What would you do if you found out you had a disease that prevented you from eating your favorite food? Most would try and find ingredient substitutions so that they could still enjoy their favorite dish. Some, unfortunately, give up and move on. Here at Lou Malnati’s, we understand our customers’ personal preferences and we also understand that some circumstances are out of our customers’ hands. One issue we receive a lot of questions about is our gluten-free menu options.
It seems as though gluten intolerance has become more prevalent in recent years but maybe its awareness is due, in part, to people educating themselves on the way their bodies react to certain foods. Gluten intolerance is basically the body’s inability to digest certain types of proteins that are commonly found in wheat, rye and barley products. So that means pasta, cereal and bread, all the things that make carbohydrate lovers salivate, are off limits.
It’s a disease for which testing is available to determine if a person has an actual intolerance, but the expensive price tag causes some people to shy away. That’s usually the point at which people start taking their health into their own hands and experimenting. If their symptoms subside and they no longer feel like their body is waging war against them, they start transitioning their diet and finding ways to create their favorite dishes using different, more intestine-friendly ingredients.
That being said, if you’re on a gluten-free diet and miss the bliss of a deep-dish from Lou Malnati’s, we’ve got a special treat for you. For some time now, Lou’s has proudly offered a tasty “crustless” pizza for those who are gluten-intolerant (great for those watching their carbohydrate intake as well).
The “crustless” pizza is made from our lean sausage as the base, and then topped with our fresh mozzarella cheese and zesty tomato sauce. Of course you can customize it to your taste by adding any of Lou’s other fresh ingredients. Just because you can’t eat the crust, doesn’t mean you can’t get a great pie from Lou’s!
Give it a try next time and you’re sure to be delighted.
Don’t live near Lou Malnati’s? No problem!
Ship yourself a delicious crustless pizza today through our shipping division, Tastes of Chicago. ORDER NOW ›
If you have a severe gluten intolerance, please keep in mind, Lou Malnati’s does not have a gluten free kitchen. For our gluten free menu items, we have processes in place to minimize the chance of cross-contamination, but cannot guarantee that your food will not touch gluten somewhere in the process.
Comments (61)
What’s the point! Like eating a gyro without the pita!
Holy cow, burger guy. The point is that it won’t be poisoning those of us who have celiac disease or are otherwise gluten intolerant.
Well, not poisoning you with gluten, at least. Pretty sure your heart won’t feel any love from it.
Your heart will definitely not care because fat does not contribute in any way to heart disease. That’s an old myth thats long been busted.
“Gluten intolerance has become more popular.” Say, what? It that’s the case, then cancer and diabetes have also become more “popular.” I think you meant “prevalent.” Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to see if there are any other popular diseases I don’t know about yet. I hate not being up on the latest trends in disease.
I’m considering trying it, not because of an intolerance to gluten, but because of Type 1 diabetes and a need to reduce my carb intake. I think it looks delicious!
Sounds good, Rex! It is a delicious pizza for all the sausage lovers out there. Please be sure to let us know what you think!
Tried it for the first time recently. A perfect solution to getting a great pizza fix if you cannot have the crust (for whatever the reason!). Highly recommended!
Had this pizza, it was delicious and I was happy to have a gluten-free deep dish. Unfortunately, somewhere along the line it was cross-contaminated with gluten as I had symptoms after eating it. I’m guessing it was from it being cut with the same pizza cutter… next time I’ll order it uncut.
How many carbs on it? It is delicious but my sugar level was affected negatively as am type 2
Hello Jesus, you can find the nutritional information for our crustless pizza here. Let us know if you have any additional questions!
https://www.loumalnatis.com/nutritional-info 2 grams according to their website
Good Morning.
Does the nutritional info include the toppings on the crustless pizza?
Hello Giovannie, the nutritional information for our crustless pizza does not include additional toppings, just the sausage base, cheese, and tomato sauce.
Lou’s — can you tell me how careful your kitchens are about cross-contamination? My 14 yo daughter has Celiac and we’d love to try your crustless pizza but if the kitchens are using the same spoons, in the same sauce pots or not switching gloves or using the same pizza cutter, etc. then this is off-limits for us. We can’t risk cross-contamination issues.
Hello Susan, thank you for reaching out! To avoid a lengthy comment, we will respond via email 🙂 be in touch soon…
Sounds great to those of us on Adkins or other low carb diet! i am going to try one.
I love u for including this on your menu!!! Thank you so much.More restaurants should do the same.
Would you mind sharing your respobse to Susan Lister on Jan 12 ’17? I have the same questions, as my daughter has Celiac as well as myself. I can’t bear not having deep dish pizza in Chicago on our first visit!
Hi there, Julie! Just sent you an email with some additional info. Hope you enjoy your visit to Chicago!
I also have Celiac. Please send me information on how your kitchen deals with keeping products gluten-free (no cross-contamination, products used, etc)
Hi Brandi, just sent you an email! Thanks for reaching out.
Hello, We are planning a trip to Chicago in a couple of weeks. Our daughter has celiac so we also need your info on whether this pizza would be safe for her to eat.
Your pizza comes highly recommended, but 3 people in my Family (including me) have Celiac. Please send me info on how your kitchen staff prevents Cross-contamination. Thanks!
Can you please send the kitchen protocols email to me as well? Traveling with a friend that has celiac and I really need some Malnati’s!!
Can you have a base other than sausage? Can it be mushrooms?
Hi Sammi, we do not offer veggies as a base for our pizzas – we have our regular dough or our “crustless” option with a sausage base.
Is this available in arizona?
Can you make it with a pepperoni crust for those of us who don’t care for sausage?!
