Pepperoni Lover’s French Bread Pizza

By Dawn Perry

Updated June 6, 2024

Pepperoni Lover’s French Bread Pizza
Ryan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.
Total Time
20 minutes, plus 5 minutes’ cooling
Rating
4(494)
Notes
Read community notes

An easy no-cook sauce works as a tangy base for pizzas of all kinds. Draining the tomatoes before seasoning ensures the sauce won’t create any soggy bottoms, no matter what type of crust you build your pizza on. Use an equal amount of crushed or whole peeled tomatoes instead of diced if that’s what you have on hand. Just use your hands to break whole tomatoes up a bit (and drain off any additional liquid). The sauce will keep, tightly covered in the refrigerator, for about 5 days. But feel free to use your favorite jarred marinara in its place. Leftover pizza reheats beautifully in a 350-degree oven until warmed through.

Featured in: The Secret to Easy Homemade Pizza

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Ingredients

Yield:4 servings

    For the Sauce

    • 1(14-ounce) can petite diced tomatoes, drained
    • 1garlic clove, grated
    • ½teaspoon kosher salt (Diamond Crystal)
    • ½teaspoon dried oregano
    • 1tablespoon olive oil
    • A few grinds of black pepper

    For the Pizza

    • ¼cup olive oil
    • 2garlic cloves, grated
    • 1loaf soft French bread, split lengthwise, insides mostly dug out
    • 4ounces mozzarella, low-moisture and part-skim, or fresh (drained and patted dry, if necessary), grated or torn (about 1 cup)
    • 2tablespoons grated Parmesan, plus more for serving
    • 2ounces sliced pepperoni, quartered (about ½ cup)
    • Red-pepper flakes or dried oregano, or both, for serving
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)

624 calories; 39 grams fat; 12 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 21 grams monounsaturated fat; 4 grams polyunsaturated fat; 46 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 7 grams sugars; 23 grams protein; 1204 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Make the sauce: Heat the oven to 450 degrees with a rack in the middle position. Combine tomatoes, garlic, salt, oregano, olive oil and black pepper in a medium bowl, and stir to combine. Set aside until ready to use.

  2. Step 2

    Prepare the pizza: Combine the ¼ cup olive oil and garlic in a small pot over medium heat. Cook, swirling occasionally, until the garlic starts to sizzle, but doesn’t brown, about 2 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat.

  3. Step 3

    Place the French bread cut side up on a baking sheet. Brush cut sides with garlic oil. Bake until edges are golden, 5 to 7 minutes.

  4. Step 4

    Toss together the mozzarella, Parmesan and pepperoni in a medium bowl. Divide tomato sauce between the two bread halves all the way to the edges and top with pepperoni and cheese.

  5. Step 5

    Return to the oven and bake until melted, about 5 minutes. Increase heat to broil and broil (watch carefully!) until the cheese is bubbly and browned in spots, 1 to 2 minutes more. Let cool 5 minutes before slicing and serving. Serve topped with more Parmesan, red-pepper flakes and oregano, if you like.

Ratings

4 out of 5
494 user ratings
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Cooking Notes

Marcolius

This works well with ciabatta, too. (Not surprising.) Very thinly sliced tomatoes, salted and drained, are a good substitute for sauce.

Dave from Brooklyn

Fun recipe. My wife loved it. I messed up the instructions about mixing the cheese and pepperoni before adding to the toasted bread. Still turned out well but next time I’ll mix them together. It allows the cheese to be more exposed to the broiler and melt more thoroughly.

Mark

Interesting subject. When I was in college there was a pizzeria nearby (Milwaukee) to where I lived. They made what amounted to a french bread pizza, but they called it Garlic Bread Pizza because they built the pizzas on top of their garlic bread (made on french bread). They were great. I have been making them this way to this day, 42 years later.

Jon

I use an old fashioned potato masher on the tomatoes. Works and fits well in the can too

Sandy K

I grew up eating this, but we took out most of the crumb and then stuffed it with our "classic" 1960's-70's ingredients: Pizza sauce, cooked ground beef, olives and american cheese. I have been making different riffs on this idea for many years!

