Frying pan pizza recipe {vegetarian}

My friend Mary, the queen of kitchen improvisation, can take any random things she finds in the refrigerator, freezer and pantry, and fearlessly mix-and-match them into amazing soups, stews and chili. When she and her husband Matt lived in the town next to ours, they built a bread oven in their back yard and began to keep a batch of basic bread dough from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day in the refrigerator. Put at-the-ready bread dough and a few leftovers together, and voila! Frying pan pizza! Mary generously shared her recipe, below, as well as step-by-step photos that show how easy it is to make stovetop pizza using your favorite pizza dough (homemade or store-bought) and what you find in your fridge.

Frying pan pizza

From the pantry, you'll need: homemade or store-bought fresh pizza dough, olive oil, homemade or store-bought marinara sauce, grated cheese.

Grab a hunk of dough about the size of a lemon. The photo above shows a bucket of dough made using the basic recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

Oil a largish dinner plate and your hands, and spread the dough on the plate as evenly as you can.

Slide the dough into a large, hot frying pan and smush it to the edges of the frying pan.

Cook until dough is well-browned on the bottom (you can peek by lifting up a corner with a fork). Then, flip it over.

Put whatever you want on the pizza, but do it lightly. The photo shows a little tomato sauce and pesto. I also added some chopped cooked eggplant and cheese. Put a large pot cover over the pizza and frying pan, and cook on medium heat until the dough is cooked through, 2 or 3 minutes.

Pop under a hot broiler for a couple of minutes to melt the cheese and caramelize the veggies.

Slide the pizza onto a cutting board and enjoy.

More recipes in The Perfect Pantry:
Peachy Mama pizza
Hearts of palm, shrimp and cheese pizza
Sausage, egg and asparagus pizza
Clam, bacon and caramelized onion pita pizza
Pizza bianca

Other recipes that use these pantry ingredients:
Caramelized onion and garlic three cheese pizza, from Farmgirl Fare
Whole wheat veggie pizza, from Food Blogga
Pizza margherita, from No Recipes
White pizza, from Hedonia
Sicilian style slab pizza, from Stephencooks

Frying pan pizza

From the pantry, you'll need: homemade or store-bought fresh pizza dough, olive oil, homemade or store-bought marinara sauce, grated cheese.

Grab a hunk of dough about the size of a lemon. The photo above shows a bucket of dough made using the basic recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

Oil a largish dinner plate and your hands, and spread the dough on the plate as evenly as you can.

Slide the dough into a large, hot frying pan and smush it to the edges of the frying pan.

Cook until dough is well-browned on the bottom (you can peek by lifting up a corner with a fork). Then, flip it over.

Put whatever you want on the pizza, but do it lightly. The photo shows a little tomato sauce and pesto. I also added some chopped cooked eggplant and cheese. Put a large pot cover over the pizza and frying pan, and cook on medium heat until the dough is cooked through, 2 or 3 minutes.

Pop under a hot broiler for a couple of minutes to melt the cheese and caramelize the veggies.

Slide the pizza onto a cutting board and enjoy.

More recipes in The Perfect Pantry:
Peachy Mama pizza
Hearts of palm, shrimp and cheese pizza
Sausage, egg and asparagus pizza
Clam, bacon and caramelized onion pita pizza
Pizza bianca

Other recipes that use these pantry ingredients:
Caramelized onion and garlic three cheese pizza, from Farmgirl Fare
Whole wheat veggie pizza, from Food Blogga
Pizza margherita, from No Recipes
White pizza, from Hedonia
Sicilian style slab pizza, from Stephencooks

Comments

Nice technique -- I'll try it with the odd bit of pizza dough in my freezer.

Love this fun recipe for pizza! What a fun way to do it.

Susan, this is the perfect way to use little bits of dough (I have some in my freezer, I think).

Lori, all the fun of grilling, without having to go outdoors!

What a great idea!

(Now my screen has lick marks all over it)

I love this idea, and the pizza looks delicious. This would be such a fun way to use up leftovers!

How convenient is that! Love it.

How simple!! And what a great way to have pizza night where everyone gets their favorite flavor

This is SUCH a good idea. Love it!

Susan, Pauline, Kalyn, Alta, Mama Kelly, Molly: I thought this was such a great idea that I begged Mary to take photos and share her method. Here in Rhode Island, it's easy to find fresh pizza dough from local restaurants in almost every supermarket, so I don't even need to make a big batch of my own dough. Hope you will all try this, especially with kids!

We do the same thing on the gas grill, but no pan. Just make the dough out on parchment paper and turn it upside down on the grill grate, and pull off the parchment. Cook on both sides and add topings and melt the cheese. It has sort of a roasty wood oven taste.
I also have a flat cast iron round griddle that makes a great stove top pizza. It is like cooking tortillas (on a comal)

I would have liked to seen a picture of the outdoor bread oven!!

This blog is making me hungry!

I would like to know if your recipe can
be froze? Or are they talking about store
bought in the freezer. I have the dough
rising as I type.

Diana, not sure I understand your question. If you are asking whether you can cook the dough and then freeze it, the answer is yes. Can you make the pizza with its toppings and freeze it? Yes, but I wouldn't recommend it. The beauty of this pizza is its freshness, so I would make it right before you're ready to serve.