Deconstructed Meatball Sub Pizza

Skillet-crusted meatball mixture, herby sauce, provolone, ricotta, and fresh mozz. The whole sub, flat.

Time: 8 min | Yield: 1 pizzas | Difficulty: Intermediate | Serves: 3 | Published: 2026-07-24

Every flavor of a meatball sub, meat, red sauce, provolone, ricotta, basil, laid flat on a pizza. Deconstructed, but nothing lost.

The meat technique is the smart part: instead of rolling and searing individual meatballs, the seasoned beef-and-pork mixture gets pressed flat across the entire skillet like one giant smash patty. Untouched for 4-5 minutes for a serious crust, flipped in big pieces, then broken into craggy chunks. All the browned surface of meatballs, a fraction of the work.

Build: thin layer of the herby sauce, pecorino, whole-milk mozz, torn provolone, the meat, sliced fresh mozz, and seasoned ricotta dollops. Any extra meat mixture is tomorrow's pasta, the recipe says so itself. Basil and Reggiano to land it.

Ingredients

Ingredients

• Meatball

Olive Oil

• ½ pound 90/10 ground beef
• ½ pound ground pork
• 1 chopped shallot
• 2 chopped garlic cloves
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper
• ¼ cup bread crumbs
• ¼ cup grated parmesan
• 1 tbs fresh parsley
• Pizza
• Tomato Sauce (herby version)

Grated Pecorino Romano

• 1 cup shredded low moisture whole milk mozzarella
• 3 slices of provolone

Meatball Mixture

• ¼ ball of fresh mozzarella thinly sliced
• 5 - 6 tbsp ricotta
• salt
• pepper
• Parmigiano Reggiano
• olive oil
• basil

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 500-550 degrees on the convection setting for an hour with baking steel inside. Prepare the meatball mixture
2. Heat 2-3 tbs of oil in a skillet on medium/high heat
3. Add all ingredients to a large mixing bowl salt, ½ tsp pepper, ¼ cup bread crumbs, ¼ cup grated parmesan, 1 tbs fresh parsley
4. Thoroughly mix with your hands until everything is well combined.
   You'll know it's right: Press the mixture flat to cover the whole skillet bottom, thin and even, it's one giant meatball patty.
5. Spread the meat mixture evenly in the pan, pressing down to flatten to cover the entire bottom of the skillet.
   You'll know it's right: Four to five untouched minutes. The deep crust that forms is the flavor of the entire pie.
6. Let the meat cook without touching for 4-5 minutes. We want a nice crust.
7. Break into several 2-3 large pieces to flip over as a whole, and continue cooking for 3-4 minutes. We are aiming for a crust on both sides, while the center is still a little pink (it'll finish in the oven).
   You'll know it's right: Flip in 2-3 big pieces, then continue. Big pieces keep the crust intact until the final break-up.
8. Kill the flame, break up the meat with your spatula and set aside.
9. Stretch your dough to 14-16 inches on top of pizza peel. The dough recipe I used is in the caption but you can use any dough recipe you'd like.
10. Spread a thin layer of sauce on top (we will top with more at the end)
11. Sprinkle on a handful of pecorino romano
12. Spread your whole milk mozzarella
13. Tear up your provolone slices and place around the pizza.
14. Lay down a layer of your meatball mixture. You may have extra; just use for a quick pasta dish later :) Meatball Mixture
    You'll know it's right: A layer of the meat, not a mountain. Extra mixture is a pasta gift to your future self.
15. Spread out your fresh mozzarella ¼ ball of fresh mozzarella thinly sliced
16. Spread out your ricotta. I like to season mine with salt and pepper. 5 - 6 tbsp ricotta, 1 tsp salt, ½ tsp pepper
    You'll know it's right: Season the ricotta before it goes on, salt and pepper mixed in, then dollop. Plain ricotta bakes bland.
17. Optional, but recommended layer of olive oil around the crust olive oil
18. Launch into the oven on your baking steel and bake for 8 minutes.
19. Let cool on a cooling rack for two minutes.
20. Slice and finish with parm and fresh basil. Enjoy! Parmigiano Reggiano, basil

Troubleshooting

Meat was pale and steamed

Stirred the skillet patty. Press flat, walk away for 4-5 minutes, flip big. Crust requires neglect.

Center of the pie collapsed

Piled all the meat on. One layer. The recipe budgets for extra, that's pasta, not pizza cargo.

Dry meat

90/10 beef overcooked twice. Pull the skillet at browned-but-just-done, the oven finishes it. The pork keeps it juicy if you don't torch it.

Ricotta was bland spots

Dolloped it plain. Salt and pepper into the ricotta first. Every white dollop should taste finished.

Sauce overwhelmed everything

Heavy base layer. Thin layer under, that's it. This pie is meat-and-cheese forward with sauce as the thread.

Nutrition (2 slices (1/4 of the pie)): 480 calories, 27g protein, 38g carbs, 25g fat.