Crustless Pizza Recipe (20 Minutes!) - Wholesome Yum (2024)

Crustless Pizza Recipe (20 Minutes!) - Wholesome Yum (1)

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Table Of Contents hide

  • Why You’ll Love This Crustless Pizza Recipe
  • How To Make Crustless Pizza
  • Tips For Making Crustless Pizza
  • Topping Variations
  • Storage Instructions
  • What To Serve With Crustless Pizza
  • More Low Carb Pizza Recipes
  • Tools To Make A Pizza Without Crust
  • Crustless Pizza (20 Minutes!)

I already have a pizza casserole recipe, apizza bowl, and a famous keto pizza, so why do we need a crustless pizza recipe? Because it’s the best of both worlds. This pizza without crust has the same toppings you’d find on a meat lover’s pizza, but it takes away the fuss of making a crust, skips the cauliflower you’d find in my other pizza casserole, has minimal oven time (great for summer), and is ready super fast in just 20 minutes. Skillet pizza is the perfect dish for busy weeknights!

Not only does this keto crustless pizza satisfy even the biggest pizza cravings, but it’s also completely customizable by switching up the “toppings” — make it your own! Try it for the ultimate low carb dinner, or you could even serve it as a pizza dip.

Why You’ll Love This Crustless Pizza Recipe

  • Classic pizza flavors
  • 6 common pizza ingredients
  • On the table in just 20 minutes
  • Naturally low carb (8.9g net carbs per serving) and gluten-free
  • Faster and less messy than making a crust
  • Customizable toppings
Crustless Pizza Recipe (20 Minutes!) - Wholesome Yum (2)

Ingredients & Substitutions

This section explains how to choose the best ingredients for a low carb crustless pizza, what each one does in the recipe, and substitution options. For measurements, see the recipe card below.

  • Sausage – This makes up the base layer of this pizza skillet. I used ground Italian sausage, but you could use other types of ground meat, such as pork sausage, ground beef, or even ground turkey instead.
  • Veggies– For a colorful variety in my skillet pizza, I used half of a red bell pepper, half of a yellow bell pepper, and cremini mushrooms. You could use a green bell pepper, white button mushrooms, or just about any vegetables you like.
  • Sauce – You can use sugar free marinara sauce, keto pizza sauce, alfredo sauce, or pesto sauce depending on your preference.
  • Mozzarella Cheese– Feel free to substitute it with shredded cheddar, Colby jack, pepper jack, or any cheese you prefer.
  • Pepperoni Slices – You can also top your crustless pizza with additional sausage, more veggies, or bacon!

How To Make Crustless Pizza

This section shows how to make a pizza without crust, with step-by-step photos and details about the technique, to help you visualize it. For full instructions, including amounts and temperatures, see the recipe card below.

  1. Brown meat. Cook the ground sausage in acast iron skillet, until browned and cooked through.
  2. Saute veggies. Lower the heat, and push sausage to pan edges, creating space in the center. Add the mushrooms and peppers. Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and dry.
Crustless Pizza Recipe (20 Minutes!) - Wholesome Yum (3)
Crustless Pizza Recipe (20 Minutes!) - Wholesome Yum (4)
  1. Add sauce. Turn off the heat. Pour the marinara sauce over the pan, and smooth evenly with a spatula.
  2. Add toppings. Sprinkle with the shredded mozzarella. Arrange the pepperoni slices on top.
Crustless Pizza Recipe (20 Minutes!) - Wholesome Yum (5)
Crustless Pizza Recipe (20 Minutes!) - Wholesome Yum (6)
  1. Bake. Transfer the skillet to the oven. Broil the crustless pizza recipe, until the cheese is melted and browned, and the pepperoni starts to crisp up a little.
Crustless Pizza Recipe (20 Minutes!) - Wholesome Yum (7)

Crustless Pizza Recipe (20 Minutes!) - Wholesome Yum (8)

Tips For Making Crustless Pizza

  • The pan will seem very full when you add the veggies.If they don’t all fit, add what you can and add the rest once they start to cook down. The mushrooms will shrink especially.
  • Make sure to cook the veggies enough to get all the water out.If you don’t, your crustless pizza may be watery.
  • Adjust the sauce amount based on your goals. This crustless pizza recipe uses 1 cup of marinara, which is moderately saucy. If you like it extra saucy, feel free to add more marinara to your liking, but it will increase the carb count. Conversely, if the carbs are too high for your macros, you can reduce the amount of sauce (the main source of carbs in this dish) or eat smaller servings.

