Name: Breaded Tilapia with Pizza Sauce and Mozzarella Cheese
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 15 min
Ingredients: 1-2 tablespoons avocado or olive oil; 6 4-oz pieces tilapia, orange roughy or other thin, mildly flavored fish fillets (if frozen, allow to thaw); ½ teaspoon table of sea salt; ⅛ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; 2/3 cup bread crumbs, dried; 1/2 cup pizza sauce; 2 oz. shredded Mozzarella cheese; Fresh basil

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Sneak Preview: Tilapia with Pizza Sauce and Mozzarella is a quick recipe that calls for topping breaded fish filets with pizza sauce and Mozzarella cheese. Kids love it.

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Pizza fish is not pizza with fish on it. Instead, it’s Grilled Tilapia with pizza sauce, Mozzarella cheese, and fresh basil. I learned about this recipe while giving out samples for a large fish company. Customers were crazy about it, so we sold a lot of fish.

If your family’s only experience with fish is fast food fried sandwiches, this simple recipe is a great way to change that.

Three Reasons To Bookmark This Recipe

Easily customizable: use your favorite white fish and Italian cheese
Appeals to picky eaters with familiar flavors.
Fresh basil adds sophistication for the adults

Happy Cooks Speak Up

“I made this on Saturday. We ALL loved it!!! Mike told me to add it to our list of “regular” meals.” 😉 STACI

Do You Have Any Tips for Getting Kids To Eat Fish?

Get your kids to help you fix it. They might be more likely to eat it, so it’s worth a try.

Need more tips in this area? Check out the strategies outlined in this article about getting kids to e at fish by Bon Appétit. Serving breaded fish like this recipe is just one idea.

📌Kitchen Tips📌How To Cook Breaded Tilapia in a Hurry

This fish recipe takes less than 15 minutes to make, even faster with frozen fish.
Tilapia and orange roughy defrost in about 20 minutes in water—perfect timing to walk in, change, and heat the skillet (paid link).
For a shortcut, brown the fish, top with pizza sauce and cheese, then cover the pan to melt the cheese—no broiler needed, though the cheese won’t brown.

How To Assemble This Recipe

ingredients for kid-friendly fish recipe — Pat fish fillets dry with paper towels. Pour crumbs onto a plate or wax paper.

Rolling fish fillets in bread crumbs — Roll fillets in bread crumbs.

Breaded fish in skillet — Place in a preheated skillet holding hot oil.

frying the tilapia with bread crumbs. — Sauté each side until the crumbs are golden brown.

pizza sauce on top of fish, then cheese — Spoon a small amount of pizza sauce on top of each fish fillet, then sprinkle with Mozzarella cheese.

tilapia with sauce and cheese on top — Put the lid on until the cheese melts. Sprinkle basil on top if desired.

Parting Thoughts: I’ll admit we don’t eat enough fish. We’re too far from the coast (at least that’s my excuse.) We especially love salmon when it’s prepared with toasted sliced almonds. Don’t miss it!

Help at Your Fingertips: For questions or suggestions, email Paula at saladinajar.com. If you need help, I’m happy to troubleshoot via email (faster than leaving a comment). Attach pictures and as many details as possible for the best advice.

Yield:

Breaded Tilapia with Pizza Sauce and Mozzarella Cheese

By Paula Rhodes

This lightly breaded tilapia is topped with pizza sauce, Mozzarella cheese, and chopped basil. It’s simple and quick. We call it pizza fish.

