New Haven, Connecticut · 1960s
White clam
Clams, garlic, oregano, olive oil. No tomato, no mozzarella
Scale the dough for thisFrank Pepe had been baking apizza in New Haven since 1925 and the clam pie arrived decades later, reportedly from clams being sold on the half shell at the bar. It is the best argument on this site that cheese is optional. Shucked clams, their liquor, garlic, oregano, oil and a hard coal-oven char, and nothing else. The single mistake everyone makes is using tinned chopped clams, which are cooked, tough and packed in water that dilutes the only sauce this pizza has.
The build
- Shuck littlenecks over a bowl and keep every drop of the liquor. Chop them coarsely if they are large.
- Brush the stretched dough with olive oil and a lot of sliced raw garlic.
- Spoon the clams and their liquor over, keeping them off the very rim.
- Dried oregano, black pepper, more oil.
After the oven Grated pecorino romano and lemon.
The bake
As hot as the oven goes. The clams need to just set; longer and they go to rubber and the liquor boils away.
On top
- Sauce
- The clam liquor itself, with olive oil and garlic. That is the entire sauce.
- Cheese
- None. Grated pecorino over the top after the bake, which is not the same thing.
You got it right when A dry, blistered, spotted crust with clams sitting in shallow wet dimples, and a smell of garlic and the sea rather than of cheese.