A delicious way to say ‘I love you’ – these easy Heart-Shaped Pizzas are perfect for Valentine’s day, anniversaries, date nights, birthdays – or any time you want to show your love with food!
Say ‘I love you’ with pizza!
Want to show your love with food? Then why not make these heart-shaped pizzas!
Often heart-shaped foods are tricky or complicated. Not so with this recipe! These heart-shaped pizzas are incredibly quick and easy to make, but they look impressive and taste delicious.
They are perfect for Valentine’s day, anniversaries, date nights, birthdays… or any time you want to say ‘I love you’ with pizza.
How to make Heart-Shaped Pizzas
These Heart-Shaped Pizzas are so easy to make! All you need to do is make the quick and easy pizza bases and shape each one into a heart shape. Then top each pizza with a thin layer of passata. Next, scatter over the heart-shaped pepperoni and torn mozzarella, so each pizza is covered evenly. Then, scatter over the dried oregano and black pepper.
Cook your pizzas in your pre-heated oven for 15-18 minutes. The pizzas are ready when the cheese is bubbling and the base is a light golden brown and crispy, not soggy.
(Full recipe given in the recipe card below.)
How do you make pizza bases heart-shaped?
Making pizza bases heart-shaped is so much easier that you would think!
All you need to do is roll out the dough for each base out to roughly the size of the pizza tray. Put the rolled out dough in the pizza tray and gently shape into a heart shape by pulling the middle down at the top and pushing the sides in at the bottom to form a point.
How do you make the pepperoni heart-shaped?
Making pepperoni heart-shaped is so easy – just cut the pepperoni with kitchen scissors! As a bonus, you get some delicious off-cuts to nibble on while you’re making the pizzas. (Chef’s perks, right?)
(Alternatively, if that all seems like too much faff, you can leave the pepperoni slices as they are!)
What if I only want to make this for 2?
I’ve made this recipe for 4 people, as that is what I do for nearly all my recipes. And who knows, maybe you want to make heart-shaped pizzas for the whole family? (Making heart-shaped pizzas is a fun activity for kids on Valentines day, for example!)
But I appreciate that, romantic meals are usually for 2! So if you are making this heart-shaped pizza recipe for 2, then you have 2 options…
EITHER, make the full quantity and freeze 2 of the pizzas for a future date night. (See below for freezing instructions.)
OR, simply half the quantity of everything!
It is worth bearing in mind, though, that some of the ingredients come in larger packs, so it can be a little tricky to halve some of the ingredients – for example the yeast and the pepperoni. So personally, I’d make the full quantity and freeze half.
My not-so-secret ‘cheat’ to get a super thin pizza crust!
One of the big problems with homemade pizza, is that, if you make the pizza base in the normal way you’d make a white bread, kneading for 10 minutes and two 45 minute proves, you end up with a really thick ‘bready’ base. And I don’t know about you, but I like my pizza crust super thin and crispy!
My not-so-secret ‘cheat’ to get a super thin pizza crust is the quick knead, no prove method. All you need to do is mix together flour, yeast, water, salt and olive oil in a bowl. Then knead for just 5 minutes. Don’t prove AT ALL and get straight on with rolling out the pizza dough and making your pizzas.
By doing it this way, the pizza bases don’t rise at all – giving you that perfect super thin and crispy base.
Better still, it dramatically cuts down on preparation time – and effort!
What to serve with Heart-Shaped Pizza
This Heart-Shaped Pizza is a complete meal in its own right, so you don’t need to serve it with any sides, but if you want to, I suggest any of the following:
- Potato Salad
- Green Salad
- Couscous Salad
- Classic Coleslaw
- Rainbow Slaw
- Roasted Corn On The Cob
- Garlic Bread
Classic Coleslaw
What to drink with with Heart-Shaped Pizza
This Heart-Shaped Pizza goes well with easy-drinking, uncomplicated Italian reds like Chianti, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, and Primitivo.
Away from Italy, other good options are Sangiovese (the main grape variety in Chianti), Primitivo, Zinfandel (another name for Primitivo) and rustic Southern French reds.
