Make Pizza Night something to write home about with this easy recipe for Cheese Pizza with Homemade Sauce. Part of the secret is the blend of cheeses.
Homemade three cheese pizza recipe
Pizza night is a highlight of our week. Usually I spend late Friday afternoons assembling the makings of homemade pizza which I bake in the oven. We enjoy it with sides of Homemade Ranch Dressing and veggies or a ChiChi’s Italian Salad. Then after kitchen clean-up (or not), we watch a movie and enter into the weekend.
When I first tried my hand at homemade pizza, it was a terrible failure. I gave it a few tries and then gave up. But, my friend Jessika always served great homemade pizza that it inspired me to try it again. Twenty years later, it’s a regular on our menu.
Most of my crew prefers simple pepperoni pizza while the more mature ones in our family opt for The Jalapeño Burn or Burrito Pizza. Still others go for this amazingly good cheese pizza.
What cheese is best for pizza?
At first glance, cheese pizza can seem kind of boring. But, with a mix of cheeses — we like mozzarella and Monterey jack — and a homemade sauce, even the humble cheese pizza can be something special.
Ingredients for cheese pizza
- Basic pizza dough – you can use store bought or make your own basic pizza dough or make it a bit healthier and try my whole wheat pizza dough recipe.
- Pizza sauce – you can storebought but I really think it’s worth it to make your own homemade pizza sauce.
- Cheese – I love using a combination of mozzarella and monterey jack to make this pizza special.
Make your own sauce ahead of time
I usually have several pints or quarts of my crockpot red sauce ready to go in the freezer. It’s a multi-purpose sauce that works for pizza, lasagna, and pasta. But, when I want to make things a little extra special, I mix up a bulk batch of this homemade pizza sauce. It’s really quite delicious and MAKES the pizza. If I do say so myself. Freeze what you don’t use for next time.
Once you’ve got your sauce mixed up and a batch of homemade pizza dough, you’re ready to making a rocking cheese pizza. The idea for the mix of cheeses is one that the Pizza Man Jerry from ChiChi’s in Santa Clarita told me about. It makes a huge difference to the taste of the pizza. Love this!
How to make this homemade cheese pizza recipe
Pizza Night Ideas!
Of course a cheese pizza is really a great blank canvas to turn into all sorts of pizza variations. Here are a few pizza night ideas to get you started:
- The BEST Homemade Supreme Pizza Recipe
- BBQ Chicken Pizza with Bacon and Pineapple
- Tartiflette Pizza
- My Big Fat Greek Pizza Recipe
Can I reheat this cheese pizza?
You definitely can (if you actually have any leftovers!). I recommend reheating in a preheated 350°F oven for about 10 minutes. Keep an eye on it. Or in a skillet (no oil) over medium heat until golden brown. Again keep an eye on the crust so it doesn’t burn.
Whatever you do, don’t reheat in the microwave. It will create a rubbery crust.
Can you freeze pizza?
Absolutely! Let the pizza slices come to room temperature. Then wrap each slice in plastic wrap and then again in foil (or place in a plastic bag). You can then reheat the frozen slices, in your 350 preheated oven for about 15 minutes or so. No need to thaw.
How to make this good and cheap:
Here are some of the strategies you can use to make this recipe more economical:
- Stock up on ingredients when they are on sale. In this case, I focus on buying the cheeses at the best possible price and then I stock up when it is on sale. It’s one of my tips for saving money on your groceries.
- Shop Costco. Costco has the best price on shredded mozzarella. I buy the big five pound bag and divide it into smaller bags to store in the freezer.
Tools I use to make this cheese pizza recipe easy:
This is a pretty straight-forward dish. You don’t need any fancy equipment. However, having some good basic kitchen tools can really make your time in the kitchen more enjoyable. Over time, I’ve honed my collection so that they are perfect for my needs.
I actually have an arsenal of favorite pizza tools that make the Friday night pizza experience super quick and simple.
Here are the tools that I like to use in this recipe:
Easy Cheese Pizza with Homemade Pizza Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 batch pizza dough makes four medium sized pizzas or three large
- 2 cup pizza sauce
- 8 oz mozzarella cheese (shredded) (2 cups)
- 8 oz jack cheese (shredded) (2 cups)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 475°.
- Prepare dough according to recipe directions. Grease baking pans. Divide dough into three or four portions and stretch to fit into pan. (Yes, a video is coming.)
- Spread ½ to ⅔ cup of sauce onto each pizza round. Top with cheese.
- Bake 10 – 12 minutes or until crust is crisp and cheese is gooey and golden.
Nutrition
Updated April 1, 2017.
Summer
Just tried this a couple weeks ago and our whole family loves your pizza sauce! Definitely a keeper! Thanks.
Jennifer
Just HAD to drop a line and tell you that I. Cannot. Stop. Making. This. Amazing. Sauce!! We LOVE it and have eaten more pizza in the last few months than we have in the last few years, all due to the highly addictive sauce that rivals any gourmet pizza shop ANYWHERE. 🙂 We even had my parents over for a simple dinner of salad and pizza the other night and my mom cannot stop raving about how good the pizza was – even going as far as to say we should open a restaurant. So… thanks again for an amazing, easy, cheap recipe that continues to make me look good, my family and me happy and, as a huge bonus, that fits so nicely in our tight budget!
