Pizza, Pizza, Pizza! How I love pizza! I truly do! Pizza is one of my favorite things to chow down on! I’m a total carboholic and cheese fanatic, so with pizza, I get the best of both worlds. Also, you get to be creative with pizza and top it with whatever your heart desires, and these past few weeks we’ve been desiring roasted broccoli rabe! That’s not such a bad thing, right?
I know it’s not pizza Friday yet, but I wanted to share this recipe with all you pizza lovers today, so that you can add this recipe to your weekly menu this week! This is such an easy weeknight meatless pizza. It’s full of flavor, has a crispy crust and honestly tastes like a pizza from a pizzeria, at least that’s what my kids said when I first made it up. It’s pizza perfection!
My friend Steve first introduced me to this pizza when he made it up for dinner one night. I tried it, loved it and exclaimed that it was total blog worthy recipe, and that I was going to make it and share it with my readers. Since that night, I’ve made this pizza up 3 times, just to test it out for you all, and there have been no complaints with the kiddos. They absolutely LOVE this pizza and have requested that it get put on the monthly rotation. To be honest, my kids are so excited that I made up something new for dinner, as I’ve been pretty lazy this past year when it comes to trying new dinner recipes. We’ve pretty much been existing off of recipes from my blog for the past year and my kids have been total troopers, but I can tell they want to branch out a bit, and I guess I do as well!
This pizza has amazing flavor for a meatless pizza, and the crust is perfect as it’s thin, crispy and crunchy, just like we like it. If you have meat lovers in your family, you could sauté up a bit of turkey sausage and top it on the pizza. I think it would be a great addition and a nice compliment to the broccoli rabe. We might actually give that try one night, and when we do, I will let you know how it turns out!
Ok, so get your aprons on and let’s make up some pizza…
broccoli rabe pizza:
recipe adapted from Food Republic via Yummly
serves 4
- 1 pound pizza dough, room temp – I love the pizza dough from Whole Foods
- 2 bunches of broccoli rabe, trimmed
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1/2 cup water
- 2-4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 hefty cup mozzarella cheese – you can use more or less cheese, as it’s really a personal preference
- 1/2 cup shredded or grated parmesan cheese – you can use more or less cheese, as it’s really a personal preference
- few pinches of fine sea salt
- cornmeal and all-purpose flour for dusting
Important tip! Take out your pizza dough at least 30-45 minutes before you plan on rolling it out.
I found to key to pliable pizza dough is to take it out at least 30-45 minutes before I roll it. The warmer the dough, the more pliable it will be. Cold pizza dough is tough and will not roll out easily.
Preheat the oven to 450°F and position a rack in the lower third of the oven. I put the rack on the 2nd tier from the bottom.
Get out a baking sheet, pizza stone or whatever you use to cook pizza on, and dust it with some cornmeal. The cornmeal helps to keep the pizza dough from sticking to the pan, and also helps to make the pizza crust a bit more crunchy.
Wash and trim the broccoli rabe. I just cut off the large tough ends and slice the broccoli rabe a bit, so that the pieces are pretty even sized.
Mince your garlic clove and measure out 1/2 cup of water.
Get out a skillet and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
Set the skillet over medium-high heat, add the garlic and the 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
Add the broccoli rabe and the 1/2 cup water, and sprinkle with a pinch of salt.
Cover the skillet and cook, uncovering to stir the broccoli rabe occasionally, until it’s bright green and tender, about 3-5 minutes. The best way to test the broccoli is to take a piece and put it in your mouth! We like our broccoli rabe a bit on the al dente side, so we usually cook it for 3-4 minutes.
Get some tongs and transfer the broccoli rabe to a paper towel lined plate, set aside to cool.
Now, it’s time to roll out the dough! Yippee!! On a floured work surface, roll out the dough into a rectangular shape or the shape of your pan. A thinner dough works better here, so try and get it on the thinner side.
Zoe and her friend Olivia helped me roll out the dough, just to show you all how easy it can be! As you can see, they’re having a grand old time! Rolling dough is fun in our house!
Transfer the dough to the prepared baking sheet. Take a pastry brush and brush the dough all over with some olive oil, making sure to get the edges of the dough as well. This helps to get a crispy crust! 
You can also take the pastry brush and use it to push out along the edges of the crust if you want to shape the dough a bit more to fit your pan.
Now it’s time to top the pizza! Scatter your pizza with half the mozzarella and half the Parmesan.
Yes, we like our cheese as you can see!
Arrange the broccoli rabe over the dough, making sure to spread it out evenly, and to leave room for the crust. This pizza is looking mighty pretty I must say!
Sprinkle on the remainder of the mozzarella and parmesan cheese over the broccoli rabe.
