This sheet pan pizza recipe is so incredibly delicious and feeds a crowd, perfect for your next family dinner or get together!

Pizza has to be the most universally loved food, right? I can honestly say that I have never met someone who doesn’t like some form of pizza.

Me? Well, I’m no exception, I love pizza. I grew up in Chicago where we had deep dish, I went to graduate school in NY where I got to experience the big pieces of New York style pizza, and also in New York I got to have big square pizzas in the city (also known as Sicilian pizza). I now live in Milwaukee where we have thin, almost cracker-crispy thin crust, and my in-laws make the best wood-fired pizza. I do not discriminate, I love all kinds of pizza!

I forgot what show we were watching, but they were doing some feature on pizza and showed a square/rectangle pizza and my hubby said he had never had pizza like that. I immediately remembered the square pizzas I had had in the past.

The dough was soft and fluffy but had a nice crunch to the bottom of it with a nice bold olive oil flavor. It made me think of when I made tomato rosemary focaccia bread, I wanted it a little fluffier and topped with cheese, because, pizza!!

Whenever I’m working with dough, I immediately think of my favorite yeast brand: Red Star Yeast.

Their yeast is second to none. Their quick rise yeast is truly the best. It works quickly!

I have to admit: yeast dough kind of scares me. My father in law is baker extraordinaire, and makes bread every week for Sunday family dinners. My version of making yeast dough is more like when I made these slow cooker cinnamon rolls, which didn’t require much rising time. So I enlisted his help- mainly for him to set the timers and tell me to stay out of the kitchen lol.

The dough was surprisingly easy to make, and I absolutely LOVED how it all came together, and how easy it was to make!

Because you’re making it on a sheet pan, it makes it really perfect for feeding a crowd. Think pizza party, family dinners, friends over, all enjoying this amazing pizza you’ve just made, it’s a total winner.

I made homemade sauce for this, but you could certainly buy pre-made pizza sauce. What makes this pizza taste amazing is the crust. It’s got a crispy bottom from baking in an olive oil coated sheet pan and is soft on the inside because of the double rise times. You put a layer of cheese down directly on top of the dough and then sauce over the cheese to prevent the crust from getting soggy. You could make this with and without pepperoni, the only thing you want to make sure of is that if you are using pepperoni, you get the good natural casing kind!

Next time you’re feeding a crowd, be everyone’s favorite hostess by making this amazing sheet pan pizza recipe!

Other posts you might enjoy:

• 5 Ingredient Jalapeno Enchilada Pizza Recipe
• Winter Vegetable and Sausage Pizza
• Homemade Pizza Pockets

Yield: 16 big squares

Sheet Pan Pizza Recipe

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This sheet pan pizza recipe is so incredibly delicious and feeds a crowd, perfect for your next family dinner or get together!

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Additional Time 2 hours

Total Time 2 hours 35 minutes

Ingredients

• For the dough:
• 1 1/4 cup warm water, about 90-110 degrees
• 1 envelope Red Star quick rise active yeast
• 1/4 teaspoon sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Kosher salt
• 3 tablespoon olive oil, plus ¼ cup for the pan
• 3 1/2 – 4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• For the sauce:
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoons dried red pepper flakes, or more to taste
• 1 (28-ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
• To Assemble and Bake:
• 1 pound sliced deli-style mozzarella cheese
• 6 ounces natural-casing pepperoni, cut into 1/8-inch slices
• 4 ounces Pecorino Romano cheese, grated

Instructions

Warm the water (I do this by microwaving it for 30 seconds-1 minute).

Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the water in a small mixing bowl or measuring cup. Proof the yeast until it is foamy, about 3-5 minutes.

In the bowl of a stand mixer with the dough attachment on, pour in the yeast mixture, salt, 3 tablespoons olive oil and 3 ½ cups of flour. Turn mixer on medium and mix until no combined and now flour streaks remain (about 4 minutes). Slowly add in the additional ½ cup flour and mix for (about another 2 minutes). Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and transfer to a well-floured surface.

Knead by hand until smooth and elastic and form into a shape resembling a rectangle.

Coat a 12 x 17 inch sheet pan (or jelly roll pan) with ¼ cup olive oil.

Transfer dough into the oiled pan and cover with loosely with plastic wrap. Let rest until it has doubled in size (1 hour for the quick rise yeast, 2 hours for regular yeast).

After it has risen, punch down the dough and form it to fit the entire pan, edge-to-edge. Dimple the crust with your fingertips as you form into the pan and carefully prick carefully with a fork. (The fork pricking is to prevent the crust from bubbling up, only gently prick it, don’t poke all the way through the dough – I made a total of 12 pricks.) If the dough is resistant to reach the corner, allow it to rest a few minutes and try again. Cover pan with the plastic wrap and allow it to rest another hour.

Preheat the oven to 525 degrees, making sure the bottom rack of your oven is set to its lowest level. (If your oven doesn't go this high or you're nervous baking at such a high temperature, I've also made this with great success at 475 for about 15-20 minutes. Also, if the lowest rack of your oven is directly over heat, put it at the bottom third).

Make your sauce, sauté garlic in the olive oil in a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat until fragrant (2 minutes) then add in the oregano and red pepper flakes can of tomatoes and salt, stir and cook for 2 minutes, then remove from heat. Use an immersion blender to blend contents in the pot or pour contents into a blender and blend until smooth and no large chunks remain.

Remove plastic wrap from the pizza dough and place slices of mozzarella cheese down, then spread sauce over the cheese. Place slices of pepperoni over the pizza and then sprinkle with Pecorino Romano cheese.

Place the baking sheet on the lowest rack in the oven and bake for about 12-15 minutes, until the crust is crispy and lightly browned.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

16

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 613Total Fat: 19gSaturated Fat: 8gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 10gCholesterol: 40mgSodium: 781mgCarbohydrates: 85gFiber: 3gSugar: 1gProtein: 22g

Nutrition information isn’t always accurate.

This deliciousness is brought to you by Red Star Yeast, all opinions are as always my own, thank you for supporting the brands and products I love and that make the Sweetphi blog possible.