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Pizza That is Half Pepperoni and the Other Half is Broccoli

A pizza with half pepperoni and half broccoli, topped with ricotta, mozzarella, and fontina cheeses.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Garlic and broccoli match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,072 recipes mention both. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

The recipe

Oven425°F
Time17 minutes

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the crust

  1. Heat oven to 425°F.

  2. Coat baking pan with nonstick spray.

  3. Roll out dough and fit into pan.

  4. Bake 12 minutes.

  5. Remove and let pan cool slightly.

Make the toppings

  1. Heat 1 tbsp oil in skillet.

  2. Add garlic and onion and cook 3 minutes.

  3. Stir in marinara and ½ tsp seasoning, heat 2 more minutes. Set aside.

  4. In a second skillet, heat remaining oil and broccoli and hot pepper flakes.

  5. Cook 10 minutes or until tender. Set aside.

  6. Stir together ricotta, parmesan and remaining seasoning.

Assemble and bake

  1. Spread marinara sauce over pizza crust.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of ricotta mixture over half the crust, sprinkle broccoli on top.

  3. Top with ⅓ cup mozzarella and all the fontina.

  4. Sprinkle ⅓ cup mozzarella on top of the other half of pizza.

  5. Top with half the pepperoni, then remaining mozzarella and remaining pepperoni on top of that.

  6. Bake 17 minutes or until cheese is bubbling.

  7. Serve with ranch dressing or hot sauce.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Garlic + broccolitop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,072 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  2. Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29,030 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Olive + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together23,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Olive + parmesan cheesetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. Onion + broccolitop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,292 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Pizza crust dough
Forms the base that holds the sauce and toppings and crisps as it bakes.
Broccoli rabe
Adds a bitter, slightly chewy vegetable note that balances the rich cheeses.
Ricotta cheese
Stays creamy when baked, giving soft, moist pockets against the crisp crust.
Mozzarella cheese
Melts and stretches over the pizza, creating the browned, bubbly top layer.
Fontina
Melts smoothly and adds a nutty, creamy richness to the cheese layer.
Pepperoni
Crisps at the edges and releases fat that flavors the toppings.

The step that matters

Cooking the broccoli rabe until tender. Rabe that stays undercooked is tough and bitter, while overcooked rabe turns mushy and waterlogged, which can make the pizza soggy when baked.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, garlic, sauce, broccoli, pepper, ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese):

  1. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  2. Spinachbetter flavor fit
  3. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, garlic, sauce, broccoli, pepper, ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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