What does Caprese mean in cooking?

Caprese is traditionally a salad made with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil along with olive oil. In this Caprese pizza recipe, we take all those traditional flavors and add them to a crispy pizza crust for a handheld dinner or appetizer your family will love!

What is the difference between bruschetta and Caprese?

Caprese salad is usually made with tomato, basil, and mozzarella whereas homemade bruschetta is typically grilled bread topped with a marinated tomato mixture which also contains fresh basil and olive oil. They have similar flavors but are very different dishes.

How do you eat Caprese?

Traditional Caprese is served as a salad and eaten with a fork, but this Caprese pizza takes all those classic flavors of tomato, mozzarella, and basil and piles them onto a pizza crust for a new twist on an old classic!

Easy Three Cheese Caprese Pizza

Caprese Pizza

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5 from 1 review

This quick and easy three-cheese Caprese pizza comes together in less than 30 minutes for a fresh, fun dinner that your family will love! Switch up pizza night at your house this week and try something new that's filled with the timeless flavors of tomato and mozzarella!

Author: Kylie
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes
Yield: 8 servings 1x
Category: Main Dish
Method: Oven
Cuisine: Italian
Diet: Vegetarian

Ingredients

Units Scale

1 lb. pizza dough (or 1/2 my no knead pizza dough recipe)
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 cup my easy homemade pesto (store bought works too)
4 oz. (about 1 cup) shredded whole milk mozzarella
2 Roma tomatoes, sliced into 1/4" thick slices
3/4 cup Lifeway Foods Farmer Cheese (or ricotta cheese)
4 oz. fresh mozzarella cheese
Kosher salt
fresh cracked pepper

Garnish

fresh basil
olive oil
balsamic glaze

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Instructions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
Gently press dough into a circle and slap it back and forth between your hands to create a 14-inch crust. Transfer to a pizza pan. Poke crust all over with a fork.
Brush the entire crust with olive oil and sprinkle with dried oregano.
Par-bake crust for 3-5 minutes.
Remove from oven and spread pesto across the crust, leaving about an inch around the perimeter.
Spread shredded cheese evenly across the pizza. Add sliced tomato in a single layer across the cheese. Dollop farmer cheese across the pizza. Add fresh mozzarella.
Brush the crust with more olive oil.
Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is melted. Broil for a couple minutes if desired to get the crust dark golden brown.
Add a few pinches of Kosher salt, a pinch of black pepper, fresh basil, a drizzle of olive oil, and a drizzle of balsamic glaze, and enjoy!

pizza pan

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Notes

The way this recipe is written, it will make a 14" hand tossed style pizza. If you prefer a thinner crust feel free to use less dough or stretch the pizza into a larger circle! Just keep in mind that you'll likely need to reduce the amount of toppings as well or you may end up with a soggy pie. See my tips below on how to combat that though!
I love to use this pizza pan whenever I make pizzas at home because the holes in the bottom allow the pizza to crust through evenly and get a little more crispy. If you don't have a pizza pan you can use a baking sheet or cast iron skillet. Feel free to add a piece of parchment paper to your pizza pan or baking sheet to make for easy clean up!
Feel free to switch up the cheeses on this pizza! I love the trio of farmer cheese, fresh mozzarella, and shredded mozzarella but grated Parmesan, shredded Monterey Jack, or even provolone would be delicious too!

Nutrition

Serving Size:
Calories: 273
Sugar: 1.6 g
Sodium: 596.5 mg
Fat: 16.8 g
Saturated Fat: 6.6 g
Carbohydrates: 17.9 g
Fiber: 0.8 g
Protein: 12 g
Cholesterol: 31.1 mg

Caprese Pizza

Ingredients

Instructions

Equipment

Notes

Nutrition