Making a meatball pizza is not quite as simple as just putting meatballs on a crust and calling it a day. But, it is still pretty simple when done right.

The perfect blend of two Italian-American staples, a meatball pizza is easy to put together and creates an incredibly comforting dish.

Here is a quick rundown for creating this delicious dish:

Start with the sauce

While the meatball may be the main draw, a solid sauce is still a must for any pizza. Start with a classic tomato-based sauce, however, you can add some of your meatball mixture leftovers to the sauce. This mixture will help give the predominantly tomato-tasting sauce more of a meat flavour – perfect for meatballs.

You can enhance the sauce flavour with other typical sauce ingredients such as minced garlic, pepper flakes, and oregano.

Meatball art

Depending on your tastes, you can either make large meatballs and slice them before placing on the pizza, or you could make smaller meatballs so that entire balls can be enjoyed with every bite. Larger meatballs can offer a more tender and traditional taste one might expect from meatballs, however, the small sizes can still be moist, especially if you let them simmer in the sauce before you bake them on the pizza.

Putting it all together

When you have the meatballs simmering in sauce, you can start stretching out the dough and adding the first layer of sauce. It is OK to go a little more heavy on sauce with a meatball pizza. Next, you will want to add some mozzarella (shredded is best) before adding your meatballs. Make sure to spread them out evenly. You can drizzle some olive oil, or add salt and basil leaves for flavour, too.

Meatball pizzas cook rather quickly, with the meatballs sinking ever so slightly into the layers of sauce and cheese.

This post was written by Shan Bakrac, owner of Top Slice Pizzeria. Top Slice Pizzeria is the best slice of St Pete pizza with over 35 years of experience, and the best ingredients on the market to make the freshest pizza! If you’re in the Downtown St. Pete area come on in, place an order for pickup or find us on Uber EATS!