) Made in the style of food from Florence, Italy. Any native dishes to Florence, Italy can be called Florentine. 2) Made with spinach! This spinach pizza recipe just happens to be both 🙂
Like many Italian recipes, the pizza base heats garlic oil in a large skillet to start. Next, you'll turn off the heat, add the fresh cup of spinach, and mix it just enough to wilt it slightly. The ricotta cheese is spread over the crust first, then the fresh spinach mixture goes next, and on top goes the parmesan and feta. Some fresh basil or diced tomatoes can be a tasty addition as well.
Feel free to add extra cheese (like fresh mozzarella), extra veggies, or even extra meat to this versatile pizza! You'll love how easy it all comes together and how quickly it disappears from plates even more!
👩🏽🍳 Why This Recipe Works
- Easy to make
- A great weeknight meal
- Whole wheat, no-rise crust
- 3 kinds of cheese
- Packed with flavor
🥘 Ingredients
This recipe calls for simple ingredients easily found at most grocery stores! See the recipe card below for exact ingredient amounts and detailed instructions.
For The Homemade Pizza Dough
Whole Wheat Flour: Whole wheat flour is used in the healthier version of traditional pizza crust for added whole grains and fiber.
Baking Powder: This helps the crust rise.
Salt: A pinch of salt helps balance the flavors and tenderize the dough.
Water And Olive Oil: This is needed for moisture to get all the ingredients to come together. The combination of water and olive oil helps make this basic pizza dough chewy and delicious!
For The Toppings
Extra Virgin Olive Oil: Used to saute the garlic and fresh spinach leaves before adding to the pizza to really bring out the flavors of these ingredients.
Fresh Baby Spinach Leaves And Garlic Cloves: A classic Florentine pizza is a white pizza with spinach as a topping, so spinach sauteed in garlic is an important ingredient to making this recipe shine! I used organic spinach but you can use any you have on hand.
Italian Seasoning, Sea Salt And Black Pepper: We used dried Italian seasoning to help add flavor. You can also use fresh herbs and crushed red pepper flakes instead of black pepper if you like!
Creamy Ricotta Cheese: Ricotta is the traditional base and acts as the pizza sauce for this white pizza, because of its easy spreadable nature and mild flavor.
Parmesan Cheese And Feta Cheese: We used a blend of cheese for different layers of flavor. Parmesan is the second layer of cheese for a nice sharp bite, and then we top it all off with some creamy feta crumbles to round out this amazing white pizza. If you don't have feta, you can also use goat cheese.
🍽 Equipment
📖 Variations
Chicken Florentine Pizza: This version is a vegetarian pizza but if you'd like to add some protein, try adding sliced, grilled, or sauteed chicken to the top right before baking it.
Add Different Pizza Toppings! Try a drizzle of balsamic vinegar for a finishing touch, adding banana pepper, bell peppers, black olives, green olives, green peppers, red onions, hot Italian sausage, fresh mushrooms, pepperoni, and kalamata olives.
Try A Different Blend Of Cheeses: Mozzarella cheese, romano cheese, or even a blend of cheddar cheese would all work well. Toss the cheeses you choose together, spread the cheese mixture on top of the sauce, and place the other ingredients on top.
Mix Up The Sauces and Seasonings: BBQ sauce is a delicious variation, as well as tomato sauce, honey-chipotle sauce, lemon butter sauce, meat sauce, spicy sour cream, or cajun seasonings.
Try Fresh Herbs! Fresh herbs like tarragon, sage, basil, and rosemary really pack a flavor punch as well. Italian herbs like this go so well with fresh garlic and make the final product unbelievably bright and tasty.
Add an Egg! Make this pizza florentine with egg by adding a fried egg on top, after the pizza comes out of the oven! The runny yolk will taste great with the rest of these ingredients!
Make it Gluten Free: You can use a 1:1 Gluten Free Baking Flour instead of the whole wheat flour for this white spinach pizza recipe.
🔪 Instructions
Preheat the oven. Heat oven temperature to 356F/180C. Combine the dry ingredients In a small bowl, whisk all the dry ingredients together until well combined.
