Are you sick of basic pizza toppings? Have no fear, your ultimate list of pizza toppings is here!
Pizza is the ultimate crowd-pleaser because it’s ultimately customizable. You can make a pizza that fits anyone’s dietary needs and tastes. Gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian – you can make pizza check any and all of these boxes. You can also put practically anything on a pizza. Have a kid who only eats chicken nuggets? Throw them on a pizza and he just might eat it.
This extreme customizability is a real positive of pizza, but it can also paralyze you when it comes time for pizza night. How do you choose your pizza toppings when you can basically put anything that’s edible on it? What that means in my house is that we get in a pizza rut and make pizza with the same toppings over and over again. I love pizza, but the same pizza toppings for Friday pizza night weeks in a row can make me pretty sick of pizza. And that is a crime.
To get my family out of our pizza rut, I wanted to make a list of pizza toppings that I could come back to when I don’t know what kind of pizza to make. You’re in luck because I’m sharing my ultimate list of pizza toppings with you to celebrate National Pizza Day (February 9th)! Here’s to exciting pizza nights!
Ultimate List of Pizza Toppings
Vegetarian
Of course, you don’t have to be a vegetarian to enjoy (or even prefer!) meat-free pizza toppings. Don’t discount these pizza toppings if you’re a meat lover. They can be just as delicious!
Cheese
Ah, the classic cheese pizza. If you have young children, you probably eat more than your fair share of cheese pizza because cheese pizza is often the favorite of kids with plain palates. I know my kids will request cheese pizza 9 times out of 10. If you’re stuck with cheese pizza for this reason, or you just really like cheese pizza, I have a few ideas for how you can jazz it up.
- Multiple cheeses – Don’t limit yourself to the classic mozzarella. Grab a few different cheeses for a more dynamic experience. I like a combination of mozzarella and provolone way better than just plain mozzarella.
- Bleu cheese – I’m not crazy, I promise! I love to add just a little sprinkling of bleu cheese crumbles to my cheese pizza. Not enough to make it funky, just enough to make your taste buds go hmmmm. My young kids (5 and 2 years old) and my bleu cheese-hating husband don’t object, so I’m guessing your family won’t either.
- Vodka sauce – The reason many of us like cheese pizza is because we know exactly what we are getting – dough, red sauce, and cheese. One way to jazz up your cheese pizza while keeping it in this same zone of predictable deliciousness is to swap out your classic red pizza sauce with vodka sauce. It’s still red sauce, but it has that little something extra. Your family will love it!
Veggie
Pizza can be an excellent vehicle for consuming your vegetables, especially if you chop them up nice and small so you don’t even know you’re eating veggies. Clearly, I’m mostly talking about the littles in your life you might be feeding, but if you’re not super into veggies, this trick can work on you too.
So, what veggies do I put on pizza? Typically, my favorites to use as pizza toppings are spinach and tomatoes. Why? Because my kids eat them. Well, my 5-year-old eats them. My 2-year-old usually eats the spinach (the only time she will), but we will pick off the tomatoes.
What veggies can you put on pizza? The world is your oyster! See what’s about to turn in your fridge and make it your pizza topping. Onions, peppers, olives, mushrooms, broccoli – they all work well as vegetable pizza toppings.
Margherita
The classic of all classic pizza toppings, a Margherita pizza combines cheese and veggies for a delicious result. Whether you use a red sauce is up to you (traditional Margherita just uses crushed up tomatoes), but the fresh mozzarella and basil are non-negotiable. This isn’t traditional, but if you want to push a Margherita pizza over the edge, finish it with a little balsamic glaze when it comes out of the oven. It’s good, y’all.
Mediterranean
Pick your favorite Mediterranean-leaning veggies and make yourself a pizza. I love to throw marinated artichokes, sundried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, and feta cheese on a red sauce topped crust. Feta cheese? Sign me up!
White pizza
When I was pregnant with both of my kids, white pizza was my pizza of choice. I like to keep my white pizza pretty simple. I do a base of olive oil, then slather on a mix of ricotta cheese and garlic, top that with a ton of mozzarella cheese, and finish with some chopped spinach. This is an underrated combination of pizza toppings.
Pesto
Am I the only one whose kids love pesto sauce? They can’t get enough of the green stuff, which is odd because usually they turn their noses up at any food that even has a green tinge in a weird light. I’m not here to make sense of it, but I’m certainly embracing it. We do pesto everything. Pesto meatball subs, pesto pie, and pesto pizza.
The tried-and-true winner is just dough, pesto sauce, and mozzarella cheese. My son loves it when I add tomatoes, but my daughter doesn’t, so I usually just serve tomatoes on the side for him. He can add them to his pizza or eat them separately.
Fig & goat cheese
One of my favorite things to eat in the whole world is an appetizer that they used to serve at a restaurant on my law school’s campus. It was thick slices of bread with homemade fig jam and goat cheese. It was delicious. I don’t live close to that restaurant anymore, so I needed to recreate it.
In my quest to recreate this favorite dish, I, naturally, turned it into a pizza. And let me tell you what, it makes a great pizza. If you want to enjoy this wonderful pizza, grab some fig jam and some goat cheese and stick the pizza in the oven. When the pizza is cooked, top it with arugula and honey and thank me later!
Meat
If you include meat in your diet, try out some of these pizza toppings.
Pepperoni
I’m not going to lie, pepperoni pizza is delicious. It’s my default pizza choice when I don’t know what pizza toppings to choose. If you love pepperoni pizza too, don’t feel like you have to change it up. If you love pepperoni pizza but want to see if you can make it even better, I’ve got some ideas for you.
- Chickpea pepperoni – My kids love chickpea pepperoni on pizza. They don’t taste exactly like pepperoni, but they’re super tasty. Bonus – this option makes pepperoni pizza accessible to the vegetarians!
