Learn how to plan your own at-home pizza date night! Read on for a food menu, drink ideas, some simple decor ideas, and activity suggestions.
As a self-proclaimed home-lover, I am partial to an at-home date. Don’t get me wrong, I love trying a new restaurant, or grabbing ice cream out, but for me the best date is an at-home date! I’ve learned that there are lots of fun and simple ways to help elevate an at-home date into something truly memorable. In this post, I’ll walk you through a complete plan for how to have your own at-home pizza date night that rivals a date night out!
Menu
Pizza of course! For our at-home pizza date night, we decided to feature three different pizzas.
Appetizer Pizza
Because pizza is best served hot, and we only have one pizza stone, we decided to feature a Caesar salad pizza as the appetizer to munch on while we made the other two pizzas. Enjoying this pizza while we worked on the other pizzas helped set the fun, playful and casual tone of our pizza date night. You’re at home! Who says you can’t eat and cook at the same time?!
Caesar Salad Pizza
I absolutely love salad pizza! If you’ve never had it before, it’s basically a pizza crust topped with cheese that’s cooked until crispy and then piled high with cold crunchy salad when it comes out of the oven. It’s like eating your salad on a giant crouton and it’s thoroughly enjoyable.
If you’re looking for a good Caesar Salad dressing, try out my Caesar(ish) Dressing! It’s super easy to pull together.
Caesar Salad Pizza
Ingredients
Pizza Crust
- 1 Pizza dough ball for an 8-10 inch pizza about 250 grams
- Olive oil for drizzling on crust
- Mozzarella Cheese I prefer Low-Moisture Whole Milk Mozzarella
- Parmesan Cheese
- Garlic Powder for crust
- Flakey Salt for crust
Caesar Salad
- Head of romaine lettuce
- Parmesan Cheese
- Caesar Salad Dressing
- Toasted Breadcrumbs
Instructions
- Stretch and/or roll your pizza dough into an 8-10 inch round.
- Drizzle extra virgin olive oil onto the dough round.
- Top with mozzarella and Parmesan cheese (resist the urge to load it too heavily with cheese! It’ll weigh it down, and your crust won’t get crispy).
- Sprinkle garlic powder and flakey salt on the crust of the pizza.
- Using a pizza peel, transfer the pizza to a preheated pizza stone, or baking steel and cook until the cheese is starting to bubble and brown- 6-10 minutes.
- While the pizza bakes, assemble your salad by combining the chopped romaine, shredded Parmesan, toasted breadcrumbs, and Caesar salad dressing.
- Remove from the oven, and immediately top the crust with the Caesar salad mixture.
- Enjoy immediately!
Pepperoni & Marinated Red Onion Pizza
I grew up loving pepperoni pizza and this recipe is all of the salty, meaty, chewiness I remember but with better flavor. The use of marinated red onions lends great flavor, and really elevates the dish. It’s simple, salty, and delicious!
Pepperoni & Marinated Red Onion Pizza
Ingredients
- 1 Pizza dough ball for one 8-10 inch pizza ~250 grams
- Mozzarella Cheese I prefer Low-Moisture Whole Milk Mozzarella
- Pizza Sauce see note
- Sliced Pepperoni
- Thinly sliced marinated red onion see note
- Fresh Oregano chopped
Instructions
- Stretch and/or roll your pizza dough into an 8-10 inch round.
- Top the dough round with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni slices, marinated red onion, and fresh oregano.
- Using a pizza peel, transfer the pizza to a preheated pizza stone or baking steel and cook until the crust is crispy, the cheese is turning a golden brown, and the pepperoni and onions are starting to crisp at the edges- 8-10 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and enjoy hot!
Notes
Pineapple & Salami Pizza
One of Cam’s favorite toppings is pineapple, so I knew we had to feature it for our pizza date night. He was delighted! I opted to use fresh pineapple, and calabrese salami in place of ham. We both enjoyed the end result.
Pineapple & Salami Pizza
Ingredients
- Pizza dough ball for one 8-10 inch pizza ~250 grams
- Pizza Sauce See note
- Mozzarella Cheese I prefer Low-Moisture Whole Milk Mozzarella
- Calabrese Salami
- Pineapple chunks from ¼ of a fresh pineapple
Instructions
- Before starting on the pizza, cook your pineapple. To do this, cut the pineapple into ½ inch chunks. Heat a skillet over medium heat. Add 1 tbsp olive oil and the pineapple chunks. Cook, flipping occasionally, until the chunks are softened and starting to brown- about 2-3 minutes per side. Remove from the heat.
- Stretch and/or roll your piece of dough into an 8-10 inch round.
