We all love pizza, right? And we all love soup, no? Well, then it’s about time you went ahead and made this contest-winning pizza soup recipe. It is a hearty, filling, and satisfying dish that when served with tasty bread makes an entire meal. This pizza soup is sure to be a new favorite in your home.
And just like your favorite pizzas, this pizza soup allows for endless alterations and customizations, varied levels of spiciness and general adjustments until it’s the way you like it. At its core, it comes down to a rich, deeply flavorful tomato base, some classic ingredients and just the right spices all begging to be paired with cheese and bread.
Contest-Winning Pizza Soup Ingredients
- Diced tomatoes:Â Some recipes call for you to drain and discard the water from cans of diced tomatoes, but here you’ll want to keep it and add it into the mix.
- Condensed tomato soup: Be sure to leave the tomato soup undiluted so the balance of ingredients is just right. Plus, you’re about to add water anyway.
- Water:Â Usually, we don’t even list water as an ingredient, but here you’ll need 2-1/2 cups of carefully measured water.
- Sliced pepperoni: You’ll want about 3-1/2 ounces of quartered sliced pepperoni for this recipe, which makes 10 servings.
- Sweet red pepper: Make sure the red pepper is well chopped so it will blend evenly in with the other ingredients.
- Green pepper:Â The green pepper adds flavor and color. If need be, use either sweet red pepper or green pepper.
- Fresh mushrooms:Â For the sliced mushrooms, go with classic button mushrooms. Or leave the fungus out, as many people prefer.
- Garlic cloves: You’ll want two fresh garlic cloves, well minced. But frozen garlic cubes are fine as well.
- Rubbed sage:Â What is rubbed sage, you ask? It’s simply a less-fine ground sage than, well, ground sage. Rubbed sage has larger, rather fluffier bits of the herb than its ground counterpart.
- Dried basil:Â As a classic pizza ingredient it’s no surprise to find basil in a pizza soup recipe.
- Dried oregano:Â Ditto with the oregano as with the basil. It just belongs in this saucy soup.
- Salt and pepper:Â Use these trusty seasonings to taste in this fresh take on pizza.
- French bread:Â You want thick slices of toasted French bread here, but of course a Rustica or even a sourdough bread will be great, as well.
- Mozzarella cheese:Â A shredded, part-skim mozzarella will melt evenly and form the perfect taste and look for this soup.
Directions
Step 1: Prepare the base and simmer
Using a Dutch oven or large pot, bring the diced tomatoes, condensed soup and water to a boil. Then reduce the heat, cover the Dutch oven (or pot) and simmer these ingredients for 15 minutes. Next, mash and stir the soup with a potato masher, add the pepperoni, red and green peppers, mushrooms, garlic, sage, basil, oregano, salt, and pepper and cover and simmer the soup for 10 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.
Step 2: Top and broil the soup
Ladle out servings of the soup into 10 oven-safe bowls, then top each bowl with a slice of toasted bread. Sprinkle cheese atop the slices of bread and broil them four inches below the heat for a few minutes, watching for the cheese to melt, bubble and begin to brown.
Contest-Winning Pizza Soup Variations
- Make it meat lovers: There is no reason to stop at the pepperoni! You can add sliced sausage, chunks of meatball, shredded chicken, or even prosciutto and make this an even heartier, tastier soup.
- Go vegetarian: On the other hand, leaving out the pepperoni (and any other meat) and making this soup vegetarian-friendly is also just fine. You could even swap out the mozzarella cheese for a vegan alternative on a serving-by-serving basis.
- Spice it up: The one thing some people will find missing from this pizza soup recipe is heat. You can bring that on by adding sliced jalapeños along with the red and green pepper and adding red pepper flakes right before you layer on the toast and cheese.
How to Store Contest-Winning Pizza Soup
This soup will keep well in the fridge for up to three days when stored in a sealed airtight container. Don’t refrigerate servings that have been topped with bread and cheese because those are a loss, unfortunately. Plan ahead and only top and broil bowls of soup you know have a hungry mouth awaiting them.
Can you freeze pizza soup?
Yes, this pizza soup will store well in the freezer for up to three months, but again, only freeze portions that did not have the bread and cheese broiled onto them. It’s best to thaw it overnight in the fridge and then warm the soup on the stove.
Contest-Winning Pizza Soup Tips
What other spices work well in this soup?
If you want a bigger, more robust flavor profile in your pizza soup, try doubling the amount of each spice and herb already used. But you can also try other spices and herbs like ground fennel, a great way to add an Italian sausage note to the dish.
Can you batch this pizza soup?
By all means! Making larger batches of this soup ahead of large gatherings is a great way to make your work as a chef easier. It will taste just as good if you double or even triple the recipe, just be mindful to be strategic when it comes time to finish the preparation and serve the soup hot.
Is this a filling soup?
Very much so, and it’s healthier than you might expect. It has just over 300 calories per serving plenty of protein with 13 grams per serving, and just nine grams of fat. The sodium is a bit high though, so watch out for that if salt is an issue for you.
