Blackberry Basil Ricotta Pizza

This pizza is sauced with nothing more than olive oil and a blackberry smash, topped with mozzarella and parmesan, and dotted with fresh blackberries and fresh basil. It’s a refreshing, gourmet twist on pizza that will have you falling in love with pizza all over again. If you’ve never tried ricotta on a thin-crust pizza then you’re in for a treat.

For more gourmet pizza flavor combinations, try our Cilantro-Lime Chicken Pizza or Jalapeno Scalloped Potato Pizza.

The olive oil and blackberry smash sauce is a fresh, light blend that helps pull that tart blackberry taste throughout the entire pizza, earning its name. Topped with a mozzarella and parmesan cheese mix, you get the ultimate gooey cheesy experience with the nutty flavor of parmesan—we’re considering topping all of our pizzas with this blend, it’s that good! Topped with vibrant blackberries, fresh basil, and dollops of light, creamy ricotta cheese, this love child of ours gives off some cheese Danish vibes.

Ingredient Notes

• Crust: Use your favorite crust or use our refrigerator pizza dough, easy pizza dough, or Italian-style pizza dough.
• Blackberries: Use fresh berries for stability, frozen/thawed berries will be runnier.
• Mozzarella: Freshly shredded for maximum meltiness.
• Parmesan: Freshly grated has a sharper flavor, but a container of pre-grated parmesan is a solid substitute.
• Ricotta: Sold in a plastic tub located in the refrigerated section of your grocery store usually near cottage cheese or cream cheese. Use a teaspoon for the perfect-sized scoops.
• Basil: Stack several fresh basil leaves on top of each other, then roll the bunch lengthwise like a tiny basil stogie and hold the roll closed while using a knife to cut it into slices and voilà—perfect basil strips.

Crust Options

This recipe makes one 14 to 16-inch pizza and calls for an unbaked crust. You can always purchase premade pizza crusts or premade dough at your grocery store which will work great in this recipe, especially if you’re short on time.

But if you prefer homemade or want to try your hand at it (it’s so easy and tastes much better), we have you covered with our Easy Homemade Pizza Dough or our Italian Style Pizza Dough.

Using Frozen Blackberries

It’s not always berry season and sometimes perfect, ripe blackberries can be hard to find. If you’re having a rough time getting fresh blackberries, you can use frozen/thawed blackberries, but we have a few tips.

Thaw the bag of frozen berries in the fridge overnight, then select the largest, fullest berries from the bunch and place them on a dry paper towel to help absorb some of the excess juice.

Use a mesh colander to drain the excess juice from the rest of the berries, then use a half cup of the thawed berries for the sauce (they might already be slightly mashed, but feel free to smash them up a little more if you want).

When you’re ready to place the blackberries on top of the shredded cheese, cut each of your berries in half lengthwise with a small paring knife, then place onto the pizza with the cut side facing down.

Turn Up the Heat

Our Blackberry Basil Ricotta Pizza is a mildly sweet and tart pizza, but you can add some spice with a sprinkle of crushed red pepper flakes, or if you’re feeling boujee, try drizzling your pizza with hot honey. If you haven’t tried hot honey, now is your time—we can’t get enough of it!