Pizza Beans

This recipe for pizza beans is an easy, cheesy white bean tomato bake that’s a one-pan, 30-minute main dish. Bake until the cheese is melted and bubbly and serve with a garlic bread baguette and a side salad for a complete meal. With canned beans, canned tomatoes, and only a little bit of chopping, pizza flavor doesn’t get much easier than this.

Read on for detailed steps, tips, and tricks and to learn all about the racy pasta sauce that inspired this pizza bean recipe. Or just grab your one pan, hit that Jump to Recipe button, and let’s make some pizza beans!

Ingredients

• Canned white beans for convenience – I use cannellini or Great Northern. When I have time, I soak beans overnight and cook them with some onion and garlic until soft.
• Chopped tomatoes – buy fire-roasted tomatoes for a bit more flavor. Or amp up the tomato flavor with a bit of tomato paste.
• Olives – use Kalamata or another black olive. Pitted olives save even more time!
• Mozzarella – shredded cheese works better than fresh mozzarella because it melts more evenly. Feel free to buy pre-packaged or shred your own.
• Parmesan – it’s always best to grate your own.

Substitutions and variations

Use your favorite pizza recipes for inspiration for these pizza beans

• Lightly cook sliced bell peppers or mushrooms. When soft, add the garlic and proceed with the recipe.
• Feel free to throw in some dried basil, oregano, rosemary, or thyme into the pan when you add the olives.
• Add pepperoni, cooked sausage, or anchovies before you mix in the cheeses.
• Add a handful of greens like spinach or kale when you stir in the mozzarella.

Recipe adaptation

These pizza beans were adapted from the cheesy white bean tomato bake recipe with the same name by Ali Slagle in the New York Times cooking app. They’re a quick and easy way I get pizza flavor without making my favorite pizza dough recipe or fussing with the Ooni pizza oven.

I’ve married the ease of the cheesy white bean tomato bake recipe with puttanesca. Although puttanesca means “in the style of a prostitute,” the actual origin is unclear. Perhaps it’s because the sauce, made with tomatoes, garlic, black olives, capers, dried red pepper flakes, and sometimes with anchovies, is just a bit spicy.

Step by step

Step 1: To make pizza beans, cook the garlic and red pepper flakes for a minute over medium low heat until it starts to become fragrant (Panel #1, below). Be careful not to burn the garlic, or it will become bitter.

Step 2: Add the chopped olives and capers and cook for another minute (Panel #2).

Step 3: Add the tomatoes, turn the heat to medium, and cook for about five minutes until the liquid thickens a bit (Panel #3, above).

Step 4: Turn off the heat and stir in the drained white beans (Panel #4).

Step 5: Stir in the mozzarella and sprinkle the Parmesan evenly over top.

Step 6: Bake for ten minutes in a 450 degree oven until the cheese has melted and the sauce is bubbling. Remove the pan from the oven, sprinkle on chopped basil or parsley, and serve your pizza beans immediately.

What to serve with pizza beans:

Check out this collection of recipes I put together for what to serve with pizza. Any of those would go with pizza beans, like:

• crusty white bread like this semolina bread or pretzel bread to sop up the sauce.
• rainbow veggies, raw carrot salad, peach burrata Caprese salad, or rainbow salad bowl.
• drink a medium-bodied Italian red or red table wine. Or have a cocktail like this Aperol Negroni or dry martini.

Recipe FAQs

Other related meat-free recipes

If you’re looking for easy meat-free meals and other white bean recipes, check out: