Want something even easier than homemade pizza and just as fun? Make pizzawiches! These pizza sandwiches, kinda like a homemade pizza pocket, come together quickly and are freezer-friendly.
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Hungry for pizza, but don’t want to pay for a pie or fuss with making a dough? Pizzawiches are where it’s at!
Super versatile, freezer friendly, and an overall crowd-pleaser, pizza wiches are like pizza in a sandwich — so good, and so easy to make.
And did I mention you can make them with just three ingredients?!
Why Make This Pizzawich Recipe
It’s delicious! I promise you, the whole family will love this. My mom used to make a similar recipe for our family of 7 and no one complained. Serve these pizza sandwiches as a main with a green salad or veggie dippers on the side for an easy, weeknight meal.
They’re freezer-friendly. If you load up on a Costco-size bag of rolls, you can make a huge batch of these easy pizzawiches in less than an hour. They freeze beautifully and are prefect for reheating in the oven or slow cooker. Prep a big batch and freeze for quick and easy lunches and suppers throughout the coming month.
Pizzawiches are easy to make. When you crave pizza, but want something quick and simple, this recipe comes in clutch. These are so great to serve with game night snacks.
Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need to make a batch of Pizzawiches:
rolls – you can use commercial or homemade Italian sub rolls as well as small sandwich rolls, club rolls, or kaiser rolls.
mozzarella cheese – Shredded mozz is ideal but you can also use shredded cheddar, jack, or a mix of cheeses. Remember you can freeze cheese you won’t use right away.
pizza or marinara sauce – While the retro 70s version of this recipe calls for canned tomato soup, this one gets elevated with real marinara.
optional meat – I like to keep these simple like the perfect cheese pizza, but my boys love them with meat, such as cooked and crumbled sausage or sliced pepperoni added to the mix. Some retro versions of the recipe include cooked ground beef.
Variations
This type of sandwich is perfect for shopping your kitchen! Swap out the marinara for another type of sauce like BBQ or pesto. Use whatever cheese you have on hand. Stir in cooked meat or veg to make it more.
Instructions
Here’s how to make these simple pizza sandwiches:
- Slice the rolls in half, leaving a hinge. Scoop out insides, leaving a shell. Crumble the removed bits into a large bowl
- Add the cheese, pasta sauce, and meat if using, to the bowl. Mix to combine.
- Fill the rolls with the mixture. Wrap the closed rolls in foil and bake as directed below or place the wrapped rolls in freezer bags and freeze.
- To serve: bake in a 350 oven for 30 minutes or until the filling is hot.
- Alternatively, you can place the wrapped sandwiches in a slow cooker on LOW for 2 to 3 hours, turning once.
More Pizza Style Recipes
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Pizzawiches
Ingredients
- 9 Italian sub rolls or 18 small sandwich or club rolls
- 16 oz mozzarella cheese (shredded) can also use cheddar, jack, or a mix
- 2 cup marinara sauce
Optional mix-ins
- ½ 5-ounce package pepperoni (sliced)
- ½ lb bulk Italian sausage cooked and crumbed
Instructions
- Slice the rolls in half, leaving a hinge. Scoop out insides, leaving a shell. Crumble the removed bits into a large bowl9 Italian sub rolls
- Add the cheese, pasta sauce, pepperoni, and sausage to the bowl. Mix to combine.16 oz mozzarella cheese (shredded), 2 cup marinara sauce, ½ 5-ounce package pepperoni (sliced), ½ lb bulk Italian sausage
- Fill the rolls with the mixture. Wrap the closed rolls in foil and bake as directed below or place the wrapped rolls in freezer bags and freeze.
- To serve: bake in a 350 oven for 30 minutes or until the filling is hot. ALternatively, you can place the wrapped sandwiches in a slow cooker on LOW for 2 to 3 hours, turning once.
Notes
Nutrition
This post was originally published on April 30, 2015. It has been updated for content and clarity.These are like pizza in a sandwich, so good, and so easy to make.
gloria glass
love your site, just happened to come across it today Have been trying to figure out what to do for lunches now that the kiddos are home or summer. With 7 of my own at home and the 3 I babysit for…HELP and I need to be as frugal as possible and meet healthy guidelines. can’t wait to try the pizza sandwiches and burritos. I think they’ll love them and my freezer can be full for a little while
Penny Kennedy
Greetings from Canada. I have two hungry teenagers to feed and stumbled across your website 2 days ago. Ordered your cookbook and made a huge batch of burritos yesterday. My boys and husband loved them. Thanks for the inspiration and great info on freezing.
Quick question. When heating these rolls in the slow cooker, can you layer a bunch of them. My boys will go through 3 or 4 each per serving I’m sure.
Jessica Fisher
My crockpot was big enough to reheat eight of them. Keep it at about 4 hours on low. We had some that got a little soft on the inside edge, what wasn’t touching the outside of the crock.
shawna
Did you ever try reheating in the crock pot? I’m looking for freezer lunches for the summer break that won’t overheat the house. Would LOVE if we could do these in the slow cooker!
Jessica Fisher
I reheated a different kind of sandwich in the crockpot, and another reader did these. Between us we found that the outside edge gets crispy and the inner side (not touching the crock) gets a little soft. She moved hers around halfway through and said they were perfect. 🙂 It’s a win!
shawna
Great! Just the answer I was hoping for! 🙂 how long should I pop them in?
Jessica Fisher
Four hours was long enough for me.
shawna
Thanks! You’re the best! Thanks for keeping my family’s tummies happy! 🙂
Stephanie @ Stephanie's az kitchen
Love this idea! Making it for the freezer to pull out for busy nights 🙂
Lee
We like to toast these open faced. Yum!
Jessica Fisher
Do you do the same thing with the inside bread? Or do you make a pizza on a roll?
Lee
I obviously didn’t read the directions very well. ? basically pizza on a roll 🙂
sarah k @ the pajama chef
i definitely want to try these!
Tammy
Here in West Virginia, we these are called pizza breads. A local pizza place is famous for them. WV is also the home of the pepperoni roll. 🙂
Jessica Fisher
I had no idea! What’s a pepperoni roll?
MarshaJ
Native West Virginian checking in. Pepperoni rolls were created to give coal miners an easy hand-held lunch that required no refrigeration on long work shifts. Strips of pepperoni were wrapped up in dough and baked. I guess you could call them the original hot pockets!
I have a recipe on my blog that explains how to make WV pepperoni rolls. http://www.tasteandseegodsgoodness.blogspot.com/2011/02/west-virginia-pepperoni-rolls.html
Jessica Fisher
Thanks!
Arthur LeVesque | Rub It On Your Meat
Wow those look delicious! I have had the urge to make pizza croissant’s for the last couple weeks but keep putting it off. I usually make my sauce from scratch so it becomes a bit of an endeavor for me and I always end up with a ton of leftover sauce. However, I never thought of using it in sandwich rolls like this! How awesome, can’t wait to try it out and thanks for the post!
Jessica Fisher
Freeze that leftover sauce. It will do just fine after thawing.