Jessica Fisher
Glad you like it! My friend Jessika blends it and uses it on pasta. 🙂
Jennifer Hoffman
For some reason when I make bread machine dough I have major issues spreading it out! Never have the problem with handmade dough. What am I doing wrong??
Jessica Fisher
I am not really sure. I have never noticed a big difference unless the dough is cold. Do you roll or hand form it?
Mary Jo @ Covenant Homemaking
This is so delicious and simple! I made it on a whole wheat sourdough crust. Yum!
Shell
Cheese pizza sounds really good. We like Mediterranean (probably spelled wrong,lol) pizza. We use onions,peppers, and black olives and spices and of course cheese and sauce.
Stephanie
Im planning on using the diced tomatoes instead. Do I need to cook the sauce for a lot longer or is it the same process? How will my sauce be different than making it with the canned tomatoes? Can I just leave out the tomatoes all together and just use the tomato sauce? Thanks!
Jessica
It’s really not going to be a lot different. And yes, you could use sauce if you prefer. It’s a very forgiving sauce.
Stephanie
@Jessica, Awesome! Thank you so much!! My sister made this earlier this afternoon and was raving about how she loved it :). I’m looking forward to trying it too!!
Stephanie
@Stephanie, I mean tomato paste. Sorry!!
Jessica
@Stephanie, I think it will be too thick if you just use paste.
April
I’m new to cooking for a family so maybe this is a stupid question, but I could use any help…
I have the pizza sauce simmering on the stove right now, but I’m wondering if I used the right tomatoes? I bought a can of diced, as instructed, but these chunks seem kind of big and weird for pizza sauce. Did I do something wrong?
Thanks for the recipes and the guidance!
Jessica
No, you’re good. There are chunks. They should cook down some. But, you can always blend it in a food processor or blender or with a stick blender if you prefer a smoother sauce. Either way.
Jenny
Just tried your pizza sauce this afternoon, and it is delicious. I’ve had a pizza handicap forever, but FINALLY can make a good one. Thanks for posting these recipes. My family eats pizza like a horde of starving lumberjacks and we are looking forward to dinner tonight.
Keri
I tried this last week and it was so good! We have Friday pizza nights at our house too, and I had been making my pizza using other recipes, but not anymore. This is the only recipe I will use; the combination of the dough and pizza sauce is excellent. Even my husband, who is not a big fan of “just cheese” pizza thought this was wonderful, and that’s saying something in my house! 🙂
Jessica
Awww… thank you!
Alison
Oh Jessica, where should I begin. I have been following your blogs forever now and wish my food came out as good as yours. Forever now I have been trying my hand at homemade pizza dough. I do not own a kitchen aid mixer, bread machine, or anything else. I make dough as instructed and knead it myself. I must be doing something wrong b/c the dough doesn’t rise(I add yeast lol!!!) and its not stretchy (i knead for about 10-15 minutes)
Any suggestions? I also don’t own a pizza stone so my pizza is not crispy.
I’m moving in the next couple weeks and then I hope to purchase a bread machine.
Thanks!
-Alison
Jessica
Well, Alison, I feel your pain. I have struggled with pizza dough in the past. And in the early years, I didn’t have any machines to help me. Have you ever read up on the science of bread? That helped me. Try this recipe for no-rise crust from Amy’s Finer Things. I tried it one night when I was short on time and it worked really well and was easy to form. And then report back. 😉
Jenna
Thanks for posting the pizza sauce recipe! I’ve been looking for a cheap easy one and this looks right up my alley! I have a couple pizza casserole dishes and I bet it would be delish in them! 🙂
Amanda
Last night I made your jalapeno burn pizza (minus the chicken). It will be a regular on our meal plan. 🙂 So yummy!
Leah
We love pizza too, but in the summer it is often too hot to turn on the oven- so we use whole wheat pitas as our crust and make little individual pizzas. Then I can have my spinach white pizza and my husband can have his pepperoni!
Shelah
I need to try this. My homemade pizzas leave much to be desired!
shelah
I’m slowly getting this one together.
I made the pizza sauce tonight. Just from the spoon….awesome. I haven’t even put it on a pizza yet.
I want to get to the dough this week.
Everyone here is leery of my pizzas so it may take some convincing when it lands on their plates. My 5yr old even asks, “Is this from a restaurant?”
Wildcat
I feel y’all’s pain. My kids actually look in the trash can to see if there is a box.
Heather
yum. I’m going to have to do this soon. If you sprinkle some oregano on top of the cheese pizza it really brings out the flavor, just don’t get too much
Kimberlee
I actually prefer cheese pizza over anything else. Toppings just get in the way! 🙂
But I have to admit, I love to cook, but I'm not much of a baker. Making dough scares me to death. I never have any luck rolling out dough and everything! I use pillsbury pizza dough…