Pete Hegseth's Game Day Pizza Starts With His Ex-Wife's Recipe And Ends On The Grill

Nothing beats homemade pizza on game day, but everyone has a different way of putting it together. My recipe is structured for speed, simplicity, and to accommodate food allergies; it's oven-baked with minimal ingredients and free from gluten and dairy. U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth's pizza recipe is a bit more classic and involves more steps. His pizza uses homemade sauce and all the melted mozzarella you could want, after which it's flame-cooked on the grill. The result is a crispy crust and a smoky finish, but what really sets Hegseth's pizza recipe apart is that the process starts with his ex-wife Sammy's homemade pizza sauce on the stovetop.

Hegseth's homemade pizza sauce is built with classic ingredients, including tomatoes, onion, garlic, oregano, fresh basil, and olive oil. It takes 30 to 45 minutes to simmer everything down into a cohesive, rich sauce that goes on top of a thin, pre-made pizza crust. Then comes a layer of shredded mozzarella cheese, toppings, and then another layer of mozzarella. It's finished with a drizzle of olive oil, salt, crushed red peppers, and grated Parmesan (use Parmesan Reggiano — which isn't just a fancy way to say Parmesan cheese — if you can find it).

Grilled pizza is the easiest way to make homemade pizza taste like it came straight from a brick oven pizzeria. All you need is a regular outdoor grill, so you can use the outdoor kitchen setup you already have instead of investing in a home pizza oven. It's a great way to cook up any style of pizza, from New York or Detroit style to a classic Chicago deep dish. You can even grill a frozen pizza and still end up with something close to what you'd get at a pizzeria.

The grill quickly and evenly cooks the whole pie, where it develops a char just like it would in a brick oven. Hegseth's recipe uses a pizza stone placed on the center of the grill, after which the pizza is cooked with the lid closed for 8 to 10 minutes. Preheat the grill to around 500 degrees Fahrenheit if you're using a pizza stone and let the stone heat up to temperature before cooking for best results. For a crispy crust, choose premade crusts over making your own dough and opt for quick-cooking toppings like pepperoni instead of toppings that get soggy, like sliced tomatoes, mushrooms, or pineapple.