Topping Variations

If you want other toppings in your pizza skillet, feel free to customize with your favorite pizza toppings. Here are some ideas:

  • Caprese – Use ground beef or sausage for the base layer, without marinara. Replace the pepperoni on top with tomato slices and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar or glaze (make the glaze yourself by reducing the vinegar, so there’s no sugar added). Top with fresh basil.
  • Breakfast – Replace the sausage in this crustless pizza recipe with breakfast sausage, scramble some egg into the base layer, skip the marinara, and replace the pepperoni with crumbled bacon.
  • BBQ Chicken – Replace the sausage and peppers with shredded chicken breast and red onions, and the marinara with sugar-free BBQ sauce. Skip the pepperoni.
  • Hawaiian – Pineapple is not keto friendly, but if you are low carb, you might enjoy some in moderation. Combine chopped Canadian bacon and pineapple chunks for the bottom layer, and just cheese on top. Or keep the sausage underneath, and place the pineapple and Canadian bacon on top.
  • Traditional Veggie – Replace the sausage with more veggies (green peppers, mushrooms, black olives, onions, etc.) and top with extra cheese. Omit pepperoni. You can also add other keto vegetables.
  • Summer Veggie – Try zucchini, eggplant, or spinach. You’ll need to saute them to evaporate all the moisture, just as we do with the mushrooms and peppers.

Storage Instructions

  • Store: Keep leftovers in the refrigerator for 4-5 days. I like storing it right in the (covered) pan to maintain the layers, but an airtight container will keep it fresh for longer.
  • Meal prep: Prepare the crustless pizza in advance and reheat when needed, or prep ahead by assembling the pizza without crust, refrigerating, and broiling later.
  • Reheat: Warm in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 350 degrees F until hot. You could also scoop a serving into a bowl and microwave.
  • Freeze: You can freeze before or after baking. Wrap the top with plastic wrap and foil, and freeze for up to 3 months. For best results, thaw overnight in the fridge before reheating, but you can also reheat from frozen (it will take longer).

What To Serve With Crustless Pizza

Crustless pizza makes a complete meal on it’s own, but a side or two never hurts! Here are some ideas:

  • Salad – If you opt for a smaller serving size, try serving it with a Caesar salad (skip the chicken for a side) or a kale salad.
  • Wings – For a classic pizza night feast, you can’t go wrong with a side of crispy baked wings, or make air fryer wings which are even faster.
  • Breadsticks – I love to serve this crustless pizza with a side of cauliflower breadsticks with additional marinara or keto cheese sauce.

More Low Carb Pizza Recipes

If you like this crustless pizza recipe, you might also like these other keto pizza recipes:

Cauliflower Pizza Crust

Cheese Crust Pizza

Zucchini Pizza Crust

Chicken Crust Pizza

  • Cast Iron Skillet– This cast iron has so many great reviews (and I love it myself!) and works perfectly for oven-to-table serving.

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Recipe Card

Crustless Pizza Recipe (20 Minutes!) - Wholesome Yum (15)

4.9 from 48 votes☝️ Click stars to rate or click here to leave a review!

Crustless Pizza (20 Minutes!)

This easy crustless pizza recipe is the best 20-minute low carb dinner! It has all your favorite toppings, sauce and cheese, minus the fuss.

Prep: 2 minutes

Cook: 18 minutes

Total: 20 minutes

Author: Maya Krampf from WholesomeYum.com

Servings: 4 (adjust to scale recipe)

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Ingredients

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Instructions

Tap on the times in the instructions below to start a kitchen timer while you cook.