What to do with leftover homemade pizza?
If you end up with leftovers, this homemade pizza keeps very well in the fridge. Simply place the cooked and cooled pizza in an airtight container in the fridge, where it will keep for up to 3 days.
This pizza is delicious cold, straight from the fridge, but can also be reheated. To reheat, set your oven to 200C (180C fan / gas mark 6 / 400F) and place the cold pizza on a pizza tray / baking tray. Put it straight in the oven (don’t wait for the oven to warm up!) and cook for 5-10 minutes, or until it’s piping hot and the base has crisped up again.
I don’t recommend reheating pizza in the microwave (soggy base issues!)
Can you freeze homemade pizza?
Yes you can!
Simply place the cooked and cooled pizza in an airtight container in the freezer, where it will keep for up to 1 month.
Defrost overnight in the fridge and reheat as above.
If you like this recipe…
…you might also like:
- Quick and Easy Pizza Dough (Super Thin Crust)
- Easy Cheese and Tomato Pizza (Margherita Pizza)
- Peri Peri Chicken Pizza (Nando’s Inspired)
- Easy One Pot Pepperoni Pizza Pasta
Peri Peri Chicken Pizza
Heart-Shaped Pizzas
Ingredients
- 500 g strong white bread flour (See Note 1)
- 1 teaspoon salt (See Note 1)
- 7 g fast action yeast (See Note 1)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 350 ml lukewarm water (you may not need all of this, see below)
- 350 g passata (I use Cirio Passata Rustica)
- 120 g pepperoni cut into heart shapes
- 250 g drained weight fresh mozzarella torn (or grated mozzarella or grated cheddar – see Note 2)
- 2 teaspoons oregano
- Black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 230C / 210C fan / gas mark 8 / 450F. Grease 4 large (12inch / 30cm) pizza trays with a little olive oil. (Or 8 smaller ones – See Note 3.)
- In a large bowl, mix together the flour, yeast and salt, then add the olive oil and stir. Slowly add the water until the mixture comes together to form a dough – the dough should just come together and should not be too wet/sticky. (You may not need all the water. Start with 300ml and see how it goes, add it in little bits after that.)
- Knead the pizza dough for 5 minutes on a floured surface.
- Divide the dough up into 4 equal sized pieces (or 8 if you are making small ones) – I use my scales to make this easier and more accurate.
- Roll out each piece out to roughly the size of the pizza tray. Put the rolled out dough in the pizza tray and gently shape into a heart shape by pulling the middle down at the top and pushing the sides in at the bottom to form a point.
- Top each pizza with 4 tablespoons passata. Spread the passata all over the base using the back of a spoon, leaving a thin border all around the pizza. (Don’t use too much passata or it will make your pizzas soggy.)
- Next, add the torn mozzerella cheese evenly over the pizza.
- Next, cut the pepperoni into heart shapes, using kitchen scissors, and arrange on top of the pizza.
- Then scatter with oregano and black pepper.
- Cook your pizzas in your pre-heated oven for 10-15 minutes. You may find you need to move the pizzas around in your oven so they cook evenly.
- The pizzas are ready when the cheese is bubbling and the base is a light golden brown and crispy, not soggy. (If you discover as you are cutting the pizza that the base is still a bit soggy, just pop it back in the pizza tray and back in the oven for a couple more minutes.)
Notes
- For an even quicker and easier base, use a 500g pack of bread mix instead of the flour, salt and yeast. I find the ciabatta and sourdough ones work particularly well for pizza!
- What cheese you use is up to you. You can use grated mozzarella, grated cheddar or torn fresh mozzarella. My personal preference for this pizza is fresh mozzarella. Please note 250g drained weight = 400g undrained.
- If you don’t have a pizza tray, use a baking tray or cake tin of a similar size instead.
- The trick to getting a super thin crust is to only knead for 5 minutes and not prove the dough, so be careful not to leave the pizza dough to rest too long at any point or you will find the dough rises and you’ll have thick crust pizzas!
- Suitable for freezing.
- Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.
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