The Best French Bread Pizza Recipe Ever
Before you go for the frozen, store-bought version of French bread pizza, consider making your own. It's not hard to do, and by making a few of the components from scratch, you'll make the pizza even more delicious. Here are a few of our expert tips for your best French bread pizza.
The Bread
It never hurts to start a recipe with fresh, homemade bread (click here for our best French bread recipes), but making a loaf of bread from scratch makes the whole idea of French bread pizzas far less convenient. Instead, make a garlic bread base for your pizza by cutting a store-bought loaf lengthwise, drizzling it with olive oil (or spreading it with a layer of softened butter), and then heating it under the broiler until crisp but not too brown. When you take the bread out of the oven, rub it with the cut side of a halved clove of garlic and sprinkle it with a pinch of salt.
The Sauce
Homemade tomato sauce is a great way to add tons of flavor to French bread pizza (click here for two great tomato sauce recipes) but if you don't have time, or are looking to make a quick and easy meal, you can easily improve store bought sauce. Try adding fresh diced tomato, fresh herbs, or freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano to your canned or jarred tomato sauce. Or, give the French bread pizza a twist by topping your toasted bread with Alfredo sauce, tomato cream sauce, or pesto instead of a classic red sauce.
The Cheese
Once you've spread sauce onto your homemade garlic bread, sprinkle it with your favorite cheese. Mozzarella is, of course, traditional, but crumbles of goat cheese or dollops or ricotta would be equally delicious.
The Toppings
Then, top your French Bread pizza with meat or vegetables before putting it into a 350-degree oven to warm. Once the toppings are warmed and the cheese starts to melt, turn the broiler on and give the French bread pizzas another minute or two of cook time so that the cheese is bubbling and slightly browned.
The best French bread pizza recipe? We think it's the one that's made with all your favorite ingredients!