  1. Heat an oven-safe 10-inch cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add ground sausage. Cook for 8-10 minutes, breaking apart with a spatula, until browned and cooked through.

  2. Toward the end of cooking the sausage, preheat the oven to the Broil setting.

  3. Reduce heat to medium. Push the sausage to the edges of the pan, making a space in the center. Add mushrooms and bell peppers to the center. Cook for 5-8 minutes, stirring occasionally once they start to soften and moving any less cooked pieces toward the bottom, until vegetables are soft and any excess moisture has evaporated. (Add a little oil if the pan gets too dry.)

  4. Turn off heat. Pour the marinara sauce over the pan. Smooth evenly with a spatula.

  5. Sprinkle with shredded mozzarella. Arrange pepperoni slices on top.

  6. Transfer the skillet to the oven under the broiler. Broil for 2-3 minutes, until the cheese is melted and browned, and pepperoni starts to crisp up a little.

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Related Easy Recipes

  • Pizza Casserole

  • Portobello Mushroom Pizza

  • Eggplant Pizza Recipe

  • Low Carb Keto Pizza Sauce

Recipe Notes

Serving size: 1/4 crustless pizza

Nutrition Facts

Amount per serving. Serving size in recipe notes above.

Calories571

Fat43.7g

Protein32.8g

Total Carbs11.1g

Net Carbs8.9g

Fiber2.2g

Sugar6.1g

Nutrition facts are provided as a courtesy. Have questions about calculations or why you got a different result? Please see our nutrition policy.

Course:Main Course

Cuisine:American, Italian

Keywords:crustless pizza recipe, keto crustless pizza, low carb crustless pizza, pizza without crust, skillet pizza

Calories: 571 kcal

© Copyright Maya Krampf for Wholesome Yum. Please DO NOT SCREENSHOT OR COPY/PASTE recipes to social media or websites. We’d LOVE for you to share a link with photo instead. 🙂

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FAQs

Can I eat cheese and pepperoni off pizza on keto? ›

Cheese: A great source of fat and protein. The most common cheese is mozzarella but you can also use cheddar, Parmesan, and ricotta. Meat: The meat toppings are generally all keto (watch out for meatballs filled with breadcrumbs). Pepperoni, Italian sausage, and Canadian bacon are all popular low-carb options.

What is crustless pizza made of? ›

Made with ground sausage or ground beef, pizza sauce, and your favorite toppings, crust-free pizza is baked in a skillet until the cheese is melted and bubbly. It is the perfect way to enjoy all the flavors of pizza without the carbs. This homemade crustless pizza is cheesy, meaty, and so flavorful!

How to make homemade pizza taste like takeout? ›

10 Tips for Making Restaurant-Style Pizza at Home
  1. 1/10. Do the Dough. In order to make restaurant style pizza, you must start with a good dough. ...
  2. 2/10. Rise Above. ...
  3. 3/10. Cornmeal is Key. ...
  4. 4/10. Simmer Your Sauce. ...
  5. 5/10. Steady on the Sauce. ...
  6. 6/10. Less is More. ...
  7. 7/10. Set on Stone. ...
  8. 8/10. Crank the Heat.
Feb 10, 2022

How do you make a super crispy pizza? ›

Palm down, slide your hands under dough and lifting carefully place on to a hot pizza stone. Bake at 500°F for 4 minutes. Remove from oven and top with your favorite toppings (don't go too crazy with the toppings, a little goes a long way). Return to oven for 6-8 minutes.

Can I eat unlimited cheese on keto? ›

Enjoying cheese is one of the pleasures of the keto diet. But that doesn't mean it's unlimited and unrestricted. Nutritionists say that keto practitioners need to be selective with the cheese varieties they consume while on keto and enjoy them only in moderation to avoid disrupting ketosis and hampering weight loss.

What kind of pizza is OK for keto? ›

Regular pizza bases are usually a no-no for those following a ketogenic or moderate low-carb diet. By swapping out a regular, carb-laden base for a Lo-Dough base, you can cut the carbs by more than 90%, reduce calories and simultaneously supplement your diet with the fibre it needs!

