When I first discovered this Crispy Cheesy Pan Pizza, late in 2020, I couldn’t believe that my Pinterest feed wasn’t full of people raving about it. Then I realized that it was King Arthur’s recipe of the year for 2020–which usually gets introduced at the beginning of the year. So I was behind the times. Shocking.

But there might be some of you out there who have also been living under a pizza rock and will find this recipe as eye-opening as I did. For a while, back in the darkest days of winter, we were making it every week. It’s easy enough to prepare on a weeknight, too (especially if you’re working from home). Note that you’ll want to start the dough the day before, but don’t be put off by that and think that this is a difficult or putzy recipe–it’s not. Sure, the dough uses yeast, but instead of that traditional knead, it uses a foldover method that takes all of seconds to do, and the “work” is spread over 20 minutes.

This is definitely a thick-crust pizza, so thin-crust lovers be warned. There’s a nice little crunch to the bottom of the chewy crust, but it’s like biting into a pizza cloud, topped with all the best things you can imagine. The recipe warns about going overboard with the sauce and cheese, and I have yet to take that to heart. Many of our pies start off with my go-to, Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Sauce. So simple. So tasty. I can eat it out of the pot with a spoon and be content. Marcella’s original discards the onion, but don’t. Instead, blend it into the sauce for that extra zip of flavor.

For toppings, we’ve settled on a fave combo of crumbled Italian sausage, bacon bits, black olives, sautéed mushrooms and mozzarella cheese, sometimes a few sliced tomatoes if we have them on hand. I’ve also whipped up versions with burrata kicking out the mozzarella, one with a white sauce base topped with caramelized onions and mushrooms and another that used up some odds and ends being held captive in the fridge, like green onions, a handful of carnitas and cheddar cheese. Each and every one was a keeper. I just don’t think you can go wrong if you pair up all your favorites and bring ‘em together on this crust.

We’re Nooming right now (sigh, thanks COVID), so this pizza hasn’t made an appearance lately. I can’t wait to do a summer version, though, dressed up with the tomatoes, peppers and basil that we just planted. Or maybe some homemade paneer if I get that industrious. Or perhaps just a slathering of pesto and fresh tomatoes. This pizza knows no bounds.