How much mozzarella for pizza really depends on the size of your pizza and the type of pizza you are making. Whether you are looking to make a pan crust pizza or want to try a Margherita-style slice, we’ve got the information you need. So, if you’re ready, let’s dive into how much mozzarella for a pizza should be used in today’s post.
Table of Contents
- How Much Mozzarella Cheese Goes on a Pizza?
- Delicious Mozzarella Pizza Recipe (From Scratch!)
- How Much Mozzarella For a Homemade Pizza? You Be the Judge!
- How much mozzarella for a pizza – FAQs
How Much Mozzarella Cheese Goes on a Pizza?
First and foremost, let’s get this out of the way.
The amount of cheese required to go on a pizza that you are making from the comfort of your own home is completely up to you! You can put as little or as much cheese as your heart desires on your pizza.
However, the technical answer to how much mozzarella cheese goes on a pizza varies. That’s because the amount of cheese that goes on a pizza will be different depending on the size of your pizza. Therefore, it is imperative that you know how big of a pizza you are going to make in order to buy the right amount of cheese to go on top of it.
How Much Cheese on a 10 Inch Pizza?
A 10-inch pizza won’t require a ton of cheese. Still, we recommend shooting for a little less than 8oz (so about 6oz for this size of a pizza) to keep the cheese at a decent amount.
But since many stores carry cheese in 8oz bags, you may be tempted to dump the entire 8 oz bag on your 10-inch pizza…and to this, we will not contest!
Note: When purchasing shredded cheese for pizza, it may help to buy wider shreds. If you plan to shred your own mozzarella from a cheese block, do so using the widest slots on the grater possible. This will ensure that your cheese doesn’t melt too quickly which can yield a lot of oil and turn an unappetizing orange-brown color. By keeping shreds thick, you ensure that your cheese melts slowly and doesn’t release as much oil and fat in the process.
How Much Mozzarella Do I Need For a 12 inch Pizza?
When making a standard 12-inch pizza, you’ll want to use about 8oz or one small package of mozzarella cheese. This will be enough the to cover the surface area of the pizza generously without too many gaps being present.
Having said that, you can increase the amount of cheese you wish to have on your pizza by adding as much cheese as you want even on top of the standard amount.
For reference, pizza restaurants like Domino’s often add 7-8 oz of cheese on a medium pizza and adds 4oz extra if a customer requests extra cheese. Therefore, it makes sense that you could put at least another half of an 8oz bag of mozzarella on your pizza to be the equivalent of “extra cheese” from a pizzeria.
When making a 12-inch pizza, you may consider using fresh mozzarella rather than pre shredded mozzarella. In this case, you’ll need about 7-8 ounces of sliced fresh mozzarella to get the look and taste you want on your 12-inch pizza.
When doing this be careful not to treat the cheese the same way you would pre shredded mozzarella. Fresh mozzarella has a lot of excess moisture, and as a result, may need to be drained a bit to keep your pizza from becoming too watery.
To do this, simply cut your mozzarella into thin slices (the thicker the slices, the more moisture the slices will hold) and lay them on a paper towel or tea towel to let them drain out a bit. By doing this, you reduce the risks of your mozzarella cheese releasing extra moisture onto your pizza and thereby ruining the dish.
How Much Cheese Do I Need for a 16 inch Pizza?
For a 16-inch pizza, you’ll need about 16oz of cheese which translates to two small 8oz bags of low moisture mozzarella that’s already been shredded. You’ll want about the same amount of fresh mozzarella cheese added to your pizza.
Note: Using whole milk mozzarella when making a pizza is almost always best. This is because the amount of fat in whole milk mozzarella is what enables your cheese to become that ooey-gooey texture and offer that deliciously satisfying taste we all crave.
By purchasing cheese that is lower in fat, you are certainly saving yourself calories and cholesterol. However, your cheese may not melt as easily and it may not become as gooey as you may have hoped.
How Much Mozzarella Per Neapolitan Pizza
Neapolitan pizzas usually use fresh mozzarella.
For this reason, we recommend you use about 3-4 ounces of fresh mozzarella or the equivalent of 3/4 cup of mozzarella shredded when making a Neapolitan pizza from scratch.
Delicious Mozzarella Pizza Recipe (From Scratch!)
