This heart shaped pizza is made with a homemade deep dish crust and filled with sweet Italian sausage, roasted red peppers, three cheeses & homemade sauce.

When it comes to Valentine’s Day, if I’m going to make something heart-shaped, it’s going to be pizza, because let’s be honest, pizza is the key to my heart 😉

My best friend & her family own 3 pizzeria’s in the Phoenix, Arizona area, Jimmy & Joe’s, and each year they make delicious heart-shaped pizza’s for Valentine’s Day, and each year I watch their Instagram page for the weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day craving one of those scrumptious heart-shaped pizzas!

Well, this year, it just so happens that I will be in Phoenix visiting my friends on Valentine’s Day weekend… this trip was totally not planned around a heart shaped pizza… ok maybe it was 😉

Either way, I decided that in addition to having an original JJP heart shaped pizza on Valentine’s Day, I would also re-create my own heart-shaped pizza delight for all of the lovely readers of the blog!

Ever since I began planning a trip to Chicago, I’ve been totally craving deep dish pizza, so I decided to take my favorite deep dish crust recipe and use it for my heart-shaped pizza!

Now I get to enjoy heart-shaped pizza deliciousness two weeks in a row, this week at home, next week in Arizona!

Ingredients

• deep dish pizza dough (←click link for homemade recipe)
• 2 cups tomato sauce (←click link for homemade recipe)
• ½ lb sweet Italian sausage
• ¼ cup roasted red peppers (diced)
• ¼ cup ricotta cheese
• ¼ cup fresh mozzarella cheese (sliced)
• ¼ cup parmesan cheese (grated)

For this recipe, you can purchase pre-made pizza dough, and sauce, or prepare the dough and sauce at home using the links provided above.

Preheat the oven to 425°F.

Begin by cooking the Italian sausage. I used two links of the Sweet Italian Turkey Sausage seen pictured above, removed the sausage from the casing, crumbled and cooked the sausage on the stove top over medium heat for 7-9 minutes.

Once the sausage is cooked through, drain any grease from the sausage.

Press the dough into a 10″ heart shaped pan (which you can find at this link on Amazon for $10 or basically any store that carries Valentine’s Day supplies – grocery stores, Wal Mart, Target, etc.)

Add the sausage and peppers to the crust.

Divide the ricotta and mozzarella across the pizza.

Top with the parmesan cheese, then the sauce.

Place the heart shaped pan on a rimmed baking sheet (just in case any sauce bubbles over) and place into the oven to bake for 30-35 minutes.

Voila! Sweet pizza pie perfection!

Seriously, if this doesn’t say love, what does?!

Don’t have a heart shaped pan or prefer a thin crust heart-shaped pizza? Use my traditional pizza dough recipe, roll out the dough, divide it in half and roll out one square and one circle, cut the circle in half, place the square at an angle and place one half circle on each of the top sides of the square. Pinch the dough together, roll flat, then add the toppings.

Whether you prefer thin crust or deep dish, whether you’re single or taken, this heart-shaped pizza will give your heart and tummy something to smile about this Valentine’s Day 🙂

♣ Vegetarian Option: Omit the sausage, add additional cheese or veggies to make this pizza vegetarian.

♦ Gluten Free Option: Try this gluten free pizza dough recipe to make a heart-shaped gluten-free pizza.