4 from 2 votes

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Prep time: 5

Cook time: 10

Total time: 15

Ingredients

1-2 tablespoons avocado or olive oil
6 4-oz pieces (680 g) tilapia, orange roughy or other thin, mildly flavored fish fillets (if frozen, allow to thaw)
½ teaspoon table of sea salt
⅛ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
⅔ cup (72 g) bread crumbs, dried
½ cup (122 g) pizza sauce
2 oz. (56 g) shredded Mozzarella cheese
Fresh basil

Instructions

Preheat 1-2 tablespoons avocado or olive oil in non-stick skillet over medium heat.
Lightly dry 6 4-oz pieces (680 g) tilapia, orange roughy or other thin, mildly flavored fish fillets (if frozen, allow to thaw) with paper towels. Season with ½ teaspoon table of sea salt and ⅛ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper.
Pour 2/3 cup (72 g) bread crumbs, dried onto a plate or wax paper and coat the fish on both sides. Use your hands to pat crumbs onto the surface of the fish.
Sauté fish until brown (2-3 minutes) and flip to brown the other side. (You could stop here and serve the fish with no sauce. It’s delicious!)
Spoon a light coating of 1/2 cup (122 g) pizza sauce over the fish. Then sprinkle about 2 oz. (56 g) shredded Mozzarella cheese over the sauce. Place under a broiler for a minute or two to brown the cheese.
Sprinkle chopped fresh basil on top of the cooked fish as a garnich and serve immediately. Good served as a fish sandwich with your favorite buns.

Equipment

Nutrition

All images and text ©️ Paula Rhodes for Salad in a Jar.com

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14 Comments

Pretty good idea, but not gonna help my kids eat more fish… Best thing that worked for me was using freshly caught fresh water fish properly cleaned, do a flour egg and breadcrumbs preferably corn meal and fry that in a little butter. I remember trying it for the first time as a kid when my dad made it, and it was love at first bite. Nothing better than a bluegill or walleye served up this way in my personal opinion…

I used you “Goofproof Chicken Cutlets” recipe last night (which I use often) with fish. That was before I read your post this morning about the pizza sauce. I pulled out my usual honey-mustard sauce last night, but next time I will try the pizza sauce. Sounds good.

Hi, I just got an e-mail about my comment on this recipe – I’d love to post it to Pinterest, your site apparently doesn’t allow?? I think allowing it would increase your traffic, and it is so great to share. Only six years later, but I’m going to check the rest of your site to see if you’ve posted other genius recipes like this!! Thank you for the reminder!!

Paula says:

at

Hi Vicki,
Yes, normally you can post anything on this site to Pinterest. I’ll check to make sure nothing has gone wrong. paula

Reply

I recently tried a similar recipe, but with salsa, rather than pizza sauce. It was very good, we’ll try the pizza sauce, next time! It is so great to find new recipes for fish, it is something we all need to learn to eat more of, and recipes such as this make it so much easier – the fact that it is a really quick meal makes it more likely that folks will want to work it into their rotation, too.

Isaac says:

at

I just made this and it didnt look like this but it was good . Wasnt even for my son, i was just hungry

Reply

I made this on Saturday. We ALL loved it!!! Mike told me to add it to our list of “regular” meals 😉

Romaine says:

at

I’m thrilled y’all liked it.

Reply

What a lot of neat jobs! I wasn’t too sure about this one, but I think you sold me on it. I don’t need to be tricked into eating fish, but this really does sound tasty.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen you make this recipe before. Sounds yummy! I’ll take a new idea on how to prepare tilapia. And you know my hubby…he is a pizza lover! BTW, don’t share this with anyone at Fuzzy’s…they may just steal it!

Definitely gonna have to try this one on my family!

Ok, this is just fishy. Something about it reeks…. of fish. =) What a wonderfully creative idea! It’s no wonder you’ve had such a varied and somewhat “unique” career. I honestly can’t wait to try this! I agree – the pizza topping sold me!

Oooo! It’s like a fish parmegian sub. Brilliant!

Yum! I’ll have to give this a try. My kids and husband LOVE fish… It’s me that needs the pizza topping! 🙂 Thanks for sharing!

Paula Rhodes, owner

As a retired home economist, I created Saladinajar.com to share my belief that you don’t have to be a chef to find joy in creating homemade food worth sharing. Bread machines (used in an unconventional way), homemade yogurt, and quick microwave recipes are my specialty.