Ten ingredients and forty minutes, on a stone or an inverted sheet pan heated to 500°F.
Everything that goes on top is cooked before it gets there. The bake is only there to puff the crust and melt two cheeses.
Why This Recipe Works
- Softening the onion and pepper first drives off the water a raw slice would release.
- Searing the steak quickly browns it without cooking it through twice.
- Two cheeses laid straight on the dough give the white base the pizza is built on.
- A fully heated stone puffs a thick round before the toppings weigh it down.
- Ten to thirteen minutes is enough to finish the crust and nothing else.
Ingredient Notes
- Sirloin steak, thinly sliced
- Ten ounces. Sliced rather than ground — that is what makes this a cheesesteak identity rather than a beef pizza.
- Mozzarella and sliced provolone
- A cup and a half shredded and six ounces sliced. Both go straight onto the dough; together they are the base of this pizza.
- Yellow onion
- One small, thinly sliced and softened. The title never names it, but it is one of the three things visible on top.
- Green bell pepper
- One, thinly sliced. Cooked with the onion so it is soft rather than raw and crisp by the time it bakes.
How to Make It
Oven to 500°F with a stone or inverted sheet pan preheating
Heat oven to 500°F with a pizza stone or inverted sheet pan preheating.
Onion and pepper softened in half the oil, then removed
Cook onion and bell pepper in half the oil until softened; remove.
Steak seared to at least 145°F, then rested three minutes
Sear steak quickly in the remaining oil until browned and at least 145°F, then rest 3 minutes.
Dough stretched thick; both cheeses on — no red sauce
Stretch dough into a thick round. Cover the dough directly with mozzarella and provolone; do not add red sauce.
Steak, onion and green pepper over the cheese
Top with steak, onion, and green pepper.
Baked ten to thirteen minutes to a puffed golden crust
Bake 10 to 13 minutes until the crust is puffed and deeply golden.
Read From the Dough Up, and Notice What Is Missing
Most pizzas start with a red layer. This one does not, and four things never appear on it: no tomato sauce, no ricotta, no honey, no pepperoni. What that leaves is a stack of five things, and the order they go on in is doing real work.
10 to 13 minutes, and nothing to finish
Baked UNTIL THE CRUST IS PUFFED AND DEEPLY GOLDEN. Everything on top is already cooked, so the oven has one job. And nothing goes on afterwards - no herb, no drizzle, no finishing cheese. The pizza in the photograph carries exactly the five things above it and nothing else.
1 GREEN bell pepper, softened alongside it
Thinly sliced and softened in the same pan at the same time. Green specifically - this pizza carries only green pepper. It goes on last, over the steak, where it stays visible.
1 small ONION, softened first
Thinly sliced and cooked until SOFTENED, then removed from the pan before the steak goes in. Onion is a component the title never names, in soft golden strands. Cooking it first is what makes them strands: raw slices laid on a pizza release water into the cheese and stay sharp.
10 oz of SLICED sirloin, seared and rested
Seared quickly in half the oil until browned and AT LEAST 145°F, then RESTED 3 MINUTES - the safety standard for a whole cut, and the rest matters as much as the temperature. Sliced rather than ground matters too: a cheesesteak is thin-sliced beef.
The base - MOZZARELLA AND PROVOLONE, and NO red sauce
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella and 6 oz of sliced provolone, laid DIRECTLY on the dough. Step 4 says it outright: DO NOT ADD RED SAUCE. The white cheese IS the base, which is why the finished pizza reads pale and browned in patches rather than red underneath.
A 500°F stone, and a THICK round
1 lb of dough stretched into a THICK round on a fully preheated stone or inverted sheet pan. Thick matters - the crust is puffed and deep, not a thin crisp base - and a thick round needs the stone genuinely at temperature to rise before the weight on top settles it.
Success Tips
- Let the stone or pan reach a full 500 degrees before the pizza goes near it.
- Sear the steak fast — it gets a second heating in the oven and overcooks easily.
- Rest the steak the full three minutes before it is sliced onto the dough.
Serving Ideas
Eight slices from a round pizza with a thick puffed deeply golden crust, its base melted white cheese browned in patches under sliced steak, softened golden onion and green pepper strips.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there really no tomato sauce?
None. Step 4 rules it out — the mozzarella and provolone go straight onto the dough, and that white cheese layer is the base.
Can ground beef be used instead?
Not as written. The recipe uses thinly sliced sirloin, and sliced beef rather than ground is what makes it taste like a cheesesteak.
Why sear the steak if it bakes anyway?
For the browning, not for doneness. It reaches 145 degrees Fahrenheit in the pan and rests three minutes; the ten-minute bake is for the crust.