Drizzle the pizza with some olive oil and sprinkle with a pinch of sea salt.
Bake the pizza until the bottom of the crust is golden brown and the topping is bubbly, about 12 to 15 minutes.
My pizza takes exactly 12 minutes to cook to perfection each time, but ovens vary, so keep an eye on your pizza!
See how perfectly browned the crust is on the bottom! You can thank the cornmeal for that!
Slice up the pizza and serve it up warm! Here’s a photo of the kids testing it out for lunch the other day! They were playing food critics!
I got the thumbs up, whew! I love when that happens!
Serve this pizza up alongside your favorite salad! We love roasted broccoli so much that we paired it with some roasted broccoli one night! It was one broccoli crazy night!
We paired it with our favorite lacinato kale salad on another night!
This pizza also tastes amazing with my kid friendly caesar salad!
Like vegetarian pizzas? Then try my roasted red pepper pizza.
It’s asparagus season right now, so this asparagus and gruyere cheese pizza is perfect for this time of year!
My kids are broccoli obsessed. They love roasted broccoli as much as I love kale salads. One of their favorite things to munch down on is a grilled cheese with roasted broccoli. This is such and easy weeknight dinner or lunch.
This pizza was rated a 10+ in my house and I hope your family enjoys it as much as mine!
- 1 pound pizza dough, room temp - I love the pizza dough from Whole Foods
- 2 bunches of broccoli rabe, trimmed
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ½ cup water
- 2-4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 hefty cup mozzarella cheese - you can use more or less cheese, as it's really a personal preference
- ½ cup shredded or grated parmesan cheese - you can use more or less cheese, as it's really a personal preference
- few pinches of fine sea salt
- cornmeal and all-purpose flour for dusting
- Important tip! Take out your pizza dough at least 30-45 minutes before you plan on rolling it out.
- I found to key to pliable pizza dough is to take it out at least 30-45 minutes before I roll it. The warmer the dough, the more pliable it will be. Cold pizza dough is tough and will not roll out easily.
- Preheat the oven to 450°F and position a rack in the lower third of the oven. I put the rack on the 2nd tier from the bottom.
- Get out a baking sheet, pizza stone or whatever you use to cook pizza on, and dust it with some cornmeal. The cornmeal helps to keep the pizza dough from sticking to the pan, and also helps to make the pizza crust a bit more crunchy.
- Wash and trim the broccoli rabe. I just cut off the large tough ends and slice the broccoli rabe a bit, so that the pieces are pretty even sized.
- Mince your garlic clove and measure out ½ cup of water.
- Get out a skillet and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
- Set the skillet over medium-high heat, add the garlic and the ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Add the broccoli rabe and the ½ cup water, and sprinkle with a pinch of salt.
- Cover the skillet and cook, uncovering to stir the broccoli rabe occasionally, until it's bright green and tender, about 3-5 minutes. The best way to test the broccoli is to take a piece and put it in your mouth! We like our broccoli rabe a bit on the al dente side, so we usually cook it for 3-4 minutes.
- Get some tongs and transfer the broccoli rabe to a paper towel lined plate, set aside to cool.
- Now, it's time to roll out the dough! Yippee!! On a floured work surface, roll out the dough into a rectangular shape or the shape of your pan. A thinner dough works better here, so try and get it on the thinner side.
- Transfer the dough to the prepared baking sheet. Take a pastry brush and brush the dough all over with some olive oil, making sure to get the edges of the dough as well. This helps to get a crispy crust!
- You can also take the pastry brush and use it to push out along the edges of the crust if you want to shape the dough a bit more to fit your pan.
- Now it's time to top the pizza! Scatter your pizza with half the mozzarella and half the Parmesan.
- Arrange the broccoli rabe over the dough, making sure to spread it out evenly, and to leave room for the crust.
- Sprinkle on the remainder of the mozzarella and parmesan cheese over the broccoli rabe.
- Drizzle the pizza with some olive oil and sprinkle with a pinch of sea salt.
- Bake the pizza until the bottom of the crust is golden brown and the topping is bubbly, about 12 to 15 minutes.
- My pizza takes exactly 12 minutes to cook to perfection each time, but ovens vary, so keep an eye on your pizza!
- Slice up the pizza and serve it up warm!
Awesome pizza recipe, but no one enjoys mozzarella at home (not enough character), so I’ll change it for grated Swiss cheese.
Glad you like the recipes. Swiss cheese sounds great! Let me know how it is on the pizza!
YUM Jackie! Pizza with broccoli rabe is fabulous! Good choice for the pizza!
I never thought to top pizza with broccoli rabe but this looks super delicious!
Thanks girl! You know how we love broccoli rabe in this house. We’re crazy for it 🙂