Using an Italian Loaf as the base of your pizza makes for a quick, easy, and kid-approved dinner!
What You Will Need
Fresh Italian Loaf bread, butter, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, and toppings of choice (I used pepperoni, Italian sausage, mushrooms, black olives, onion, and green bell pepper). You will also need a baking sheet to bake the Italian Loaf Pizzas on.
Step by Step Instructions
Preheat oven to 475.
Cut your Italian Loaf in half horizontally. Place both halves on a greased baking sheet with the “cut side” facing up.
Melt half a stick of butter. Season the melted butter with garlic powder and Italian seasoning. Brush the seasoned melted butter onto the top (cut side) and edges of the Italian Loaf.
Spread a layer of pizza sauce on top of the bread.
Top the pizza sauce with shredded mozzarella cheese.
Add your favorite toppings on top of the mozzarella cheese. Keep in mind this might include prep work such as cooking Italian sausage and/or chopping vegetables, depending on which toppings you decide to put on your Italian Loaf Pizza.
Sprinkle on a little more cheese.
Bake in the oven at 475 for 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and the edges are lightly toasted.
Use a knife to slice into individual servings and enjoy!
Tips & Advice
The reason I add a little more cheese on top of the toppings, is because it “holds” the toppings onto the pizza better.
As you can see from my pictures, I love this idea because I can customize sections of the Italian Loaf Pizza so my family can all get their favorite pizza in one meal. We do not agree on the superior pizza toppings. Ha!
You can use Italian Loaf or French Bread for this recipe. I prefer Italian Loaf just because it’s wider.
I highly recommend you buy Italian sausage fresh (or as fresh as you can) from the meat counter at your grocery store as opposed to in a frozen tube. It tastes astronomically better and will add SO much more flavor to your pizza than that stuff in a tube. It’s just a simple way you can make this pizza taste even better!
I highly recommend shredding a block of cheese as opposed to buying pre-shredded cheese. This is a simple thing you can do to make this recipe taste even better!
If you want more pizza ideas, check out my Pizza Bagels, Chicken Alfredo Pizza, and Buffalo Chicken Tortilla Pizza recipes.
Printable Recipe
Italian Loaf Pizza
Ingredients
- 1 large Italian Loaf bread
- 1/2 stick butter
- Italian seasoning to taste
- Garlic powder to taste
- 15 oz pizza sauce
- 8 oz mozzarella cheese shredded
- Pepperoni *optional
- 1 lb Italian sausage cooked & crumbled *optional
- 6.5 oz mushrooms *optional
- 2.25 oz black olives *optional
- 1 onion diced *optional
- 1 green bell pepper diced *optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 475.
- Cut your Italian Loaf in half horizontally. Place both halves on a greased baking sheet with the "cut side" facing up.
- Melt half a stick of butter. Season the melted butter with garlic powder and Italian seasoning. Brush the seasoned melted butter onto the top (cut side) and edges of the Italian Loaf.
- Spread a layer of pizza sauce on top of the bread.
- Top the pizza sauce with shredded mozzarella cheese.
- Add your favorite toppings on top of the mozzarella cheese. Keep in mind this might include prep work such as cooking Italian sausage and/or chopping vegetables, depending on which toppings you decide to put on your Italian Loaf Pizza.
- Sprinkle on a little more cheese.
- Bake in the oven at 475 for 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and the edges are lightly toasted.
- Use a knife to slice into individual servings and enjoy!