- Add some veggies – Pick your favorite pizza veggie and throw it on with the pepperoni for a new combination of pizza toppings. I like the pepperoni and spinach combination. My mom likes pepperoni and black olives. Experiment a bit and find out what you like best.
- Hot honey drizzle – If you want to take your pepperoni pizza up a notch, the easiest and surest way to do this is to add a hot honey drizzle to the cooked pizza. It’s out of this world! If your kids aren’t into spice of any kind, feel free to add the drizzle to individual pieces of pizza so the whole family is happy.
BBQ chicken
I was introduced to BBQ chicken pizza by the California Pizza Kitchen in the “fancy” mall about an hour from my parents’ house. When I was a teenager, I was just starting to branch out from my kid diet of chicken fingers and French fries, and BBQ chicken pizza was one of my first more exotic restaurant choices. (Side note, this is also the first place I ever ordered a salad at a restaurant.) Because this was one of my first forays into more exciting food, I love to recreate it at home fairly regularly.
I like to make BBQ chicken pizza at home because I am not a fan of the classic BBQ chicken pizza recipe. I hate red onions. If I make BBQ chicken pizza at home, I don’t have to deal with red onions. We keep it simple with BBQ sauce, chicken (I use a rotisserie chicken from Sam’s Club), and a mix of mozzarella and cheddar cheese. If I’m really feeling wild, I’ll add a little bit of corn too. Simple and delicious.
Butternut
If you’ve been following for a bit, you’ll know that I chose to make a non-traditional Christmas dinner this year. That dinner was pizza. I asked my husband, my kids, and my mother-in-law to choose any pizza toppings they wanted and I picked what I wanted too. This was my pick and it was delicious.
I had some leftover butternut squash. I roasted it simply with olive oil, salt, and pepper. I had some leftover ricotta cheese. I mixed the ricotta cheese with minced garlic, salt and pepper. I spread the ricotta mixture over the dough, sprinkled some shredded mozzarella cheese over it and then topped with the roasted squash. When it came out of the oven all bubbly and delicious, I gilded the lily and added some prosciutto. It was heaven!
Hawaiian
OK, this is a polarizing one. You either love pineapple on pizza or you hate it. If you’re not morally opposed to fruit on pizza, this is a good one to keep in your pizza topping rotation. It’s simply red sauce, mozzarella cheese, pineapple, and ham (this is a great use for leftover ham!). Easy peasy!
Meat lovers
My husband loves a meat lovers pizza. It can look different depending on the day and what’s in the fridge. But the bottom line is that you put a variety of different meats on a pizza and call it a day. Think sausage, pepperoni, ground beef, ham, and/or bacon. God bless your arteries!
Breakfast pizza
We love breakfast for dinner around here. It’s one of my favorite no-recipe dinners. So, why not put breakfast on a pizza? Scramble up some eggs, make a cheesy sauce, and fry up some bacon for breakfast pizza perfection. My quick cheese sauce recipe is below.
Cheese sauce
What you’ll need
3 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
1 C milk
1 C shredded cheddar cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
How to make it
Melt the butter in a sauce pan over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk for about a minute. Stream in the milk slowly and whisk constantly until thickened (check the back of your wooden spoon – when the stripe you make down the back of it stays, it’s thickened). Remove from heat and add the cheddar cheese and salt and pepper to taste. Stir until smooth.
Buffalo chicken
I have been a big buffalo chicken fan for as long as I can remember. I really kicked my love for all things buffalo sauce into high gear when I was pregnant with my daughter, though. I wanted buffalo everything at any time of day. This craving mostly took the form of buffalo chicken sandwiches when I could convince my husband that take out was necessary, but I incorporated buffalo flavor in my diet in lots of other ways too. One of these ways that has stuck in the 3 years since is with buffalo chicken pizza.
The great thing about buffalo chicken pizza is that it’s easy to make. It’s also not something that my kids like, so that means more for me! Slap some buffalo sauce on pizza dough, layer with rotisserie chicken, mozzarella cheese, and bleu cheese, and call it a day. You can also drizzle some ranch or blue cheese dressing over the top if you’re feeling extra.
Prosciutto & arugula
When I was a brand-new adult, it was all the rage to go to a fancy pizza place for dinner on the weekends on dates or just with your friends. These were upscale pizza joints that slung personal sized pizzas with fancy pizza toppings that cost an arm and a leg. When I found myself at one of these dinners, I almost always ordered the prosciutto and arugula pizza. It was so grown up and tasted delicious.
My days of frequenting fancy pizza places are over, but I still love prosciutto and arugula pizza. I just make it at home now. Build your pie with red sauce, fresh mozzarella cheese, and prosciutto, then add the arugula when it comes out of the oven. Much cheaper, and just as delicious!
Chicken bacon ranch
I love a chicken bacon ranch sandwich. It’s my go-to sandwich at home or if I’m out to eat. One day I thought if I love it so much as a sandwich (which is bread), why not try it as a pizza (also bread)? That was the day I determined that I was a genius. Kidding, but not really.
This fabulous sandwich makes a fabulous pizza! I start with an olive oil base on the pizza dough, pile it with leftover chicken, crispy bacon, and a mix of cheddar and mozzarella cheeses. Then, when it comes out of the oven, I drizzle a bit of ranch dressing over the top. It’s delicious if you use a high-quality bottled ranch, but it’s even better if you use homemade ranch!
Other posts
I like food, so you’ll find quite a few posts around here that are centered around food. If you want more posts like this, check these out:
Now, let’s all get into the kitchen and make some pizza. What’s your favorite combination of pizza toppings? Let’s all add to this list down below in the comments or over on Instagram @sarainseason!