Halloween Ghost Pizza

How to make a spooky Halloween pizza with mozzarella cheese ghosts & black olive spiders—using premade pizza dough & sauce! Feel free to use homemade dough & sauce if you prefer, or stick with store-bought to keep this ghostly pizza recipe as easy as possible. Minimal prep work, but maximum deliciousness. The perfect Halloween party food for kids or adults!

For more savory Halloween party food ideas, try this adorable Mummy Baked Brie & colorful Candy Corn Veggie Tray!

What is a ghost pizza?

This ghost pizza is just like a classic pizza—but topped with spooky mozzarella cheese ghosts & black olive spiders! Instead of shredded cheese, this Halloween pizza is made with mozzarella cheese slices, cut into simple ghost shapes. You’re welcome to use your favorite homemade pizza dough & sauce, but I keep this ghostly pizza super simple by using premade pizza dough & pizza sauce from the grocery store. It’s one of the easiest Halloween party food ideas to make, and it’s a crowd favorite to eat!

Tips for the Easiest Homemade Halloween Pizzas

1. Use premade pizza dough & pizza sauce. If I’m making this ghostly pizza for a Halloween party I’m hosting, using store-bought dough & sauce cuts down on my prep work—without sacrificing deliciousness. In the bakery or deli section of many grocery stores, you can find bags of freshly made pizza dough that (I think) are just as tasty as homemade!
2. Shape the crust into a round shape. Some Halloween pizza ideas involve shaping the dough into a pumpkin or ghost shape—which is incredibly cool, but also takes more time & effort. A spooky-shaped pizza is an option I’d choose when I have the time, but making the crust round keeps the Halloween party prep simpler.
3. Invest your time in creating spooky pizza toppings. Since we’re not making a ghost shaped pizza crust, use that time & creative energy to make festive toppings! Take a few minutes to carefully cut out your mozzarella cheese ghosts, slice the olives to make spiders, and arrange everything on the pizza. Treat these toppings like edible Halloween decorations on top of your spooky pizza canvas.
4. Don’t worry about prebaking the crust! Although most homemade pizza recipes recommend prebaking the pizza dough, I found it wasn’t necessary for this easy Halloween pizza recipe. You can absolutely prebake your crust if you’d rather, but skipping this step streamlines the prep process, and my homemade pizza turned out delicious without prebaking the crust at all.

Ghostly Cheese Pizza Ingredients

• Pizza Dough. Store-bought or homemade—use whichever you prefer! Premade pizza dough is a time-saver, it’s easy to work with, and it’s still super tasty. But you can also make this Halloween pizza recipe with your favorite homemade pizza dough instead. If you want a super-easy homemade dough, I have an older recipe for 2-Ingredient Pizza Dough (with a whole wheat option).
• Red Sauce. Same as the dough, feel free to use store-bought pizza sauce for convenience, or make your own sauce at home if you’d rather. Personally, I use a jar of pizza sauce because it saves time—and there are many options now with simple ingredients, little to no added sugar, and no additives or preservatives.
• Cheese Slices. Instead of shredded cheese, you’ll need to use sliced cheese—either mozzarella or provolone slices. I used a package of sliced cheese from the deli section, so the slices were already cut thinly and evenly for me. My cheese slices happened to be round (rather than square), so cutting out my little ghost shapes was simple.
• Black Olives. Rather than sliced olives, buy whole black olives to use for making the spider topping on your spooky pizza. You’ll need an entire half of an olive for each spider body, and then slices for the spider legs.
• Fresh Basil. This is an optional garnish, but a great way to add some color to your Halloween ghost pizza before serving!

How to Make a Halloween Pizza with Cheese Ghosts & Olive Spiders

1. Prep the Dough. First, rest store-bought pizza dough at room temperature for 30-60 minutes, so it can rise a bit. (If you want to use homemade pizza dough and/or sauce, start by prepping those.)
2. Cut Cheese into Ghost Shapes. Lay a cheese slice flat and cut it into a ghost shape using a paring knife. Since my cheese slices were circular, I cut each slice into 2 pieces with a squiggle down the middle—like drawing a yin-yang symbol.
3. Create OIive Spiders. First, slice a black olive lengthwise, and use 1 half for each spider’s body. To make spider legs, slice a black olive lengthwise, then cut each olive half into 4 half-moon slices—so you have 8 legs total. Create as many spiders as desired and set aside. Then, gather additional olive pieces to cut small eyes & mouths to place on ghosts.
4. Roll Out & Shape Dough. Flour a surface and knead pizza dough a bit to remove any bubbles. Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough to ~¼-inch thick, lifting the dough and rotating as you go, forming the dough into a circle.
5. Assemble Halloween Pizza. Grease your pizza pan and transfer the rolled dough onto it. (I use a round pizza pan with a perforated bottom to help the crust crisp up and prevent it from becoming soggy in the middle, or you can use a pizza stone.) Then, spread on your pizza sauce, leaving room around the edges so you have a pizza crust. Finally, add your ghost cheeses, using small black olive bits as eyes & mouths, and then arrange your black olive spiders.
6. Bake at 425°F for 12-15 Minutes. I recommend baking on the middle rack of your oven and watching as it bakes, until it’s browned to your liking. If desired, you can broil at the end for 1-2 minutes to get the cheese browned and bubbly.

Watch my Halloween Party Appetizers video to see how I made this cute ghost cheese pizza!