Ingredients For the Dough
- 3 ½ cups of All Purpose Flour
- 2 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Sugar
- 2 Tbsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 ⅓ cups of Warm Water
- 1 Envelope of Yeast
- 1 tsp Basil
- 1 tsp Granulated Garlic
Ingredients For the No Cook Pizza Sauce
- 1 ¼ cup of Tomato Sauce
- ½ tsp Dried Oregano
- ½ tsp Dried Basil, to taste
- ½ tsp Granulated Garlic, to taste
- ½ tsp Granulated Onion, to taste
- ½ tsp Crushed Red Peppers
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- A Pinch of Sugar
Ingredients For the Toppings
- 16oz of cheese (8oz per pizza)
Use whatever toppings you like! Ideas include:
- Pepperoni
- Mushroom
- Onion
- Olives
- Green Peppers
- Red Peppers
- Fresh Basil
- Italian Sausage
- Ground Beef
Instructions
How to Make Homemade Pizza
Prepare yeast
First, add the yeast to warm water and let it proof for 3 minutes.
Make dough
Combine together the flour, salt, sugar, and olive oil. Add the yeast to the flour mixture. Mix your ingredients until everything is well combined.
Prepare dough
Grab two bowls that are relatively large and oil them on the inside. Divide your previously mixed dough into two pieces and place each ball within a bowl. Use a brush to oil the tops and sides of your balls of dough to prevent them from drying out. Place plastic wrap on top of your two dough bowls and store them in a warm place, preferably in your oven or microwave (while turned off, of course!)
Make sauce
In the meantime, mix together all of the ingredients for your pizza sauce and set it aside. There is no need to cook the sauce. You can adjust the seasonings based on your preference. You can even use pasta sauce for pizza!
Prepare oven
Preheat your oven to 475 °F for at least twenty minutes before baking to ensure that the oven is hot enough.
Roll dough
Sprinkle flour onto the counter and, taking one ball of dough, roll the dough into a 10-12 inch circle using a rolling pin or using your hands.
Put sauce and toppings
Using a pizza peel, pizza pan, or a baking sheet turned upside down to put your rolled-out pizza dough on. Put your red sauce on the dough, being careful not to oversauce it. Sprinkle it with cheese and toppings.
Bake pizza
Cook your pizza in the oven for 12-20 minutes, watching closely to ensure it gets fully cooked on the inside without getting burned on the outside. Trust us–You NEVER want to eat undercooked pizza!
Note: If using raw sausage or fresh mushrooms, you may wish to cook them first. If you don’t wish to cook them, try squishing your sausages very thin and flat. Then place them on top of your pizza. Try also slicing your mushrooms extra thin. These techniques will help both topping types to cook through better.
Here’s a video how to stretch and roll out your pizza:
How Much Mozzarella For a Homemade Pizza? You Be the Judge!
While there are technical guidelines for how much cheese you “should” put on a pizza, the best judge for what will taste best when making pizza homemade is yourself.
Still, it can be helpful to know how much cheese is the norm for whatever sized pizza you are making.
So hopefully this article has given you a bit of guidance as to how much cheese you can expect to need to buy the next time you want to make a pizza from scratch.
Another pizza for you to try making is this great Ham Pepperoni Mushroom Pizza.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this post…Until next time!
How much mozzarella for a pizza – FAQs
How much cheese is used on a pizza?
The answer to this question is purely subjective, however, how much cheese is used on a pizza will be dependent upon the size of the pizza. Generally speaking, pizza cheese that goes on a 12-inch pie will be the equivalent to 8oz and pizza cheese that goes on an 18-inch pie will be around 16oz. Of course, if you choose to put more cheese on your pizza than the standard amount, you can do so. We won’t tell!
Do you put cheese on pizza first or last?
Whether or not you put cheese on pizza first or last is completely up to you. In general, toppings that tend to dry out will be placed under the cheese while toppings that may be wet or do not dry out as easily may be placed on top.
So, for example, you may wish to place your pepperoni under the cheese if you don’t like crunchy pepperoni. But if you loved the charred and crunchy taste of well-done pepperoni as we do, then you should put them on top of the cheese.
In addition, because toppings like mushrooms tend to be wet, they might be best enjoyed on top of the cheese. Feel free to play around with your toppings to see which order you like best when it comes to putting toppings under or over the cheese.
