There’s something magical about this pizza. We made New Haven white clam pizza for the first time for a pizza party at our house and for good it is one of the most distinctive and beloved pizza recipes in the northeast.

Born from the creativity of Frank Pepe (the father of New Haven (a)pizza) in the 1960s, this pie highlights the region’s close connection to the sea, featuring freshly shucked clams, garlic, and olive oil on a crisp, thin crust. The unique combination of flavors has made it a staple of New Haven, drawing both locals and visitors alike to shuck the tomato sauce and savor its distinctive taste reflecting the seafood heritage of the region.

What is New Haven White Clam Pizza?

First off, you don’t call it pizza in New Haven!

Ahem. What is New Haven White Clam Apizza??

That’s better!

Because one of the quintessential characteristics of New Haven Style pizza actually has nothing to do with the pizza itself. It’s simply the local pronunciation!

New Haven style pizza is generally always spelled “apizza”, but the word is supposed to be pronounced “ah-beets” (feel free to use some Italian hand gestures while saying it!).

Okay, so what’s special about white clam apizza?

A New Haven white clam apizza is a thin-crust pizza topped with fresh clams, garlic, olive oil, oregano, and grated cheese. The pizza is cooked in a very hot oven, resulting in a crispy and charred crust that contrasts with the tender and briny clams.

Connecting to Connecticut

To truly appreciate New Haven Apizza, we need to understand its roots and how it has evolved from another pizza. The story of this iconic pizza style dates back to the early 20th century, when Italian immigrants settled in New Haven and brought their culinary traditions with them. New Haven style pizza doesn’t appear to come by way of New York, but rather directly from Naples, Italy and the classic Neapolitan-style pizza.

Frank Pepe’s Apizza

The name that stands out in the history of New Haven Apizza is that of Frank Pepe, who is generally credited as the father of the New Haven pizza recipe. Born in the foothills of Maori, Italy in 1893, Frank Pepe immigrated to the United States in 1909 through Ellis Island with no money and not able to speak English – but the desire to work hard and achieve the American dream.

Eventually, after marrying his wife and partner Filomena in 1919, the Pepe’s opened their pizzeria in New Haven in 1925. His original pizzeria, known as “Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana” or simply “Pepe’s,” still stands strong (and even bigger) today, now run by his descendants.

So, What Else is Distinctive About a New Haven Apizza?

Regardless of how you say it, one thing is clear – New Haven Apizza is distinctive from most every other pizza and therefore has a flavor all its own.

The most unique element is that Apizza is cooked with coal. Not charcoal – actual fossil-fuel coal.

And that, my friend, is where we hit the most challenging roadblock.

Cooking New Haven Style Pizza: Coal-Fired Oven

Traditional New Haven Apizza is still cooked today in a coal-fired oven. This method creates a crispy and charred crust. The smoke of the coal also infuses itself into the crust while adding a touch of bitter flavor.

Can I Cook Apizza Using Coal At Home?

Unless you actually have a coal-fired oven where you could fit a pizza inside, the answer is that you probably can’t. Or at least shouldn’t.

First off, if you didn’t know or suspect it already, the use of coal has been linked to lung cancer risk.

CANCER IS BAD! = NO COAL

And you certainly don’t want to put coal into your conventional oven – coal will heat up well past the maximum temperature of your oven.

And, even if a Solo Stove Pi or an Ooni pizza oven can handle the same 800°F to 900°F that you’d get from coal, both companies do not recommend using any fuel except what your oven is designed for.

If you happen to have a classic dome brick oven, you could in fact use coal. However, you still should consider the environmental and health impacts of burning coal to cook your food. Several pizzerias in New Haven have switched to gas for these reasons (Frank Pepe’s and Sally’s still uses coal while Modern now uses oil-fueled ovens).

New Haven Apizza at Home

Just because you can’t use coal, doesn’t mean you can’t make a New Haven apizza at home!

As mentioned, a Solo Stove Pi or an Ooni (among other home pizza ovens) certainly can get to that same very high temperature! And if you use wood, you’ll still impart a little of that smokiness too.

And as anyone with a home pizza oven will tell you, charring the top is not hard to do!

Ingredients that Define New Haven Apizza

New Haven Style Pizza Dough: A Thin, Charred Crust

The crust is a crucial element of any pizza, and New Haven Apizza is no exception. New Haven Apizza typically uses high-quality, high-protein bread flour to create its distinctive thin and crispy crust. The high protein content (12% to 14%) in the flour contributes to the chewiness and structure of the dough, allowing it to hold up well to the high temperatures of coal-fired ovens and the quick cooking process.

Frank Pepe got his start as a baker and the New Haven pizza dough recipe he created uses a wetter dough that ferments a little longer than normal, allowing it to acquire a richer flavor.

The resulting crust is thin, crisp, and often charred to perfection in coal-fired brick ovens. This charred quality gives the pizza a smoky, slightly bitter flavor that sets it apart from other styles.

White Clam Apizza Toppings

While traditional New Haven Apizzas are often topped with only a few ingredients (Frank Pepe’s “original” is simply crushed Italian tomatoes, grated Pecorino Romano & olive oil), the white clam apizza is a little more specific:

• fresh clams (or canned – or a mix of both)
• bacon
• cheese (we’re going to use smoked mozzarella and fresh shaved Pecorino Romano)
• olive oil
• oregano
• garlic (minced or fresh)
• sea salt (to taste)

New Haven White Clam Pizza Recipe

Okay, so let’s get to it! Our white clam pizza recipe uses a mixture of canned and fresh clams.

