This easy, no-crust pizza bowl recipe is oh-so-cheesy comfort food ready in under 20 minutes! Add all your favorite pizza toppings to a bowl, top with cheese and bake until melted perfection. Served with a spoon or a slice of garlic bread, they are guaranteed to be a hit!
Why You’ll Love This Pizza Bowl Recipe
They’re like mini pizzas baked in ramekins with all the flavors and toppings you crave without the crust! Here’s why you’ll love them:
- Comforting: Browned Italian sausage, pepperoni and earthy mushrooms are added to a homemade marinara sauce as the pizza bowl base. Topped with gooey mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese, each bite is better than the last!
- Quick and Easy: This pizza bowl recipe is ready in under 20 minutes and couldn’t be any easier! Just add everything to a bowl and pop it into the oven until hot and melted.
- No Crust: Whether you’re trying to limit carbs or don’t eat gluten, making a pizza bowl solves that problem!
- Customizable: Pineapple? Onions? Black Olives? You can add them all! Line up a pizza topping bar and everyone can create their own pizza bowl creation!
If you love pizza as much as we do, try our easy pizza casserole, buttery cast iron pizza and these pepperoni pizza bombs!
What You’ll Need
When it comes to crustless pizzas, it doesn’t get much simpler than this! Scroll down to the recipe card for exact amounts.
- Butter
- Veggies: We opted for sautéed mushrooms for our pizza bowls, but you can use any veggies you’d like!
- Meats: Keeping things traditional, we used ground Italian sausage and pepperoni slices.
- Cheese: Freshly shredded mozzarella cheese is our top choice for any of our homemade pizza recipes! We also love a little bit of grated parmesan as well.
- Marinara Sauce: We use our own homemade marinara sauce (it takes less than 30 minutes!), but store-bought marinara or pizza sauce works too!
- Red Pepper Flakes: For a little kick!
Optional Add-Ins:
Make your pizza bowl perfect for you with all your favorite toppings added in!
- Green Bell Peppers
- Onion
- Pineapple
- Ham
- Black Olives
How to Make Pizza Bowls
Making this pizza bowl recipe is fun and a great way to get the kids involved. Nothing complicated at all and it’s so fun to watch that gooey cheese bubble up as they bake! Scroll to the recipe card at bottom of the post for full detailed instructions.
- Prep: Heat your oven to 350°F and spray four 8-oz ramekins with cooking spray. You can also use a small 1.5-quart casserole dish if you don’t want to make individual portions.
- Sauté: Melt the butter in a skillet and sauté the mushrooms, remove them from the pan. Add the sausage and brown it, breaking it up as it cooks, until it’s no longer pink. Remove from the heat.
- Layer: Divide the marinara sauce between the ramekins in an even layer. Top with the cooked mushrooms, cooked sausage, and mozzarella cheese. Place 3-4 pepperoni slices on top of each for a perfect little pizza bowl!
- Bake: Place ramekins on a cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes, until the cheese is bubbly and totally melted. Top with parmesan and red pepper flakes and serve!
Tips for Best Results
Here are a few tips to make sure your pizza bowls turn out perfect!
- Use Oven-Safe Ramekins: Ramekins are small ceramic or glass dishes that are oven safe bowls perfect for baking individual portions of food. If you don’t have ramekins, you can always use a small casserole dish.
- Pre-Cook the Fillings: To avoid a soggy pizza bowl, make sure you pre-cook the meat and veggies that’ll go inside. This will help drain any excess grease and moisture.
- Don’t Overfill: It’s tempting to load up this pizza bowl recipe with as much as possible. But try not to overfill the ramekins! If you do, all that delicious cheese will spill over.
- Enjoy Hot: Even though we love a slice of cold pizza, cold pizza bowls aren’t ideal. Make sure you enjoy them hot and fresh out of the oven!
- Air Fryer: Don’t want to heat up the oven? Pop these pizza bowls into the air fryer at 365°F for about 7 minutes, until melted and bubbly!
What to Serve With Your Pizza Bowl
We love serving our pizza bowls with some garlic bread, soft breadsticks, or even crackers! Sometimes, we just can’t help but dig in with a spoon!
A side salad would be another great addition to pizza night! Make it as simple or fun as you’d like. Some of our favorites are this shaved brussels sprouts salad, an easy wilted lettuce salad or a refreshing cucumber tomato salad.
How to Store and Reheat Leftovers
Crustless pizza bowls are best served fresh. However, you can store the leftovers if needed!
- Fridge: Store leftover pizza bowls in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. (Or cover the top of the ramekin with plastic wrap.)
- Reheat: To reheat, you can use the microwave or heat them back up in the oven.
- Freeze: We do not recommend freezing this recipe.
Can You Make Pizza Bowls Ahead?
This is an awesome make ahead dinner! Assemble the pizza bowls, but do not bake. Instead, cover with plastic wrap or foil and store them in the fridge for up to two days.
When ready to serve, remove from the fridge 30 minutes before baking. Remove the plastic wrap or foil and bake as directed!
More 30 Minute Dinner Recipes
- Easy Beef and Broccoli
- Chicken and Dumplings
- Smothered Cube Steak
- Grilled Margherita Pizza
- Easy Skillet Chicken and Gravy
- Cheesy Taco Pasta
Pizza Bowl
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 cups sliced mushrooms
- 1 lb ground Italian sausage
- 2 cups marinara sauce
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella
- 15 pepperoni slices
- 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Optional Add-ins:
- Diced red or green bell pepper
- Diced onion
- Diced pineapple
- Diced ham
- Sliced black olives
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 350°F and spray four 8-oz ramekins (or a small 1.5-quart casserole dish) with cooking spray. Set aside.
- Melt the butter in a medium sized sauté pan and cook the mushrooms for 4 minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside.
- Cook the sausage, breaking it apart as it cooks, until cooked through and no longer pink. Remove from the pan and set aside.
- Divide the marinara sauce between the ramekins. Top with mushrooms, sausage, and mozzarella cheese. Place 3 to 4 pepperoni slices on the top of each ramekin.
- Place the ramekins on a cookie sheet and place in the oven. Bake for 10 minutes, until bubbly and the cheese has melted.
- Top with parmesan cheese and red pepper flakes and serve!
