King Arthur’s crispy cheesy pan pizza and Kenji’s foolproof skillet pie taught a generation that you do not need a peel. Oil a cast iron, press dough in, cheese to the rim so it fries.
This is the house version: an overnight no-knead dough, a 25–30 cm (10–12 in) skillet, low-moisture mozzarella, sauce on top of the cheese so it does not steam. It is not their unpublished recipes. It is the pan pizza you can bake while the steel is still in the cupboard.
Ingredients
Pick one dough — homemade or a store-bought ball.
Homemade dough
- 400 g bread flour
- 275 ml water (69%)
- 10 g fine salt
- 4 g instant yeast
- 8 g olive oil, plus more for the pan
Premade dough
- 1 ball store-bought pizza dough (400–450 g), room temperature 1 hour
Sauce and toppings
- Crushed tomatoes, salted
- Low-moisture mozzarella, shredded, enough to reach the edge
- Pepperoni or leave it cheese
- Olive oil
Products & ingredients
What this pie actually wants. Flour, tomatoes, cheese, and tools — Amazon links, so this blog can keep going.
Store-Bought Pizza DoughCheck Amazon.comPremade Dough
Check Amazon.com
Check Amazon.com
Check Amazon.com
Low-Moisture MozzarellaCheck Amazon.comToppings
Cup & Char PepperoniCheck Amazon.comToppings
Check Amazon.com
Check Amazon.com
Ateco Bench ScraperCheck Amazon.comBench Scraper
As an Amazon Associate, The Slice Guy earns from qualifying purchases. Prices and stock live on Amazon.
Nutrition
If you buy the kit on this page
- Serving
- 1/4 pizza
- Calories
- 430
- Protein
- 19 g
- Carbohydrates
- 39 g
- Fat
- 22 g
- Sodium
- 1110 mg
Pack labels of those brands (or USDA where a brand does not print a panel), times the grams in this recipe. Drain the mozzarella, swap a tin, or skip the oil and they move.
Labels used: Caputo Chef’s 00, Diamond Crystal kosher salt, Partanna extra-virgin olive oil, Low-moisture mozzarella, Cup-and-char pepperoni.
How to make and cook it
Bought dough? Skip “Make the dough.” Let the ball sit out 1 hour, then start at “Cook the pie.”
Make the dough
- 01Mix 400 g bread flour, 10 g salt, 4 g yeast, 275 ml water, and 8 g oil in a bowl until no dry flour remains.
- 02Cover.
- 03Room temp 2 hours or fridge 12–72 hours.
The pan
- 01Pour 2–3 tbsp oil into a 25–30 cm (10–12 in) cast iron skillet.
- 02Put the dough in.
- 03Turn to coat.
- 04Press toward the edges — it will not fill the pan yet.
- 05Cover 1–2 hours until it relaxes to the rim.
Top
- 01Heat the oven to 290°C (550°F) with a rack in the lower third.
- 02Cheese first, all the way to the edge.
- 03Sauce in spoons on top of the cheese.
- 04Pepperoni if you want it.
Bake
- 0118–22 minutes, until the edge is dark and the cheese has fried against the iron.
- 02Rest 2 minutes.
- 03Run a spatula around.
- 04Cut in the pan or slide it out.
