Clam Pizza
Updated Oct 06, 2025
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This clam pizza recipe brings a legendary New Haven white clam pizza into your kitchen with simple ingredients and amazing flavor. With fresh or good-quality canned clams, garlic, oregano, olive oil, and salty pecorino Romano on a thin crispy crust, this pizza is a seafood lover's dream. Ready in under 30 minutes, it's a delicious twist on a classic pizza night.
If you haven’t yet experienced the magic of New Haven’s clam pizza, let this recipe bring the irresistible combo of thin, crispy crust and fresh garlic clams to your table. Inspired by Pepe Pizzaria’s legendary pie, this clam pizza skips the tomato sauce and lets the briny clams, salty Pecorino, and fresh herbs shine.
What's In This Post?
Pepe’s White Clam Pizza
History tells it that this singular and often copied clam pizza was invented at Pepe’s (though Frank Pepe apparently doesn’t quite remember how he came up with tossing clams onto pizza!).
The pizza is tomato-sauce-free and includes only Pecorino Romano cheese. Some other versions (not Pepe’s) have other cheeses added, such as Parmesan or mozzarella. However, I like the Pepe’s version: the simple, light dusting of salty Pecorino allows the clams and the crust to have their moments in the sun.
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The crust for New Haven pizza is usually quite thin, and cooked until crispy. Don’t forget the final sprinkle of finely chopped parsley, which adds color and a great pop of freshness. And unless you have a real problem with heat, the red pepper flakes are not optional.
And much to my delight, because the pizza is topped so lightly, the crust did in fact bubble up in a spot or two. This made me feel like I was as close to New Haven as possible.
Ingredients
- Fresh clams – If possible, make this pizza with freshly shucked, roughly chopped clams, and you will be rewarded with that incomparably fresh, briny flavor of fresh clams. But you can also use frozen and defrosted chopped clams, or chopped canned clams. I always have canned clams on hand to make a batch of linguine with white clam sauce, another clam favorite in my house.
- Garlic and dried oregano – The perfect duo for any pizza.
- Pizza dough – I used thin crust refrigerated pizza dough, which most approximates the dough used in this style of pizza-making.
- Pecorino Romano cheese – The perfect salty cheese complement to clams that keeps it authentic to Pepe’s, though other vary up the cheeses.
- Fresh parsley, red pepper flakes, and salt – For serving.
How to Make White Clam Pizza
- Prep the clam topping: Preheat the oven to 425°F degrees. Drain the claims (don’t dry, but save the juice for clamato or another purpose. Mix the clams with olive oil, garlic, and oregano.
- Build the pizza: Unroll the pizza dough onto a baking sheet. Leaving about 1/4-inch border around the edges, spread out the clam mixture. Add the cheese and lightly season with pepper.
- Cook and serve: Bake the pizza for about 14 minutes, until the dough is golden and cooked through. Sprinkle with fresh parsley and red pepper. Slice and serve hot with a bit of salt on the side if anyone wants to add it.
FAQ’s
Clam pizza is a New Haven, Connecticut specialty pizza topped with fresh chopped clams, garlic, olive oil, oregano, and Pecorino Romano, without tomato sauce. It showcases fresh seafood flavor on a crispy, thin crust.
Yes! While fresh clams offer the best flavor, good-quality canned chopped clams also work well, especially if drained well. You might miss clam bellies, but the flavor remains delicious.
Traditional clam pizza uses Pecorino Romano cheese, which adds a salty, sharp accent without overpowering the clams and crust.
Use a thin, refrigerated pizza dough or a dough similar to New-Haven style pizza. Bake at a high temperature (425 F) until the edges are golden and crisp, and the crust bubbles up in spots.
What to Serve With White Clam Pizza
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Thin Crust White Clam Pizza
Ingredients
- ¾ cup chopped fresh clams
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (plus more for drizzling)
- 3 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 package refrigerated thin crust pizza dough
- ½ cup finely grated Pecorino Romano cheese
- Freshly ground black pepper (to taste)
- 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
- Red pepper flakes (for serving)
- Kosher salt (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 F.
- Drain the clams, but don't dry them (you can reserve the juices for another purpose if you like; see Note). Mix together the freshly drained clams, 3 tablespoons olive oil, garlic and oregano in a small bowl.
- Unroll the pizza dough onto a baking sheet. Evenly distribute the clam mixture over the pizza dough, leaving a 1/4-inch border all around the edges. Sprinkle over the Pecorino Romano, and lightly season with pepper. Don’t salt at this point, knowing that the clams and cheese might be a bit salty (you can always salt a bit after baking if needed).
- Bake for about 14 minutes, until the dough is cooked through and golden brown around the edges. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with the parsley and crushed red pepper, as desired. Cut into wedges and serve hot, with salt on the side if anyone needs it.
Are you insane??? Unless you have a coal fired oven in your house, just stop. Unless you can pluck perfect clams from the shores of Long Island Sound, just don’t. Can you create the perfect balance of crisp, chew, and char? Don’t even try. No. No. No. A million no’s.
Liz, I can’t disagree if 100% authenticity is the only end coal…..but if you want to just have a little fun with the concept, and you have a craving for clam pizza, it’s worth a shot.