It’s a pizza party!

You guys know that I love to throw dinner parties! But after we bought our pizza oven I knew that I wanted to throw an outdoor pizza dinner party. Let me be honest for a second and say that it was a lot more work than I thought. The last time I threw a dinner party, it was plated and I had most everything ready to go ahead of time so I didn’t spend too long in the kitchen. What happens when you decide to do pizza all by yourself and not accept any help from your friends is that you spend about an hour putting pizzas together, running them outside for your husband to cook, cutting them and then starting that process all over again! 🙂

So, I would throw this party again and again, but I might ask for some guest participation or try assembling the pizzas head of time.

But let me give you all the details so that you can throw your own outdoor dinner party with homemade pizzas!

Table decor

This is probably one of my favorite parts since styling is one of my favorite things to do. I love layering a table with glassware, plates, linens, table cloths, candles and flowers. I usually choose the flowers as my pop of color and then purchase or use glassware that I have. These patterned amber glasses that I used were bought for my fall dinner party, but the color still worked with my late spring/early summer color scheme. And since I really wanted it to feel light and bright and also still pizza themed, I used these neutral gingham napkins. They felt like those traditional red and white checkered ones you see at Italian restaurants, but way less bold.

For this look I used a woven place mat, white dishes and the checkered napkins. I set out both water and wine glasses and then layered in candles in different heights and a mix of floral arrangements and potted flowers to give a little extra “garden party” vibes.

I put together my outdoor table and brought out my indoor round table to provide plenty of eating and then used a combination of all of the outdoor chairs that I had in my yard. I didn’t mind the mix and match. It felt casual and approachable.

Then I covered folding tables with tablecloths for the food and drink tables and added some floral and candles to make them feel a little more styled.

shop the look

JavaScript is currently disabled in this browser. Reactivate it to view this content.

Food & Drinks

I always like to start off my dinner parties with a grazing board and welcome drink as people trickle in. It’s a place for people to gather around chat before the dinner party starts. For this board I did a charcuterie style with meats, cheese, crackers, fresh and dried fruits and jams. For the welcome drink, I did a spritz station. Guests could make an Aperol or Huge spritz. Below is the recipe for that:

spritz recipe

-2 oz Aperol or Elderflower liqueur

-4 oz Prosecco

-1 oz (top with) club soda

For dinner, I made a strawberry mozzarella salad – sliced strawberries, sliced fresh mozzarella cheese, fresh basil, a drizzle of olive and balsamic glaze and a sprinkle of sea salt. And made sure that my friends have plenty of red or white wine to drink throughout the night!

And then we made a few different pizzas on our new pizza oven. We chose the Gozney Dome Propane Pizza Oven and it’s amazing! You can cook a pizza in like 90 seconds and the crust gets nice and crispy and bubbly. Feels like an authentic way to cook a pizza. Plus, it’s pretty!

Here are the recipes for the pizzas we made!

sausage & burrata

INGREDIENTS:

-fresh pizza dough (my favorite is from Whole Foods)

-pizza sauce (I like Rao’s!)

-ground italian sausage (cook ahead of time)

-shredded Parmesan cheese

-burrata cheese

-fresh basil

-truffle oil

DIRECTIONS:

-roll out the pizza dough into a 12″ round (or as close to round as possible)

-spread pizza sauce around the dough leaving an edge around for crust

-sprinkle around the cooked italian sausage

-top with shredded Parmesan cheese

-cook in pizza oven until cheese is melted and dough is cooked through

-top with torn burrata cheese

-sprinkle fresh basil on top

-lightly drizzle truffle oil over the pizza

pepperoni & mozzarella

INGREDIENTS:

-fresh pizza dough (my favorite is from Whole Foods)

-pizza sauce (I like Rao’s!)

-sliced pepperoni

-fresh sliced mozzarella

-fresh basil

-hot honey

DIRECTIONS:

-roll out the pizza dough into a 12″ round (or as close to round as possible)

-spread pizza sauce around the dough leaving an edge around for crust

-lay sliced pepperoni around the pizza

-top with sliced mozzarella cheese

-cook in pizza oven until cheese is melted and dough is cooked through

-top with fresh basil

-lightly drizzle hot honey over the pizza

caramelized onion & prosciutto

INGREDIENTS:

-fresh pizza dough (my favorite is from Whole Foods)

-pizza sauce (I like Rao’s!)

-sweet onion (sliced thin)

(olive oil, butter, balsamic vinegar, thyme, honey)

-fresh sliced mozzarella cheese

-sliced prosciutto

-arugula

-lemon

-flaky sea salt

DIRECTIONS:

-roll out the pizza dough into a 12″ round (or as close to round as possible)

-cook onion down for at least an hour until soft and dark in color

-spread the cooked onion down as the sauce around the pizza

-top with sliced mozzarella cheese

-cook in pizza oven until cheese is melted and dough is cooked through

-top with torn fresh prosciutto & then argula

-lightly drizzle olive oil and lemon juice over the arugula and top with flaky sea salt

We finished our meal with store bought dessert. Because…it’s a lot of work to do all the things and really Whole Foods does it better than I do. I got the berry chantilly cream cake and the tiramisu. And then I served amaretto that we bought in Florence and also some Limoncello.

The best way to end the night was with a glass of amaretto and chatting and hanging out with friends.

I hope you get the chance to throw an outdoor dinner party this summer!

shop the pizza tools

JavaScript is currently disabled in this browser. Reactivate it to view this content.