Why?

Well, we discovered that smoking the canned clams produced a wonderful flavor but there’s something special about fresh clams too (especially cooked in white wine, which we will!). Fresh clams are also quite a bit more expensive, so halving the amount of fresh clams let us buy that bottle of wine!

Smoking the Canned Clams

The way we like smoking the canned clams is by infusing them with smoke and letting it rest in an air tight container – for at least an hour, but nothing wrong with doing that overnight. Just make sure you refrigerate them if any longer than an hour. 

We use the Boruit Portable Smoke Infuser because it’s inexpensive and simple.

Cooking the Fresh Clams

There are of course a few ways to cook clams but it starts with making sure they are fresh and clean!

What kind of clams? In New Haven, they generally use littleneck clams, which are between 7/8″ to 2 1/4″ across and generally quite a good choice for pizza. I found them at our local grocery store, although they were quite large.

But more than anything else, you should buy what’s fresh locally.

• Scrub the clams under cold running water to remove any dirt or sand.
• In a skillet, bring about 1/4 inch of white wine (or water) to a boil.
  • The rest of the wine bottle might come in handy in few minutes!
• Add the clams, cover, and steam until they open, about 5-7 minutes.
  • Discard any clams that do not open.
• Remove the clams from their shells, chop them coarsely, and set aside.

New Haven Style Pizza Dough Recipe

I haven’t found an official recipe from any of the Holy Trinity of apizza restaurants. The dough is stretched super-thin and can be quite fragile, so using a high-protein flour is going to be important for getting this right. One option I’ve seen in some recipes is General Mills Full-Strength Flour, which is 12.6% and bromated, which is a “flour improver” however it is understood to be carcinogenic. That (and the fact that this flour appears to only be available in 50 lb. bags) is sufficient reason for us to use something else!

So instead, we use our favorite flour for almost all American pizza styles: Tony Gemignani flour, which is the award-winning pizzaiolo’s artisan blend made by Central Milling. Central Milling does not bromate their flour (which is good) so the fact that this flour has a protein content of 15%, it makes for an incredibly strong dough without the cancer!

I’ve found Tony Gemignani‘s Master Dough Recipe to be an excellent choice for Apizza (and it’s probably no surprise that this is the recipe he uses too, per his book the Pizza Bible). So, I’m going to point you there for the dough recipe.

How to Cook New Haven Style Pizza At Home

1. Preheat your oven as hot as it will go.
   • If you’re using an indoor oven, that’s ideally around 550°F. If you have a pizza stone, place it in the oven to preheat.
   • If you have an outdoor pizza oven, most can go up above 900°F, which is about the same temperature a coal oven would reach. However, the Tony Gemignani Master Dough recipe seems to work better a little cooler – I recommend 600°F to 650°F.
2. Make sure your clams are prepared (as discussed above)
3. Roll out your pizza dough into a thin round shape.
   • If you are cooking indoors, you should transfer the pizza dough to a flat baking sheet.
   • If cooking outdoors, transfer your dough to a floured pizza peel.
4. Drizzle olive oil over the pizza dough.
5. Add the garlic and oregano and use a basting brush to spread over the dough, leaving a border for the crust.
6. Sprinkle the shredded or pieces of smoked mozzarella cheese over the dough.
7. Spread the clams evenly, leaving a border for the crust.
8. Add the bacon evenly over the pizza.
9. Transfer the pizza to your preheated oven.
   • If cooking indoors, place the baking sheet into the oven. Bake for about 7 minutes, then rotate the pizza in the oven. Continue cooking until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is bubbly and slightly charred, which will be about another 6 to 7 minutes.
   • If cooking outdoors, launch the pizza from the peel into the oven. The pizza will cook very fast. It should be rotated a quarter turn about every 20 seconds. Depending on the exact temperature, this pizza will probably take 5-6 minutes to cook.
10. Once out of the oven, scatter fresh basil leaves on top and drizzle a little more olive oil if desired.
11. Slice and serve immediately to savor the deliciousness of homemade New Haven white clam apizza.

Tips and Tricks for New Haven Style White Clam Pizza

• The most important tip here is to make sure your clams are fresh! If you can’t get good, fresh clams then stick with canned. Canned clams are still delicious!
• Although the very high temperature of a pizza oven allows the use of a Neapolitan-style 00 flour, that’s not really the New Haven way. Therefore if you want to stay traditional, I recommend using a high-protein flour and generally prefer the Tony Gemignani Flour.
• If you want to go super-high temperature with a Neapolitan style flour, I suggest trying Central Milling’s Organic Reinforced flour. This flour does an amazing job of being structurally tough!
• Stretch or roll out your dough as thin as possible.
• There’s no tomato sauce! That doesn’t mean there CAN’T be!
• If you’re using a wood-burning pizza oven, you can get a little extra smoke on your pizza if you add a bit of wet wood right before launching. Just be careful that the dough doesn’t stick to the peel!

• If you’re trying this pizza in an indoor oven:
  • Make sure your oven is as hot as it can go and well preheated.
  • If you have a pizza stone or pizza peel, use it. You’ll probably need to learn how to launch your pizza onto the stone directly.
  • Right before cooking, turn the oven off and back on again so that it’s cycling up to max temperature again as soon as the pizza goes in.
• Charring of the crust is a signature of this recipe – but that doesn’t mean burnt. Watch your pizza very closely while it cooks.
• Don’t let that wine go to waste!

July 13, 2024