Homemade pizza is easy and fun to make. It’s a great quick dinner for one or the family during the week or on weekends. Customize your pizza with any toppings you’d like!

My boyfriend introduced me to making homemade pizzas, dough and all. Homemade pizza is great because it’s a quick weeknight meal to throw together, especially if you’ve made the dough in advance. It’s also a great way to use extra items in your fridge or pantry, such as sausage, ground beef, leftover chicken or pulled pork, bell pepper, and other veggies. The one in this recipe has pepperoni, Italian sausage, bell pepper, and onion.

Crust

The crust we used is my All-Purpose Homemade Dough, but with some herbs added in (just a little bit of dried oregano and basil). If you make this dough, you’ll only need half for this pizza recipe. The same goes for if you buy store-bought dough. Save the other half by wrapping tightly in plastic wrap and freezing. Or, make two pizzas!

Sauce

You can also switch it up and use a variety of sauces, or make a white pizza with olive oil instead of sauce. I have a few different pizza sauce recipes that are easy. One is my very first blog post, Easy Pizza Sauce. The other one is Semi-Homemade Slow Cooker Tomato Sauce, which I would actually make on the stovetop for the purpose of a pizza sauce. If you need more sauce inspiration, this list of 20 Homemade Pasta Sauce Recipes should help.

Toppings

Get creative with the toppings! The ones I listed in this recipe are just suggestions. If you use sausage, bacon, ground beef, or any other kind of meat, it needs to be cooked before using it for the pizza. Pizza is also a great way to use leftovers from previous meals, such as pulled pork, bacon, chicken, hamburger meat, vegetables, and more.

Baking Sheet, Not Pizza Stone

You’ll notice that this recipe does not use a pizza stone, but instead a baking sheet with parchment paper. Why? One of same reasons as The Kitchn doesn’t use a baking stone (see their post Why I Don’t Use A Baking Stone For Pizza). I think a baking sheet can get the job done just as well and doesn’t require preheating. My boyfriend’s take is that the pizza stone doesn’t get hot enough in a household oven to make using one worth it. So, baking sheet it is, for this recipe! I like to pre-bake the crust to get it going before adding all of the toppings. I think this contributes to a firmer crust in the middle of the pizza, especially when it’s loaded down with toppings.

Continue reading after the recipe card for step-by-step photos.

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Step-By-Step Photos

Preheat oven to 420. Dust work surface with cornmeal or flour. Roll out dough onto the surface until dough is thin. (It’s totally OK if it’s a bit misshapen, as long as it fits in your pan of choice).

Transfer the dough to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Poke holes all over the dough with a fork. Bake the crust for 3-5 minutes.

Pour the sauce onto the crust and use a spoon or fork to spread the sauce around so it’s fairly evenly distributed.

Tear 3 pieces of sliced provolone cheese in half and place onto the pizza.

Add ½ cup of the mozzarella cheese followed by the pepperoni, then another ½ cup of the mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle with ½ tsp oregano and ½ tsp basil. Adding the herbs now instead of on top helps bake in the flavor.

Add remaining toppings as desired, such as green bell pepper, onions, and cooked Italian sausage.

Top with ¼ cup shredded parmesan cheese and the remaining ¼ cup mozzarella. Brush the crust with olive oil (optional). Bake for about 20 minutes or until crust is golden brown and cheese is fully melted. I recommend letting the pizza cool for about 10 minutes before serving.