The Ultimate Guide to Pizza: Types, Toppings, Recipes, and More

Great pizza is the result of good dough and intense heat. Your creativity dictates the rest – from the shape, to the toppings. Perfecting great pizza at home is one of the most satisfying activities a home cook can master. That said, keeping your oven at 500°F for an hour during peak summer turns your kitchen into a sweaty zone of sad. If you are grilling in your backyard this weekend and are tired of kabobs, veggie burgers and corn on the cob; consider making pizza on your grill. Here are thirteen ideas for grilled pizza that highlight fresh and seasonal ingredients. I kick it off with a post about how to grill pizza with a focus on technique. That is followed with a selection of incredible topping ideas from other sites.

The Foundation: Good Pizza Sauce

Aside from a good, reliable pizza dough, your sauce choice is another foundation you want to get right before moving on to the wide world of pizza toppings.

Tomato Sauce: This is a favorite simple tomato sauce, and it’s great on many red sauce pizzas. My one pro-tip is to make it ahead of time, it’s fine for up to a week refrigerated. When you go to assemble your pizza, be sure the sauce is room temperature or cooler. Make sure it’s not hot. If the sauce is still warm when you’re topping your pizza, the dough is more likely to stick.

Pesto: Pesto pizzas are a favorite, and this pesto is my go-to. Made with hand-chopped basil, garlic, Parmesan, olive oil and pine nuts, it’s the real deal. It’s a pesto recipe taught to me by my friend Francesca’s mother who came to visit from Genoa, Italy. It’s what you want as the foundation for your pesto pizza.

Mushroom Ragù: Use this mushroom ragù to double down on your favorite mushroom pizza combination. A pizza made with this sauce topped with pre-roasted sliced mushrooms, dollops of ricotta cheese, a sprinkling of rosemary, and finishing drizzle of chile oil is A-plus.

Pizza topping ingredients

• Cheese – go traditional with a generous portion of mozzarella, or mix things up with cheddar or parmesan
• Base tomato sauce – a good tomato sauce forms an essential foundation for lots of pizza toppings, so it’s worth using a high quality one or making your own with our homemade recipe.
• Protein – try adding shredded chicken, cooked mince, pulled pork, spicy sausage, bacon, crispy tofu or even a fried egg
• Veggies – load up on veggies like onions, peppers, mushrooms, courgette, aubergine, broccoli or olives
• Greens – add a handful of leafy greens like rocket, spinach and basil for some colour
• Sauces – a final sauce drizzle can take your pizza to the next level. Try barbecue, chilli oil or a dash of fiery peri peri for a punch of flavour. Hot honey is having a moment—its sweet heat pairs beautifully with meaty toppings like pepperoni or nduja. For something fresh and fragrant, a swirl of pesto adds vibrant colour and

Vegetable Pizza Toppings

There are so many ways to get creative about vegetable pizzas. Sometimes I’ll pre-cook vegetables, for example artichokes, other times they’ll go on a pizza raw. Some ideas.

Fresh corn, thin asparagus, roasted cherry tomatoes, peas, baked mushrooms, caramelized onions, olives, fava beans, citrus zests, grilled or pan-blistered artichokes, sautéed thinly sliced potatoes, broccoli florets, cauliflower florets.

More topping ideas!

Though the recipe for these is not listed below, here are some more pizza topping ideas that we love. I will be working my way through them and adding photos and recipes over the coming months!

• Hot n’ spicy (spicy salami, capsicum, sliced jalapenos, onions, hot sauce)
• Aussie pizza (bacon, red onion, a whole egg cracked on)
• Caramelised onion, feta, beef mince
• Squid, chorizo, rocket
• Spring pizza (zucchini, artichoke, asparagus, spinach, and pesto dolloped on just before serving)
• Seafood pizza (precooked squid, mussels, clams, prawns etc)
• BBQ chicken (BBQ sauce, shredded chicken, red onion, smoked paprika)

Italian pizza types

There are several typical Italian pizza varieties that have emerged over time. Among them there are also the two official variants “Marinara” and “Margherita” of Neapolitan pizza. Here you can find the full list of all Italian kinds of pizza. If we have forgotten some variety, let us know in the comments.

American Pizza types

In America, many different variants of the pizza have emerged. Some are quite similar to the Neapolitan types of pizza, but use much more cheese, for example the New York Style pizza. Other variants, however, are hardly based on their Italian ancestors. So there is the Chicago pizza, which is more reminiscent of a cake. It is also called deep-dish pizza and the toppings are layered in reverse as it is normal for a pizza. The most popular variation in the USA is the New York Style Pizza. It’s also called New York Slice. The New York Slice is the most similar to the original Neapolitan Margherita of all American kinds of pizza. In the US, Pizza Hut and Domino’s are the largest pizza delivery services and restaurant operators. Here you can find the full list of all American kinds of pizza. If we have forgotten some variety, let us know in the comments.

