Watch how quickly this Sheet Pan Pizza becomes your family favorite. With sausage, gooey cheese, and your favorite sauce, this pizza is super easy, filling and customizable.
This Sheet Pan Pizza is the perfect family dinner. It’s something I can whip up and know that everyone is going to enjoy it. How do I know that? Because we have been making it for years and it never gets old.
Pizza has always been my go to when I’m feeling less than creative in the kitchen or have had a busy day. It’s the easy go to dinner for many families, but now it’s even easier to make!
No need to call for pizza delivery or take out when you can make an even more delicious hand-tossed style pizza at home in a sheet pan! You can use any of the toppings we suggest or swap them out for your family favorites and make the best pizza.
We love this Sheet Pan Pizza as the dough to topping ration is spot on, a thicker dough, super cheesy and just all around flavorful. This will quickly become a staple on your dinner rotation.
Some of our other favorite pizza recipes we have on our site include: French Bread Pizza, Mini Air Fryer Pizza, and Cast Iron Skillet Pizza.
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
- The gooey, melty cheese and fantastic sausage really bring a delicious flavor to your pizza.
- Easy to customize with other toppings.
- Simple enough that the kids can help make.
INGREDIENTS NEEDED (FULL RECIPE AT BOTTOM)
Fennel seeds
Ground pork
Garlic
Dried oregano
Dried basil
Kosher salt
Black pepper
Olive oil
Pizza dough
Pizza sauce
Shredded mozzarella
Dried oregano
Garlic powder
Grated parmesan cheese
HOW TO MAKE A SHEET PAN PIZZA, STEP BY STEP:
- First, preheat the oven to 450°F.
- Using a mortar and pestle, crush the fennel seeds and then pulverize them in a coffee grinder.
- Mix together the ground pork, fennel, garlic, oregano, basil, salt, and pepper in a medium-sized mixing bowl.
- Add the sausage to a skillet over medium-high heat and break the sausage up into crumbles, stirring occasionally and cooking until there is no pink left and it is lightly seared. This may take about 8-10 minutes.
- Drain the sausage on a paper-towel-lined plate until you are ready to assemble the Sheet Pan Pizza.
- Brush olive oil over a rimmed 9×13-inch baking sheet.
- Roll out the pizza dough and stretch it out to fill the whole sheet pan in as even a layer as possible.
- Spread the pizza sauce all over the dough, leaving about ½ inch border around the edges, and top with half of the mozzarella cheese.
- Add the crumbled cooked sausage to the cheese layer before adding the remaining mozzarella.
- Sprinkle the cheese layer with oregano and garlic and bake for 15-18 minutes, or until the crust along the edge is golden brown and the cheese is melted and appears golden brown as well.
- Remove from the oven and let the pizza cool for 5 minutes before slicing and serving with grated parmesan for topping, if desired.
CAN YOU MAKE THIS AHEAD?
You can make part of this ahead. I suggest making the sausage ahead of time if possible.
This sausage is even better if you can prepare it the day before and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight until you’re ready to use it. The sausage flavors bloom overnight.
But if you don’t have the opportunity to wait, you can still use it right away, it is still amazingly delicious either way.
Due to the perishable ingredients, I don’t recommend working on the rest of the pizza ingredients until you’re ready to bake the pizza.
WHAT KIND OF PIZZA DOUGH DO I USE?
Use your favorite store-bought pizza dough for this easy pizza recipe. I like to use the frozen kind that you have to thaw instead of the kind you find in the can since it’s easier for me to work with.
Or, you can use your own pizza dough recipe to make a homemade pizza dough crust.
WHAT TOPPINGS CAN I ADD?
Instead of sausage on the pizza, you can use your favorite pizza toppings or add them along with the sausage.
Some of our favorites that we add include: pepperoni, sliced bell peppers, thinly sliced onions, sliced mushrooms, black olives, green olives, etc. to make the best Sheet Pan Pizza you’ve ever had!
CAN I DIP THIS IN ANYTHING?
Over the years I’ve become accustomed to dipping or drizzling my pizza with things, now some may not do this.
Some of my favorite dipping and drizzling ingredients that we use are, ranch dressing, chili oil and hot honey.
