Caprese pizza is an easy dinner ready in 30 minutes. Made with homemade basil oil, tomatoes and mozzarella, this pizza is a crowd pleaser. Watch the video for a complete tutorial.
Pizzas and flatbread are the perfect weeknight dinner. We love our Mediterranean pizza, flatbread pizza and Meatball sub pizza, they are super easy recipes that are perfect for a quick dinner. This caprese pizza recipe we have today is one of the easiest dinner recipes out there. You just need a few ingredients and in just about 30 minutes, you can have a pizza on the table that with every bite, it would take you to Italy!
Table Of Contents:
Caprese - The Perfect Combination
Basil, mozzarella and tomato is a classic Italian combination first presented in the form of caprese salad aka insalata caprese. This classic Italian combination can be added to many recipes such as caprese pasta salad, caprese sandwich and caprese stuffed chicken breast.
The flavor of caprese is hard to beat, you have creamy mozzarella with juicy sweet tomatoes and a kick from fresh basil. With some balsamic vinegar, it's the perfect combination.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
If you love caprese salad or caprese skewers, you're going to love today's recipe. This vegetarian pizza is another take on the classic Italian combination and there are a few reasons why it's worth trying:
- Simple ingredients: It's made with a few ingredients and even though it's such as simple recipe, it's very delicious and easily becomes a family favorite.
- Quick: We love this recipe for a quick weeknight dinner or as an appetizer for a party or gathering.
- All the flavors: A slice of this pizza has a lot of flavor thanks to the homemade basil oil and fresh tomatoes.
Ingredients
- Pizza dough - To make this recipe, you can use homemade or store-bought dough.
- Basil oil: You can use my homemade basil oil recipe or simply use pesto.
- Tomatoes - I prefer large tomatoes for this pizza, but you can really use any kind including grape tomatoes.
- Fresh mozzarella - It's best to use sliced mozzarella but shredded works just fine.
- Balsamic glaze: Optional but it adds a lot of flavor. You can use homemade balsamic glaze or store-bought.
How To Make Caprese Pizza
- Preheat the oven to 450ºF. Coat the pizza pan with a nonstick cooking spray or olive oil.
- Roll out the pizza dough on your pizza pan.
- Brush the pizza dough generously with basil oil.
- Top the pizza with tomato and mozzarella slices.
- Bake in the oven for 16-18 minutes.
- Sprinkle some salt if need and drizzle with homemade balsamic glaze.
Variations
You can always add more ingredients to this pizza. Some of our favorite additions are:
- Grilled chicken: You can add some previously grilled chicken to this pizza to make it a complete meal.
- Base: To make caprese naan pizza, use store-bought naan instead of the pizza dough. The cooking time will be about 12-14 minutes. You can also use flatbread to make pizza at home.
- Veggies: Red bell pepper or red onion would be a great addition to this pizza.
- Sun dried tomatoes: Caprese pizza with sun dried tomatoes would be perfect especially in a season when tomatoes are not in peak.
- Heirloom tomatoes: If you're making this classic pizza in summer, visit your local farmers market and get some of those colorful heirloom tomatoes, they will make this pizza very pretty!
- Roasted tomatoes: For some intense and sweet flavor, roast the tomatoes beforehand and then use them to make this recipe. You can check out our tutorial on how to make roasted tomatoes.
Serving suggestions
This pizza is a complete meal on its own and is perfect for a weeknight dinner. You can serve it with a side of Mediterranean salad, garlic knots or rosemary garlic monkey bread.
Frequently Asked Questions
Wrap each leftover slice in a plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 3 days. To reheat, place the pizza on the pizza pan and heat in the oven at 300ºF for 15 minutes or until heated through.
It's best to serve pizza fresh therefore I don't suggest making it ahead of time.
Yes, if you're not a fan of balsamic glaze, you can simply leave it out.
More Pizza Recipes
Did you make this recipe? I'd love to hear about it! Please comment and leave a 5-star🌟 rating below. You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest or subscribe to our newsletter to get a free e-Cookbook!
Step-by-Step Recipe
Best Caprese Pizza Recipe (Video)
Ingredients
- 1 lb pizza dough store bought or homemade (see notes)
- ¼ cup Basil oil see notes
- 2 large tomatoes sliced
- 8 oz mozzarella sliced or shredded
- 2 tablespoon balsamic glaze
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450°F. Coat the pizza pan with olive oil or nonstick cooking spray.
- Roll out the pizza dough and place it on the pizza pan. Brush the dough with basil oil.
- Top the dough with tomato and mozzarella slices.
- Bake in the oven for 15-18 minutes until the dough is cooked and the cheese is melted.
- Drizzle some balsamic glaze on the pizza, slice and serve immediately.
Video
Notes
- If using refrigerated pizza dough, bring it to room temperature before rolling it out.
- Use this recipe to make homemade basil oil. You can also use pesto.
- You can add grilled chicken to this pizza to make it a complete meal.
Liz
You had me at caprese! I'm always looking for new pizzas to try and we loved this one! So yummy
Ashley
We love caprese pizza. This recipe has the perfect ratio of ingredients and comes out great every time.
Elizabeth
This is one of our family favourite pizzas. I like to drizzle mine with a little chilli oil before serving though, for that extra kick!
Toni
This is so tasty and so easy to make! Perfect for dinner any night of the week!
Pam
We love this flavor combination as well, and your timing is perfect because we have a ton of tomatoes coming in the garden right now!
Jacque Hastert
This looks like the perfect addition to our Thursday night menu! We have pizza nights on most Thursdays and this one looks perfect to add this week. Thank you for sharing and I can't wait to come back and let you know how it turned out.
Gina
The simplest of ingredients but the absolute BEST pizza there is! Love the thin crust and fresh ripe tomatoes on this!
Natalie
Oh I'm definitely making this for my family. Looks delicious and so easy to make. My family will love this I'm sure.
Shadi HasanzadeNemati
Thank you Natalie!
Anita
This is such a classic pizza flavor, and it's also one of the easiest and tastiest too. 🙂
Tatiana
Omg, your photos look so yummy they got me wanting to try it right now! I love pizza, but never thought about making a caprese one, great idea!
Shadi HasanzadeNemati
Thank you Tatiana! Caprese pizza is so good for pizza Friday!
Dannii
Oh that looks perfect. Great for movie night.
Suzy
This is the best pizza ever! The flavors are so good and it's so easy to make! We love it!