This Sheet Pan Pizza is the perfect Sunday night dinner! It’s something everyone in the family will enjoy, and it makes great leftovers.
Sheet-pan
Beginner-friendly
You’ll Learn: How to balance acidity and sweetness for a better tomato sauce
Worth It: A reliable family favorite that even picky eaters love
Bonus: Countless topping options for customizability
Why You’ll Love this Recipe
- The best Sunday meal – I love having a family pizza night on Sundays! This big pizza is great because even though it takes a while to make, there is not much active time. It would also be great for the next time you have a Friday night in.
- Great leftovers – Pizza leftovers are the best. You could reheat extra sheet pan pizza in the toaster oven for the perfect leftover meal.
- Customizable – The toppings are endless. You can add any of your favorite toppings to this sheet pan pizza recipe.
Serving Suggestions
This pizza is a mix between Detroit-style pizza and Sicilian pizza. It’s not. quite deep dish pizza, but it’s also not thin crust. So to fill out this homemade sheet pan pizza meal, a great option is a fresh salad on the side. You could serve it with green dream dressing, creamy balsamic vinaigrette, or chipotle vinaigrette.
If you want an easy vegetables on the side, you could do air fryer brussels sprouts or air fryer asparagus.
For dessert, I love having a bit of ice cream or cookies, like these brown butter chocolate chip cookies.
For a weeknight version of this pizza, you could make this thinner crust cast iron skillet pizza. It’s a great recipe with store-bought fresh dough and store-bought sauce.
Ingredients
- Warm water – make sure to use warm water so your yeast properly blooms
- Active dry yeast – use the yeast to perfectly rise pizza crust for a slightly thicker crust. You can also use instant yeast, but your dough might not need to proof as long
- ’00’ Pizza flour – pizza flour is especially elastic and stretchy for the best homemade pizza dough, but you can also use bread flour, whole wheat flour or all purpose flour
- Kosher salt – you’ll use a bit of salt in your dough and in your sauce to bring out all of the flavors
- Olive oil – I used extra virgin olive oil for some added flavor, but you can also use a neutral oil if you do not have it
- Garlic – two smashed garlic cloves will create the base of flavor in your tomato sauce
- Crushed tomatoes – use canned crushed tomatoes to create your pizza sauce
- Dried basil and dried oregano – basil and oregano is all you’ll need to get the perfect flavor in your sauce
- Mozzarella cheese – grab a bag of pre-grated cheeses or shred fresh mozzarella yourself for this recipe
Ingredient Substitutions
For a quick shortcut to this recipe, use a store-bought pizza dough, but there’s nothing better than homemade crust. To make this sheet pan pizza recipe gluten-free, I would recommend buying a store-bought dough that is gluten free. For a dairy free version, you can sub vegan cheese for the low-moisture mozzarella cheese.
There are many different ways to make this the best pizza. Add your favorite pizza toppings. Pepperoni slices, sausage or ham would be a great way to make this your own pizza. You could add mushrooms, bell peppers like red peppers, red onion, black olives, whatever you enjoy. If you’d like, garnish your pizza with a teaspoon or so red pepper flakes, garlic powder, basil, oregano or anything else you enjoy for extra flavor.
Using a simple homemade sauce is my favorite way to make this sheet pan pizza, but you can also use store-bought pizza sauce!
How to make
Step 1: Prep the Dough
Mix lukewarm water (slightly hotter than room temperature) and yeast together in a large mixing bowl or stand mixer bowl. Allow yeast for bloom for a few minutes in the water.
Add the flour and salt to the large bowl (Image 1) and knead with your hands or a dough hook on the stand mixer for about 3 minutes (Image 2) to make your own dough.
Step 2: Proof Dough
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp towel (Image 3) and allow the ball of pizza dough to proof and let the dough rise for 2 hours in a warm place.
Brush or spray a standard half sheet pan with oil and pour the dough ball out onto the bottom of the pan. It should not stick to the sides of the bowl. Put a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a small bowl and dip your fingers in. With oiled hands, spread the dough as much as you can towards the corners of the pan (Image 4). Cover the pan with plastic wrap or a damp towel and allow the dough to proof for another hour.
Step 3: Make the Sauce
While the dough rests and proofs, prepare the pizza sauce. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a sauce pan over medium-low heat and add the smashed garlic cloves to the pan. Allow the garlic cloves to brown and toast (Image 5), but be careful not to burn them. Remove the smashed garlic cloves from the pan.
Pour crushed tomatoes into the pan along with the salt, basil, and oregano (Image 6). Allow sauce to simmer on low for 20 minutes stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. Remove from heat and set aside.
Step 4: Make the Pizza
When dough is almost finished proofing, preheat the oven to 450F.
Uncover the dough on the sheet pan. There might be small bubbles in your dough. Spread the dough to the corners and sides of the sheet pan. Poke the surface of the dough with a fork. Spread sauce on top of the dough (Image 7) with a spoon or rubber spatula all over and near the edges of the crust. Top with the shredded mozzarella (Image 8). For a classic pepperoni pizza, you could add pepperoni as well.
Place the whole thing in the hot oven for 20-22 minutes until the bottom of the crust is golden brown for a perfect, crispy crust. Top with fresh ingredients like freshly grated parmesan cheese and fresh basil.
Storage and reheating
Once cooled, store your leftover pizza slices in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. For good pizza leftovers, reheat in the oven or toaster oven until the cheese is warm and melted.
Check out these other Sheet pan Meal Ideas
You can find the full recipe below. If you make this recipe, please rate and review it in the comments, or share it with me on Instagram!
You can find the full recipe below. If you make this recipe, please rate and review it in the comments, or share it with me on Instagram!
Email Recipe for Later
Recipe
Sheet Pan Pizza
Ingredients
For the Dough
- 500 g warm water
- 2 tsp active dry yeast
- 700 g ‘00’ pizza flour or all purpose flour
- 1 tbsp kosher salt
For the Pizza
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic smashed
- 15 oz crushed tomatoes can
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 2.5 cups full fat mozzarella cheese shredded
Instructions
- Mix warm water and yeast together in a large mixing bowl or stand mixer bowl. Allow yeast for bloom for a few minutes in the water. Add the flour and salt to the bowl and knead with your hands or a dough hook on the stand mixer for about 3 minutes.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp towel and allow to proof for 2 hours.
- Brush or spray a standard half sheet baking pan with oil and pour dough out onto the pan. With oiled hands, spread the dough as much as you can towards the corners of the pan. Cover the pan with plastic wrap or a damp towel and allow the dough to proof for another hour.
- While the dough proofs, prepare the pizza sauce. Heat olive oil in a sauce pan over medium-low heat and add the smashed garlic cloves to the pan. Allow the garlic cloves to brown and toast, but be careful not to burn them. Remove the smashed garlic cloves from the pan.
- Pour crushed tomatoes into the pan along with the salt, basil, and oregano. Allow sauce to simmer on low for 20 minutes stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and set aside.
- When dough is almost finished proofing preheat the oven to 450F.
- Uncover the dough on the sheet pan and spread it to the corners of the pan. Poke the surface of the dough with a fork. Spread sauce over the dough and top with the shredded mozzarella.
- Place in the preheated oven for 20-22 minutes. Top with freshly grated parmesan cheese and fresh basil.
Nutrition Information
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
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