Trust me if you’ve never tried any of them, you will want to and it might just change your life.
HOW TO STORE:
Store leftovers in an airtight container the refrigerator where it will keep for up to 3 days.
You can also freeze this pizza, to do that place slices in a freezer container where it will keep for up to 3 months.
To defrost, remove to refrigerator overnight until thawed. Heat back up in the oven at 350 degrees F for about 8 minutes or until it is heated all the way through.
TIPS AND TRICKS:
- If you are having trouble stretching the dough, let it sit for 5 minutes at room temperature, then come back and stretch it again.
- If you want to add a punch of heat to the sausage, add 1 teaspoon of dried red chili flakes, or to your taste.
- Instead of making the sausage yourself, you can use your favorite ground store-bought Italian sausage.
- We need to cook the sausage off first to make sure it is fully cooked since the pizza doesn’t have to cook that long. You shouldn’t just put raw sausage on the pizza.
- This recipe makes a thicker, “hand tossed” crust style. It is not thin and not Sicilian style either.
- You can easily customize this recipe with other toppings, see above for ideas.
- This can be frozen, see above on how to do that.
- You can use other cheeses, choose what you like best.
Is your family is ready for a super easy, super tasty dinner recipe, this Sheet Pan Pizza is exactly what you are looking for. One recipe no one will turn their noses up at.
IF YOU LIKE THIS RECIPE YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:
If you’ve tried this SHEET PAN PIZZA or any other recipe on my site, let me know in the comment section how it turned out, we love hearing from our readers! You can also follow along with me on PINTEREST, FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM to see more amazing recipes and what shenanigans I’m getting into!
Sheet Pan Pizza
Ingredients
For the sausage:
- 1 ½ teaspoons fennel seeds
- ½ pound ground pork
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- ¼ teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon dried basil
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
For pizza assembly:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 pound room temperature pizza dough
- ½ cup pizza sauce or to taste
- 3 cups shredded mozzarella
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- grated parmesan cheese to serve
Instructions
- First, preheat the oven to 450°F.
- Using a mortar and pestle, crush the fennel seeds and then pulverize them in a coffee grinder.
- Mix together the ground pork, fennel, garlic, oregano, basil, salt, and pepper in a medium-sized mixing bowl.
- Add the sausage to a skillet over medium-high heat and break the sausage up into crumbles, stirring occasionally and cooking until there is no pink left and it is lightly seared. This may take about 8-10 minutes.
- Drain the sausage on a paper-towel-lined plate until you are ready to assemble the Sheet Pan Pizza.
- Brush olive oil over a rimmed 9×13-inch baking sheet.
- Roll out the pizza dough and stretch it out to fill the whole sheet pan in as even a layer as possible.
- Spread the pizza sauce all over the dough, leaving about ½ inch border around the edges, and top with half of the mozzarella cheese.
- Add the crumbled cooked sausage to the cheese layer before adding the remaining mozzarella.
- Sprinkle the cheese layer with oregano and garlic and bake for 15-18 minutes, or until the crust along the edge is golden brown and the cheese is melted and appears golden brown as well.
- Remove from the oven and let the pizza cool for 5 minutes before slicing and serving with grated parmesan for topping, if desired.
Notes
- If you are having trouble stretching the dough, let it sit for 5 minutes at room temperature, then come back and stretch it again.
- If you want to add a punch of heat to the sausage, add 1 teaspoon of dried red chili flakes, or to your taste.
- Instead of making the sausage yourself, you can use your favorite ground store-bought Italian sausage.
- We need to cook the sausage off first to make sure it is fully cooked since the pizza doesn’t have to cook that long. You shouldn’t just put raw sausage on the pizza.
- This recipe makes a thicker, “hand tossed” crust style. It is not thin and not Sicilian style either.
- You can easily customize this recipe with other toppings, see above for ideas.
- This can be frozen, see above on how to do that.
- You can use other cheeses, choose what you like best.
Nutrition
Tornadough Alli is not a nutritionist or dietitian, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and nutritional value is important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and values can vary depending on which brands were used.
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED JUNE, 2022
Leave a Reply