MikeInEdgewater

If you can’t find French bread, avoid baguettes, they’re too thin and crusty. French bread is denser and ~3.5” thick. A long form ciabatta worked for us. Just don’t toast as much and there’s no need to scoop it out, plant of bubbles for sauce to work its way in. After we drained the tomatoes, we added tomato paste for some richness, dried basil too. Garlic oil “waterproofed” the bread from the sauce. We also tried meatballs and red onion which were great. Went with convect 450° instead of bake.

Monnatick

I used to buy these frozen by Stouffer's! always loved them. Want some right now!

Mary White

Don’t use your hands to break up and drain the tomatoes. Their acid is very hard on skin. Instead use a wooden spoon and a sharp knife.

CJ

Works well with baguette, ciabatta, foccaccia (can use English muffins, home-bake). Very thinly sliced tomatoes (salted and drained) instead of pizza sauce. Mushrooms. Anchovies. Petite diced tomatoes. Layer scant EVOO, then cheese, then tomatoes (less soggy). Veggies (meat). Red peppers. Penzey's pizza sprinkle. Top with arugula. Experiment!

Joanne

Made this pizza with ciabatta. It was delicious! My grandson said it was the best pizza he ever had.

Louise

I doubled the amount of sauce and topping ingredients because the original recipe wasn’t enough to cover the long French loaf I bought. It also took longer to bake than the directions stated.

Susan from Parker

Question: so the sauce is not cooked before assembling the loaves? I made this a few weeks ago and didn't cook the sauce. It was good, but I wanted to be sure I was clear about the sauce. Making this for the Super Bowl on Sunday. Go Chiefs!

Jenny

I doubled the recipe and added tomato paste as others suggested. I used Trader Joe's ciabatta baguettes. Since I'm vegetarian, I used Field Roast's pepperoni (plant-based). I also added black olives. Everyone in my family (carnivore plant-based) really enjoyed it!.

Sherry

Family loved this! Used Sami’s bakery pizza crust. Do sauce just like this recipe- 1 whole jar diced tomatoes. Turkey pepperoni from Applegate farms. Half bag per pizza. Baked closer to 35-40 minutes, not 20. Used entire Mykonos vegan mozzarella. On bare crust rub garlic and olive oil all over prior to sauce/toppings

Sherry

Family loved this! Used Sami’s bakery pizza crust & Mykonos vegan mozzarella. On bare crust rub olive oil and garlic. Use 1 full jar diced tomatoes & do sauce exactly as it states. Baked at 375 for around 35 minutes.

Claudia

This was a great quick and easy way to make pizza! It tastes great too! The store was out of French bread so I used Italian bread and it worked out well.

CJ

I used a frozen Pepperidge Farm garlic bread as my base. Didn’t dig it out but followed recipe exactly otherwise so it’s more “piled up.” It was absolutely amazing. My son even took a leftover slice to work. Wow!

AdmoCook

This was good in a fast-food kind of way. The technique worked fine but the tomato sauce was a bit bland IMO. Next time I’ll make a more traditional cooked pizza sauce to add some punch!

Theresa

I have made this several times all to good effect….i use ciabatta for the bread and I do pull out some of the bread. It works very well. There was a restaurant in downtown berkeley in the 70’s called Giovanni’s that served a French bread pizza and this is so close to their rendition. Love it!

Theresa

Made this last night for my adult children and their families, 4 children, 7 years old and under. It was a huge success. I use ciabatta as some others here have mentioned. This recipe (or method) is highly adaptable. I made variations with pesto, Alfredo and marinara sauces, and various toppings. All were good. When I was in college at UC Berkeley in the early 70’s there was an Italian restaurant called Giovanni’s that served this kind of pizza on French bread. Loved it!

Third in Line Sous Chef

Ah, I wasn't taken with it. A lot of bread, so what.

Deb Grosner

Made this for the family for a ski weekend - super easy & quick, and a great ski lunch!

Beatepdx

Fantastic! Quick - easy - delicious and the entire family loves it. Due to dietary issues we use Jarlsberg & Parmigiano. It works great! Thank you.

Jon W

I tried this with high hopes for a quick dinner but found it remarkably bland.

Jon

The sauce isn't great, next time I'll just use a pre made

Samantha

Made this last night. I used a can of crushed tomatoes and instead of making garlic oil, I had a bottle of parmesan garlic oil. Also, instead of soft French loaves I used two take and bake French bread loaves that I heated per the instructions. It was super easy and was a hit with my family.

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