Need pizza topping inspiration? The best pizza topping ideas start with fresh, bold, and flavor-packed ingredients. Mix a few together and you can create your own signature pizza combinations.
When you pair a good homemade pizza dough with fresh and tasty pizza toppings, pizza night becomes exciting. The key is to use ingredients that are full of flavor and cook quickly so they melt or bake fast on the pizza. Another important tip is not to overload your pizza. Choose your toppings carefully so every ingredient has space to shine.
In this post, you’ll find many favorite pizza topping ideas. They are organized into sauces, cheese, vegetable toppings, finishing flavors, and a long list of favorite pizza topping combinations collected over years of pizza making. Enjoy exploring them! And it’s a great idea to keep a pizza journal so you can remember your best topping combinations.
The Cheeses
Along with the sauce, cheese is one of the most important pizza toppings, so it needs to be chosen well. I avoid pre-shredded cheese because it often contains anti-caking agents and mold inhibitors. Cheese should simply be cheese. My favorites are torn pieces of fresh mozzarella, small dollops of ricotta, and freshly grated Parmesan or pecorino for the best flavor. Sometimes I also add spoonfuls of Greek yogurt around the top of the pizza, which bakes nicely. Crumbled feta adds a salty touch, and hand-grated gruyere gives that rich, gooey melt with lots of flavor.
The Foundation: Good Pizza Sauce
After a good, reliable pizza dough, the sauce is the next base you need to get right before adding your pizza toppings.
Tomato Sauce: This simple tomato sauce is a favorite and works well on many red pizzas. A helpful tip is to make it ahead of time because it stays good in the fridge for up to a week. When you assemble your pizza, make sure the sauce is at room temperature or cooler. If it’s hot, the dough can stick.
Pesto: Pesto pizza is always popular, and this pesto is my go-to. It’s made with hand-chopped basil, garlic, Parmesan, olive oil, and pine nuts. It’s an authentic recipe shared with me by my friend Francesca’s mother from Genoa, Italy, and it’s perfect as a pesto pizza base.
Mushroom Ragù: This mushroom ragù is great if you love mushroom pizza. Spread it on the dough and top with roasted sliced mushrooms, dollops of ricotta, a little rosemary, and a drizzle of chile oil at the end for an excellent result.
Zucchini Butter: Zucchini butter also works as a fantastic pizza sauce. Spread it over the dough like any other sauce, bake your pizza, and enjoy.
Vegetable Pizza Toppings
There are many creative ways to make vegetable pizzas. Sometimes I pre-cook vegetables like artichokes, and other times I add them raw. Good options include fresh corn, thin asparagus, roasted cherry tomatoes, peas, baked mushrooms, caramelized onions, olives, fava beans, citrus zests, grilled or pan-blistered artichokes, sautéed thin potato slices, broccoli florets, and cauliflower florets.
One favorite example is a grilled pizza with mozzarella, fresh corn, quick pickled serrano chiles, and pine nuts, finished with chive flowers.
Finishing Flavor
This is where good pizza topping ideas become great. Final drizzles and sprinkles act like punctuation for your pizza. My favorite finishing touches are lemon olive oil, tangerine olive oil, makrut lime oil, chives and chive flowers, and hot honey. Other great options include:
- Za’atar: Adds a fresh and fragrant flavor, perfect for white pizza.
- Fresh basil: A classic choice. I also love adding a big handful of arugula.
- Herbs: Fresh oregano, thyme, basil, minced chives, or lemon verbena.
- Flavored olive oil: There are many options available now, so try different ones.
- Kale chips: Easy to make and best added after baking.
- Pickled serrano chiles: Keep these ready. Slice 8 or more serrano chiles thinly and place them in 2 cups of white vinegar in a jar. Use the chiles within one or two weeks. The vinegar can still be used later on pizza, in dressings, lettuce wraps, or rice bowls.
- Citrus zests: Lemon, orange, tangerine, or lime.
- Chili crisp: Keep a jar on the table so everyone can add as much as they like. Hot honey works the same way.
Favorite Classic Pizza Combinations
Margherita: Simple tomato sauce, good mozzarella, fresh basil after baking, and a drizzle of olive oil.
White pizza: Try the corn pizza mentioned earlier, or use garlic oil with mushrooms and finish with fresh herbs.
Artichoke pizza: Use olive oil or pesto, sautéed artichoke hearts, mozzarella or ricotta, and lemon zest. It also tastes great with zucchini butter instead of red sauce.
Pesto pizza: Pesto with ricotta, fava beans, lemon zest, and fresh arugula added after baking is always delicious.
Favorite Wildcard Pizza Topping Combinations
I keep a journal of pizza topping ideas that work well. Here are some recent favorites.
- Chile Crisp Potato Pizza: Made with chile crisp oil, thin blanched potato slices, ricotta, fava beans, and lemon zest. After baking, add lemon olive oil and lots of chopped chives.
- Chana Masala Pizza: We make this often. Start with tomato sauce mixed with caramelized onions and chana masala or garam masala. Add chickpeas and small dollops of low-fat yogurt. After baking, top with crushed nutritional yeast kale chips or fresh arugula and drizzle lemon or basil olive oil. It’s full of flavor.
- Cherry Tomato Kosho Pizza: Spread kosho or citrus garlic paste on the dough, then add cherry tomatoes, chickpeas, chives, and basil. Finish with tangerine or citrus olive oil after baking.
- Meyer Lemon Pizza: Inspired by a favorite pizza from Bettina in Santa Barbara. It has ricotta, pickled red onion, very thin slices of whole Meyer lemon, and pistachios.
- Paneer & Pea Pizza: Use turmeric-marinated paneer, scallions, chickpeas, sautéed artichokes, tomato sauce, peas, a little goat cheese, and serrano chiles. Add lots of chopped cilantro after baking.
- Garlic & Pineapple Pizza: Make a garlic paste with salt and olive oil and spread it on the dough. Add mozzarella, fresh pineapple, jalapeño slices, and black olives. After baking, finish with arugula or crushed kale chips and a drizzle of olive oil.
More Pizza Topping Ideas
There are many grilled pizza ideas that go beyond the classic margherita. Grilling pizza is especially helpful when the weather is hot and you don’t want to use the oven. Try different pizza topping combinations and have fun making pizza.
Pizza Topping Ideas
Classic pizza toppings are popular for a reason, but trying new ideas is always fun too. These are some of our favorite homemade pizza toppings, and you can find many more in the main post above.
If you’re still working on your pizza dough, that page shares everything I know about making a simple and delicious pizza dough. And if you want to try grilled pizza instead, I’ve also shared the method I like. Enjoy the process and have fun making pizza!
Prep Time: 30 mins
Cook Time: 10 mins
Servings: 1 Pizza
Ingredients
Margherita Pizza Toppings
- Mozzarella cheese
- Tomato sauce
- Fresh basil (after baking)
- Extra virgin olive oil (after baking)
Pesto Pizza Toppings
- Pan-blistered artichoke hearts
- Pesto
- Mozzarella cheese
- Lemon zest
- Basil, chives and/or herbs (after baking)
- Lemon olive oil (after baking)
Vegetarian Pizza Toppings
- Mushrooms
- Artichoke hearts
- Ricotta cheese
- Arugula (after baking)
- Basil (after baking)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 450°F
- Make one batch of pizza dough using this recipe, then get all your pizza toppings ready and arranged.
- Assemble each pizza with your chosen pizza toppings, starting with the sauce. Bake one pizza at a time until the crust turns golden brown.
- Take the pizza out of the oven and add your finishing toppings like fresh herbs, a drizzle of olive oil, or some grated cheese. Serve right away.