Mexican Pizza types

Pizzas in Mexico are made with ingredients typical of the Mexican cuisine like bell peppers, tomatoes, chili peppers, onions, cilantro, black beans and corn. They often taste similiar to typical Mexican dishes like tacos or chili con carne.

The Big Five That Never Miss

These toppings continue to define popular pizza topping combinations.

• Pepperoni
• Italian sausage
• Mushrooms
• Onions
• Bell peppers

YouGov’s US pizza surveys consistently rank pepperoni, sausage, and cheese-focused pizzas at the top of consumer preference lists.

Pepperoni works because it self-seasons the pizza as it cooks. Italian sausage adds savory depth and pairs naturally with tomato sauce. Mushrooms contribute umami when roasted, while onions and green peppers bring sweetness and crunch.

Vegetable Toppings That Bring Real Flavor (How Veggie Pizza Actually Thrives)

Veggie pizza works best when vegetables lead instead of apologizing. The strongest vegetable pizzas feel complete, flavorful, and structured—not like a compromise for pizza lovers.

Cheese Pairings That Elevate Veggie Pizza

Vegetable pizzas benefit from thoughtful cheese choices.

Mozzarella provides structure. Ricotta cheese adds creaminess without weight. Feta cheese brings salt and acidity. Blue cheese works in small amounts when paired with roasted vegetables. Vegan cheese can work when vegetables bring enough flavor.

Sauce Options Beyond Red

Veggie pizzas don’t always need tomato sauce.

• White pizza bases highlight mushrooms and spinach
• Pesto pizza supports roasted vegetables
• Olive oil bases let vegetables shine

Favorite Classic Pizza Combinations

Margherita: simple tomato sauce, good mozzarella, fresh basil after baking pizza, and a finishing drizzle of olive oil.

White pizza: see the corn pizza up above. I also love a white pizza with garlic oil and mushrooms and lots of fresh herbs to finish.

Favorite Wildcard Pizza Topping Combinations

Pizza Dough Inspiration

Let’s talk about this recipe. In addition to Peter’s Napoletana pizza dough recipe I’ve tried a lot of approaches to pizza dough over the years. One of the recipes I liked (for a lot of reasons) is the Roberta’s recipe that ran in the New York Times. You mix it by hand for a few minutes, rest, mix again, divide, and refrigerate. It’s dead simple. That said, I like the flavor development in Peter Reinhart’s overnight, cold, slow-fermentation. So I now use a bit of a hybrid of the two recipes as my starting point for pizza making. I’m going share where I’ve landed related to making dough, and then talk you through a lot of the details, because a great pizza dough is just the start. Beyond that, pizza making is almost entirely about approach, technique, and adaptability.

Pizza Dough Ingredients

There are only a handful of ingredients in pizza dough and I’m going to talk through them. There are some easy mistakes to make on the flour and yeast front, and to avoid making them my main advice is to start by carefully checking your labels.

What is the Best Flour for Making Homemade Pizza Dough?

The best flour to make pizza dough with is the flour you have in your kitchen right now. Just go for it. Ideally it would be bread flour, but don’t be detoured if all-purpose flour is what you’ve got. If you think you want to go down a serious pizza-making rabbit hole, grab a bag of bread flour, make a few pies. And then compare those to ones made with some “00” pizza flour. Experimenting is half the fun.

• Bread Flour: With a higher percentage of protein compared to all-purpose flour, this is the flour I’d recommend starting with for a great crust. Bread flour is widely available, and you’ll get fantastic results.
• “00” Pizza Flour – A lot of people swear by a pizza dough made with a percentage of “00” flour. I sometimes go the extra mile and source this flour, but more times than not I’m out of it. I’m here to tell you, it’s okay, bread flour works really well on its own. Also, here’s the deal, there are multiple types of “00” flour. So you need to be extra careful. You’re looking for “00” pizza flour. Not the “00” for pasta. All the “00” flours are ground powder-fine, but you want one specifically for pizza. I include instructions below if you want to experiment in “00” world.
• Unbleached All-Purpose Flour: You can make really good pizza dough with all-purpose flour. In fact, the pizza dough recipe in my 1984 edition of Chez Panisse: Pasta, Pizza, and Calzone calls for unbleached all-purpose flour. You’ll likely prefer results when using a flour with higher protein content – bread flour, and/or “00” pizza flour – but there are still a lot of APF fans out there.