If you love pizza as much as we do, you’ll love this recipe for a pizza sandwich.
We sold many of these in our sandwich shop growing up. Our Dad priced a small pizza sandwich with a bag of chips and a soda at $1.00. Of course, this was back in the 1970s. School kids flocked to our store at lunch time to get this delicious and affordable treat.
Pizza sandwiches are lighter than a regular pizza because they are made on a roll instead of thick pie dough.
They work best on the torpedo type of Italian roll you would use to make a cheesesteak or a hoagie. But you can use any kind of roll you like. We’ve made them on kaiser rolls, baguettes, even white bread in a pinch.
We usually use leftover tomato sauce from spaghetti night. If you want to make sauce from scratch, start with a can of crushed tomatoes, add a little olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano, garlic, red pepper flakes, or whatever are your favorite Italian spices.
Provolone cheese is best for this. It melts well, is somewhat stretchy, but not overly so. We like the flavor better than mozzarella.
Top with dried oregano and bake in the oven.
Growing up we threw these into our hot pizza oven for just a few minutes. At home, we usually bake them for a few minutes at 375 degrees F. Then put under the broiler for just a minute to get the cheese brown and bubbly.
For a variation, try topping with sliced pepperoni. This was known as The DeRosa Special.
These pizza sandwiches are so quick to make, you can have wonderful pizza flavor at home in just a few minutes.

Pizza Sandwich
Ingredients
- 1 torpedo roll per person
- pizza sauce (tomato sauce)
- provolone cheese
- dried oregano
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Cut rolls in half longways all the way through.
- Spread pizza sauce on roll to cover each half. (Read our blog post to learn how to make pizza sauce.)
- Top with provolone cheese slices. Shake on dried oregano.
- Bake in oven for 5-10 minutes. Then put under the broiler for just a minute to get the cheese brown and bubbly.
Notes