I’ll be honest and say I’m not a big fan of Lou Malnati’s other crust based pizzas in general, but absolutely cannot get enough of their crustless pizzas with sausage. I would reccomend stock piling your freezers with this one. I’ve tried the fathead home reciepe (keto friendly/low carb). The fathead takes a second place to this. The only problem with this pizza is that it’s tasty enough to black out a little bit and realize it’s half gone…lol.
Dave Joyce on Mar 12, 2015
Your heart will definitely not care because fat does not contribute in any way to heart disease. That’s an old myth thats long been busted
WHAT??? Hell yeah it does!….well saturated fat does which is in cheese and meats. I’m sure millions of people who suffer from heart disease are vegans…not!
Everything in moderation. Their pizza is sure good : )
Crustless is not what I had in mind for gluten free pizza. I was hopeful for a gluten free crust. Not a meat crust.
Hi Sarah, we do offer a more traditional gluten free thin crust pizza (different from the crustless pizza). It is only available in a small 9″ size. You can check it out on our menu here: https://www.loumalnatis.com/our-menu. Let us know if you have any questions!
The crustless pizza sounds like a great low-carb option, but I’m concerned about the accuracy of the online nutritional info. According to the chart, no matter what size the slice of pizza, it is still only 1 gram of sugar and 2 total grams of carbohydrates. Even though a small slice serving size is only 86 grams and a large slice is more than twice as big at 200 grams. A 200 gram slice is also listed as having almost the same calorie count as an 86 gram slice. This does not seem likely to be accurate.
Readers should also note that the nutritional info is for slices that are about half the size of the regular pizzas. Even though this is marked, all of these issues together seem like they could lead to diabetics and other carb-counters to be getting more carbs and more of a blood sugar spike than they bargained for.
Hi Kay B, there was a typo in our nutritional table for the serving size of the large crustless pizza, it has been fixed. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
Hello, Is the crustless pizza available in all sizes? More specifically will the do a personal or small size? Thanks.
Hello Brittany, yes we do offer the crustless pizza in all sizes. Give it a try and let us know what you think!
Had this over the summer as I am doing Keto. It’s very delicious. Highly recommend.
My wife has celiac and can’t risk cross contamination. Can you respond with the information you’ve given the others on this thread? We ordered from your shipping division, so is that different than what you have in restaurants?
Thanks to your fantastic Twitter response, I learned about crustless pizza while visiting family in Chicago. I’m doing keto and this is a PERFECT way to scratch my Lou’s itch! xoxox
My wife and I have been doing KETO for about a month. We really miss pizza. Had a crustless pizza tonight and it was delicious.
Thank you for making pizza for those trying to remove carbs from their diet.
Yes, great for Keto and tasted really good but NOT worth the price . $17 for a small that barely feeds two people. Nope. Not good enough for that price!
I’m headed up to Chicago next weekend and I couldn’t be more excited about you having this available! Thank you so much in advance… I get a pie from you guys every time I’m in town, but I recently started eating keto and this is perfect!!
Your pizza comes highly recommended, but 3 people in my Family (including me) have Celiac. Please send me info on how your kitchen staff prevents Cross-contamination. Thanks!
Is there added sugar in the tomato sauce? Do you shred cheese from a block, or does it come pre-shredded (which has starchy additives to prevent clumping)?
Hi Barbara, there is no sugar in our tomato sauce and our cheese is not shredded; it is sliced from a block.
What kind of cheese is on the crustless pizza?
Can veggies be added?
Hi Elaine, we use mozzarella cheese on our crustless pizza and you can add veggies if you wish!
Hey, Frank Garriel – you most obviously haven’t tried the crustless pizza. One of the most delicious pizzas of ANY type I’ve had pass my lips!
Have the same question as Barbara, regarding added sugar in the tomatoe sauce. It only says 2grams of sugar in the nutrition info, but that seems low. I’m on keto, I can’t have any sugar. Thx!
Hi Lacey, there is no added sugar in our tomato sauce. Our crustless pizza is a great keto option!
I also am interested in the Sausage crust less pizza , but do have celiac disease—can you forward info regarding your precautions taken for cross contamination in the kitchen. Also would not having it cut help? Thanks so much. Looking forward to having your pizza once again! Bev.
Hi Bev, we take gluten intolerances seriously. Here are some of the measures we take to keep our crustless pizza gluten free:
– We follow strict hand washing procedures. Our kitchen workers wash their hands prior to patting out the sausage to make the “crust” of the crustless pizza.
– We use a clean knife to cut the pizza (or you can ask for your pizza to be left uncut).
– The crustless pizzas are baked in the same pans we use to bake our regular pizzas, but all pans are washed prior to each use (obvious, but worth mentioning).
With this said, all of our pizzas are made in the same kitchen where gluten is present. We use the measures above to limit the chance of cross-contamination as much as we can, but we can’t guarantee that your pizza won’t touch gluten anywhere in the process. We ask that you make your own decision based on the severity of your allergy.
What’s the best way to reheat a crustless pizza the next day?
Listen to Face Jam.
Finish the Fight.
Best pizza ever. I ship it to Dallas when I need a fix
Hair found in frozen pizza. Never received a call back regarding my find and consumption of human hair. I called back and was told I could return to the store for a “credit slip”. No thanks.
Do you have a gluten free crust without meat for vegetarians?
[…] crust alternatives abound, including gluten-free and cauliflower crust options. Lou Malnati’s (a Chicago-born brand with close to 80 locations in the U.S.) even has a pizza variation with a […]
Is there a way to see an ingredient list? I would like to share this to a Type 2 group, but they are very strict about posting all ingredients. Thank you!