- Top the dough round with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, cooked pineapple chunks, Calabrese salami.
- Using a pizza peel, transfer the pizza to a preheated pizza stone or baking steel and cook until the crust is crispy, the cheese is turning a golden brown, and the salami is starting to brown at the edges.
Notes
Condiments
I featured a few condiments to go with the pizza. First up, was homemade ranch. Cam loves ranch with pizza, so I knew I had to make some! I personally don’t love the bottled stuff, so I made an herb-forward ranch dressing for our homemade pizza night.
I also love the fermented Calabrian chili sauce from Trader Joe’s. It adds some extra flavor to the pizza and has a wonderful spicy flavor. It went well drizzled ontop of the pepperoni & marinated onion pizza.
Finally, I served dried oregano for sprinkling on top of our pizzas.
Other Pizza Night Ideas
The pizzas above are just what we chose to serve, but definitely change them up using your favorite pizza toppings! Here’s a few more ideas for you:
- Classic Margarita: Pizza Sauce, fresh Mozzarella cheese, Fresh Basil (added after the pizza comes out from cooking)
- Mediterranean Pizza: artichoke hearts, Kalamata olives, preserved lemon, and a sprinkle of feta once it comes out of the oven.
Tips for Pizza Success
The dough
- If you’re making your own pizza dough, start early enough to have it ready for use when you want to begin date night.
- If you’re using store bought pizza dough, consider removing it from the fridge and letting it come to room temperature. It’ll be easier to stretch out.
The equipment
- Use a pizza stone, or baking steel if you have one. If not, a sheet pan works!
- Consider preheating your pizza stone or baking steel at a high temp (about 500 degrees f) for about an hour before you start baking. This is the best way to get at that delicious crispy crust that you get from a wood-fired pizza in a conventional oven.
- If you don’t have a pizza peel, you can use an upside down sheet pan.
- Use parchment paper on your pizza peel. If you’ve used a pizza peel before, you’ve likely had the equally heartbreaking/frustrating experience of your beautifully crafted pizza getting stuck on the peel as you attempt to launch it into the oven. To avoid this issue, build your pizza (starting with stretching the ball of pizza dough) on a piece of parchment paper.
The toppings
- Prep your toppings before you start making pizza. Having everything washed, chopped, and ready to go is a great way to assembly smoother and more enjoyable. It’s worth some prep work to keep the vibe of pizza date night casual and fun!
Drinks
Orange Creamsicle Bourbon Sour
This drink has been a recent favorite of ours! It’s based on a classic bourbon sour, but features lemon or orange curd for a creamy, smooth finish. You can find the recipe here .
Wine
Another great drink option for pizza night is wine. A glass of wine is a great accompaniment to a slice of pizza. Opt for your favorite wine! I like a red blend, or a Pinot noir for pizza night.
Dessert
Ice Cream Sundaes
I had fully intended on making ice cream sundaes for dessert, and had all of our favorite ingredients on hand (vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, whipped cream, roasted almonds, maraschino cherries), but we were so full after the pizza that we didn’t have room!
Cold Brew Martini
I think these would make a fun dessert cocktail! If you’re too full to enjoy a proper dessert, a cold brew martini might make a fun sweet sip after all of the salty, savory pizza.
Decor
I knew that I wanted to add a few themed touches to this at-home pizza date night while keeping it easy to pull off, and avoiding the need for too much planning.
I found some red and white checkered parchment paper that is reminiscent of a classic pizza parlor look. These added a cute themed vibe to the place settings and pizza-making station
I lined the island that we’d be assembling the pizzas on with brown butcher paper. This makes for super easy cleanup, and also added to the cute look!
If you’ve gotten a card from me in recent years, I can almost guarantee that it featured a food pun. I don’t know what it is about food puns, but I absolutely love them! For this perfect pizza date night, I made a “You’ve got a PIZZA my heart” watercolor card. I used some watercolor pens to color two little pizzas, hand-lettered the words, and added a face, arms, and legs to the pizza. For some reason, food puns are so much cuter when the food is smiling at you!
Activities
Cam and I love playing the Couples Edition of the card game “We’re Not Really Strangers”. This game features questions is three different levels of questions ranging from casual, to deep and intentional. We find that it leads to both fun and meaningful conversation and like to pull it out to play during at-home game nights. I highly recommend picking this game up to have on hand!
Another perk of at-home date night is the change to dance in the kitchen! This playlist has a good mix of songs to dance to.
I hope you enjoyed these date ideas for your very own at-home pizza date night! I know we had a great time during our cozy evening at home, and I hope this inspires you to go enjoy quality time with your significant other over some yummy pizza. If you try out any of these ideas, be sure to comment below!
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