Oh hello, beautifully fluffy crust and melty cheese. Here’s a new style of pizza to add to your repertoire: focaccia pizza! This is the exact opposite of the Neapolitan style pizza with a thin and chewy crust. Instead this pizza is built on focaccia bread: massively thick, pillowy on the inside, and crunchy on the outside. It’s actually reminiscent of a style of Roman pizza you can get in the city today. It makes a massive sheet pan, the equivalent of three pizzas. Oh, and it will make your entire house smell like a pizzeria. (We know from experience.) Ready to get started? Want a faster version? Try our Sheet Pan Pizza: you can make it in half the time!
How to make focaccia pizza: an overview
Focaccia pizza is a style of pizza where you’ll make a homemade focaccia bread, then add toppings and bake it like a pizza. It’s actually similar to Bonci-style pizza that Alex and I had in Rome, though that style has a bubblier crust. Why? Well, most focaccia pizza recipes require making the dough in advance and resting it for 24 hours or more. But for our spin, we wanted a focaccia pizza you can bake in the same day (mainly because we hate thinking ahead!). This is considered a fast focaccia pizza: prep is a little over 2 hours: no advanced planning required! This recipe is great for weekends and days off, or anytime if you work or watch kids from home. The tradeoff of this fast version is that the crust is slightly less bubbly than a traditional focaccia…but to us it’s worth it. (Or, make our sheet pan pizza in half the time!) Here’s a breakdown in the timing:
Making the dough: weights are most accurate
Here’s something to note about focaccia pizza dough. When you’re baking it up, measuring the ingredients by weight is most accurate! Why? The environment and the way you pack the measuring cups can both affect the exact weight. So using a food scale is the most accurate way to measure out quantities when baking something precise like dough.
Need a food scale? Here’s the food scale we use. It’s also what we use for our morning pourover coffee!Don’t have one? Use the spoon and level method. Spoon the dry ingredient into the measuring cup, then level it off (instead of plunging the entire cup into the flour container).
Focaccia pizza crust requires two proofs!
What’s the trick to the best focaccia pizza crust? Two proofs. If you’re an experienced baker (or at least watch the Great British Baking Show), you’ll know this means resting the pizza dough. Proofing is when you let bread dough rest after you’ve added yeast so that it rises. The trick to getting a super thick, pillowy crust is resting it twice. This is the same method as in our cast iron skillet pizza. Of course if you were making true focaccia bread, you’d rest 24 hours to get massive bubbles. But we’re going for a day-of pizza recipe! If you prefer a super bubbly crust, this is not the one.
Otherwise, baking focaccia pizza is easy
So, you have to wait for 2 hours for your pizza dough to rise. But guess what? The rest of the process is much easier than a traditional pizza? Why? You don’t have to bother with shaping a dough, or using a pizza peel or pizza stone, which we do with our traditional method. Just throw it into the sheet pan, and throw that in the oven. Easy as pie! Pizza pie, that is. One last note: there’s a specific method to baking this sheet pan focaccia pizza:
First, bake the crust without toppings for 10 minutes. This is similar to baking up the focaccia bread! It makes it nice and crispy on the edges. Then bake with toppings (another 10 minutes). Pull it out of the oven and add the toppings. Take care since the pan will be hot at this point!
This recipe is equivalent of 3 pizzas in 1!
Another great feature of this focaccia pizza: it’s the equivalent of 3 pizzas in 1! That means you don’t have to make separate pizzas for the family. Just make this one sheet pan, and it’s enough for everyone. You also may want to split up the toppings, so you get a few different topping options. Speaking of that…
Topping ideas for focaccia pizza
There are many ways to top a focaccia pizza! In the recipe below, we shared what we did. We used our amazing Easy Pizza Sauce, which we guarantee you’ll be obsessed with. Then we topped it with smoked mozzarella cheese and fresh mozzarella, which is an irresistible combination. (Try it! Let us know what you think). But if you prefer, go free form or we’ve got some other ideas:
Try our American-style cheese pizzaGo classic Italian with Margherita toppingsOpt for Pesto pizza or Greek pizzaGrab Goat cheese pizza or quirky Pickle pizzaTry garlicky Shrimp alfredo pizzaTry our fan favorite taco pizza with crumbled tortilla chips and ranch Skip the red sauce and go for a white pizza or ricotta pizzaMake cozy spinach artichoke pizza
This focaccia pizza recipe is…
Vegetarian. For vegan, top with Vegan Pizza toppings. 5 from 5 reviews
562 grams (4 ½ cups) all-purpose flour 1 tablespoon instant or active dry yeast 2 teaspoons kosher salt 2 teaspoons oregano 2 teaspoons garlic powder 355 grams (1 ½ cups) warm water 1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
For the pizza
3 tablespoons olive oil, for brushing the sheet pan 1 ¼ cups Easy Pizza Sauce ¾ cup shredded smoked mozzarella 8 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese ½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese Kosher salt, for sprinkling Fresh basil, for garnish