What's a pizza without cheese called? ›

Food historians trace pizza's origins to Naples, Italy, in the 1800s, and note that it wasn't until 1889 that cheese was added as a topping. A pizza without cheese is today recognized as one of the three official authentic Neapolitan pizzas and is called pizza marinara.”

How many carbs does a crustless pizza have? ›

Keto Crustless Pizza (1 slices) contains 6.4g total carbs, 5.4g net carbs, 40.9g fat, 29.9g protein, and 511 calories.

What is the most unhealthy ingredient in pizza? ›

Many pizzas from restaurants and fast food places can contain processed meats like pepperoni, along with sauces that are laden with added sugar and salt. These ingredients can contribute to weight gain and have negative effects on your health.

Why does restaurant pizza taste so good? ›

The No. 1 reason restaurant pizza is better than homemade is that they have ovens that can reach 900°F, or even hotter, which makes for perfectly crisp and chewy crusts, with those lovely charred spots, says Kierin Baldwin, chef-instructor of Pastry & Baking Arts at the Institute of Culinary Education.

What kind of cheese is best for homemade pizza? ›

The most commonly used cheese on pizza is mozzarella, because it melts beautifully without turning oily or lumpy. Cheeses such as feta, haloumi and aged gouda are tasty toppings, but they're a bit fancy for families and don't melt as well as mozzarella.

What seasoning makes pizza taste better? ›

Popular Seasonings and Herbs to Add to Pizza
  1. Parmesan Cheese. Parmesan cheese is a hard cheese that can be grated, shredded or shaved over the top of pizza after it has finished baking. ...
  2. Italian Seasoning. ...
  3. Oregano. ...
  4. Garlic. ...
  5. Red Pepper Flakes. ...
  6. Parsley. ...
  7. Basil. ...
  8. Thyme.
Apr 21, 2023

What is the secret to a crispy pizza crust? ›

When building a pan pizza, it's important to apply a liberal coating of olive oil to the bottom of the cold pan before adding your dough. This not only prevents sticking, but further helps the caramelization of the bottom crust, creating that delicious crunch.

What is the best flour for crispy pizza crust? ›

Looking to make a basic pizza crust, one with a crispy bottom, a little bit of chew, and enough strength that the slices won't get floppy under all that sauce and cheese? For a no-fuss crust, you need a workhorse flour, and that's all-purpose flour.

What happens if you don't use yeast in pizza dough? ›

No-yeast pizza dough does not go through a lot of kneading and rising, so it has a softer, fluffier, less chewy, and more bread-like texture. It's not super crispy, it does not make those big delicate bubbles on the edges, and it doesn't get very brown.

Is pepperoni dirty keto? ›

Cheese & pepperoni

Cheese and pepperoni are not “dirty” at all and are keto friendly. 100 grams of cheddar cheese has about 1.3 grams of carbs, and 100 grams of pepperoni has zero carbs. Refrigerate them in some small containers to take to work or to eat when you're traveling, or to have as an evening snack at home.

Is pepperoni and cheese a good keto snack? ›

Pepperoni – Pepperoni has zero carbs and lots of fat, the perfect keto snack. Mozzarella Cheese has a good amount of fat, protein, and zero carbs. Italian Seasoning – This spice blend is likely already lurking in your spice cabinet.

How many carbs are in a slice of cheese and pepperoni pizza? ›

Better Bakery
Nutrition Facts
How many carbs are in Cheese & Pepperoni Pizza? Amount of carbs in Cheese & Pepperoni Pizza: Carbohydrates 45g-
How many net carbs are in Cheese & Pepperoni Pizza? Amount of net carbs in Cheese & Pepperoni Pizza: Net carbs 43g-
17 more rows

Can I have a pizza cheat day on keto? ›

For keto dieters, a cheat day can mean indulging in actual pasta, pizza, and other high-carb meals. While many dieters think of cheat day as a well-deserved reward, nutritionists say there are downsides to it.

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