Make the dough. Add the olive oil and water to the flour mixture.
Knead the dough. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 2-3 minutes until the dough is smooth.
Rest. Allow the ball of dough to rest for 10 minutes.
Prepare the toppings Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat. Sauté the crushed garlic for 1-2 minutes, making sure not to burn the garlic. Toss the spinach leaves and Italian herbs through the garlic until the leaves are wilted. Season with salt and pepper.
Remove from heat. Remove the pan from the heat and set it aside to allow the spinach mixture to cool. Roll out the dough between 2 sheets of baking paper, forming one large rectangle shape about 1/2 inch thick. Remove the top sheet of paper.
Bake. Place pizza crust onto a large oven tray. Position oven rack in the center of the oven. Bake for 5 minutes.
Add the toppings. Cover the partially cooked base with the cheesy white sauce made with ricotta cheese, sautéed spinach, and top with remaining cheeses.
Bake, again. Place the spinach pizza crust back in the oven and bake for 10 mins more or until the crust is slightly golden brown and cooked through.
Serve. Cut the pizza into even slices (about 12 pieces) using a chef's knife or a pizza cutter. Serve while hot, with a drizzle of olive oil on top for more of a comfort food feel. Enjoy!
❓ Recipe FAQs
What is Florentine sauce made of?
Florentine sauce can be made simply with olive oil and garlic and often includes cream to make either a thick, spreadable sauce or a thinner sauce to serve over a chicken dish.
How do I make the perfect crispy pizza crust?
If you want a crispy pizza crust, preheat your pizza pan in the oven while you're preheating your oven! Then spray your pan with olive oil cooking spray before adding your pizza dough. This will help the dough to become a nice, crispy pizza crust!
Is homemade pizza better for you?
Typically yes, homemade pizza is healthier for you because you can control the ingredients and the quantity of cheese, oil and toppings you add to your pizza! This recipe for white florentine pizza is made with a whole wheat crust and all natural ingredients, making it much better for you than a store bought spinach pizza!
What goes first on pizza, cheese, or toppings?
This totally depends on personal preference! In general, cheese goes first, then the toppings are added. But you can totally do toppings first and then cheese! This pizza has a layer of ricotta cheese, the toppings, then another layer of cheese. (Which is the best way, obviously 🙂 )
👨👩👧 How To Serve
There are so many ways to serve this Florentine pizza! Some of our favorites include:
- With a fresh salad or a Ceasar salad. This arugula salad with Italian dressing would also be great!
- With heartier sides like pasta salad or potato salad.
- With your favorite bakery bread like baked French bread or garlic bread.
- With extra veggies! Sauteed kale, steamed broccoli, or these air fryer carrots would all taste great.
🧊 How To Store
To Store: If you have leftover pizza, you can keep it in an air-tight plastic bag or airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
To Reheat: microwave in 30-second increments until it's heated all the way through, or warm in the toaster oven at 350 degrees for 5 minutes. Don't overheat it, or the crust will become stiff. You can also use an air fryer if you have one! The air fryer will keep the crust nice and crispy!
💭 Expert Tips
- The main ingredients in this recipe are garlic, spinach, and olive oil. It's important to make sure the garlic doesn't burn. It only needs to be cooked for about 30 seconds before turning off the heat and adding the spinach.
- This crust has no yeast, but rather baking powder which makes it rise slightly. If you'd like to make yeasted pizza dough, you can do this the morning before you bake the pizza up to 3 days beforehand. Wrap it tightly and put it in the fridge until you're ready to use it. If it's going to be longer than 3 days, go ahead and freeze it. It will keep in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw it in the refrigerator a day before using it.
- If you'd rather not make the dough at all, you can buy pre-made pizza dough from the grocery store instead.
- If you don't have fresh spinach, you can use frozen spinach - just make sure to let all the excess water drain from the spinach mixture before you add it as a topping!
- This dough can make either 2×8 inch pizzas or one large spinach pizza.
- Don't overwork the dough as this will create a tough pizza dough.
- Allow dough to rest, covered on the work surface before rolling out.
- Whole wheat flour can be substituted for 1:1 gluten free flour.
