Cheesy Deluxe Pizza Soup

It’s the about to be winter in the Midwest, which means it’s time for soup season!

Not only are soups delicious, but they absolutely hit the spot on a cold evening.

If you’re a pizza lover, this is absolutely the soup for you. It has all the flavors of an ultra cheesy deluxe pizza, but in a comforting soup!

We love to top this pizza soup with some crostini, slices of cheese, and bake it until ultra gooey and melty, just like a crock of french onion soup.

But, you absolutely don’t have to bake this soup if you would prefer not to.

How to make deluxe pizza soup?

This is just an overview; the full ingredients and directions are in the recipe card toward the bottom of this post.

1. Cook sausage. There’s no set time for this, just cook and crumble until there’s no pink remaining.
2. Add veggies. Cook until softened.
3. Season and add tomatoes. Add all the seasonings, diced tomatoes, and pizza sauce.
4. Add stock. Pour in the chicken stock and stir well to combine.
5. Simmer. Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes.
6. Finish. Stir in basil and parmesan cheese.

1. Ladle. Add some pizza soup to each oven-safe crock.
2. Add crostini. Two baguette slices should fit just fine. Alternately you could use a handful of croutons.
3. Top with cheese. I like to use two slices of mozzarella cheese.
4. Add pepperoni. Sprinkle with some diced pepperoni.
5. Bake. Baking at a high temperature melts the cheese and gets the cheese nice and golden brown.

Variations of this recipe

• Protein – feel free to use mild Italian sausage, a mixture of half sausage and half ground beef, or all ground beef.
• Veggies – I chose classic deluxe pizza toppings as the veggies for this recipe, but if you’d prefer something else, please feel free to sub for the veggies you like best!
• Homemade pizza sauce – to make things easier, I chose to use jarred pizza sauce, but if you’d like to use some homemade, use about 1 3/4 cup.
• Stock/broth – this recipe calls for stock, but if you have chicken broth on hand, that’ll work just fine. If you’d prefer to use beef broth or stock, that will also work well.
• Fresh basil alternative – fresh basil is one of my favorite herbs, but it typically doesn’t have a long shelf life. If you don’t have any on hand, my favorite substitute is the freeze-dried fresh basil (Gourmet Garden is the brand I use). For this recipe, use about 1 Tbsp.

Making soup ahead of time

Soups are amazing to make ahead of time, since most of the time, they actually taste better the next day! All the flavors have had time to really meld together, and this soup recipe is no exception.

The only thing I don’t recommend doing ahead of time, is adding the crostini/cheese and baking.

How to prep ahead for this recipe

To cut down on prep time, you can also do the following:

• Veggies – the bell peppers, onion, mushrooms, garlic, and pepperoncinis can be chopped and stored in the refrigerator.
• Seasonings – the spices can all be combined and stored at room temperature.
• Cheese – the Parmesan cheese can be grated and stored in the refrigerator.
• Crostini – the bread can be sliced and stored at room temperature.

Storage

Leftover unbaked soup should be refrigerated and enjoyed within 5-7 days.

I don’t recommend storing leftover baked soup, as the bread will soak up too much of the liquid and get mushy.