Pizza Dip

Today’s Pizza Dip recipe is brought to you in partnership with Cabot Cheese Cooperative. I love partnering with them because I love their cheeses! Any opinions and photos are, as always, my own.

Pizza Dip is just the thing for comfort food season. Oh yes, comfort food season is a thing, and we are in it.

Comfort food season is variously known as football season, birthday season (at our house), party season, and Fall. It’s when the weather is cool enough to fire up your oven and justifiably whip up all sorts of delicious baked things and slow-simmering or hot dishes.

Today’s recipe is all the delicious toppings of pizza (sauce, cheese, and pepperoni) minus the crust baked ’til bubbly in a hot skillet. It’s gooey, cheesy heaven.

And while you can dunk just about anything in this pizza dip, I love to serve it with pita wedges toasted lightly with parmesan cheese on top or tortilla chips. I don’t recommend potato chips, because they’re just not sturdy enough. You could also scoop it onto crusty bread.

What is the Best Cheese for Your Dip?

I love using Cabot’s Rustic Pizza Shredded Cheese for pizza dip. It’s a conveniently premium, natural, pre-shredded blend of sharp cheddar and part-skim mozzarella that gives the creamy, melty cheese-pull of mozzarella with the savoury flavour of cheddar wherever it’s used.

Here’s a Cabot Cheese store locator to help you find their products in your area. If you’re in a market where you cannot find Cabot’s line of premium shredded cheeses, first beg your grocery store to carry it, then you can substitute one cup each of shredded part-skim mozzarella and sharp cheddar.

If you’re looking for more deliciousness using Cabot cheese, please check out this Homemade Sloppy Joe recipe and these breakfast hot pockets.

Pizza Dip Recipe

I like to bounce back and forth between preparing this pizza dip recipe in a large, cast-iron skillet or two three-person sized cast-iron skillets. It’s far more convenient to use a 10-12 inch skillet or an 8-inch baking dish when it comes to clean-up, but nothing beats the fun of an individual serving size.

If you opt for the skillet, please just be sure it has an oven-safe handle. There’s not much more frustrating than trying to fish a skillet with a melting plastic handle out of the oven.

Whether you choose to use one skillet, a couple of little skillets, or a baking dish, you’ll love this, though.

The sauce for this pizza dip recipe is a matter of personal preference. Choose a pizza sauce that you normally like to have on pizza. Homemade slow-cooker pizza sauce is always great, but I also like this brand that is available at many stores.

Crockpot Pizza Dip

Great news for all you slow-cooker lovers out there! This dip can be prepared in a slow-cooker just as easily as it is in a frying pan or baking dish. You’ll want to use a small 1.5 to 2.5 quart slow-cooker for best results. It won’t fill the slow-cooker, but it’ll get lovely and melty just as it would in the oven.

In order to make your crustless pizza in a slow-cooker, layer the ingredients in the slow-cooker as directed in the recipe, and cover. Cook on HIGH for 1 hour (until melted), then turn to LOW while serving.

Crustless Pizza

Yes, this is basically a crustless pizza but it is more of a dip. If you’re looking for a low carb option to add some crunch, it is really tasty with celery sticks (they are a classic wing accompaniment, after all), or even with baby carrots.

This is not the type of pizza you can slice, however. It’s meant to be the melted, gooey part of the pizza that flies off of the top of the crust and onto your chin, minus the chin scalding portion of the program. It’s meant for pulling and dipping and spreading on things.

What to Serve with Your Hot Cheese Dip!

An obvious choice is these pesto pita chips. They’re sturdy enough to hold up to the melted cheese and the pesto is a natural match for pizza dip. You can also slice up this delicious braided bread and spread pizza dip on it.

Here’s an entire page of bread recipes you can peruse to serve with your dip. If you’re looking for a beverage, look no further than these Berry Kombucha Margaritas or this Hard Cider Sangria. Another great choice is Mixed Berry Sangria-by-the-Glass.

Don’t forget you’ll need dessert, too. This Maple Apple Upside Down Cake, Mounds Rice Pudding, Old Fashioned Double Chocolate Mocha Pudding, and Pumpkin Cheesecake Ice Cream all make amazing additions to any fall spread.

Here at Foodie with Family, we love our pizza. If you’re looking for more Pizza options, check out our Best Pan Pizza, Pizza Frittata, Pepperoni Pizza Gnocchi, and Pepperoni Pizza Bialys, for starters.

Pizza Dip

-Preheat oven to 350°F.

-Spread the softened cream cheese over the bottom of a 12-inch cast-iron skillet or 8-inch baking dish, or divide and spread evenly between two small cast-iron skillets.

-Top with half of the grated cheese, dollop the sauce over the cheese, then top with the remaining grated cheese. Scatter the quartered pepperoni slices evenly over the top.

-Bake for 25 minutes, or until the cheese is fully melted, bubbly, and browning at the edges. Let the pizza dip stand for 5 minutes before serving.