Sausage, Mushroom, & Pepper Pizza

     I like making pizza at home because you can do anything you want and it won’t cost you an arm and a leg for tons of topping. I have used raw pizza dough in the past but when loading up a pizza with a lot of toppings it is hard to cook the dough all the way through without burning the toppings. We decided to use a Baboli pizza crust which he hadn’t tried before but the fact that it was somewhat cooked already peaked out interest. We bought fresh meat and produce to make one of out favorite pizzas; peppers, onions, and sausage. Here is the recipe we came up with:

1 Baboli pizza crust

½ jar pizza sauce

1 8oz bag Mozzarella cheese

¾ pound sweet sausage, crumbled

1 green pepper, sliced thin

1 8oz package mushrooms, chopped

½ teaspoon garlic

Olive oil for sautéing

     Start off by browning the sausage in a pan until it is fully cooked through and crumbled. Put the sausage in a small bowl, leaving some of the fat in the pan. Add a little bit of olive oil and the garlic into the pan and let it cook for about a minute or so. At this point, turn the oven on to 450 degrees. I don’t like raw vegetables on my pizza so this next step works if you like them soft. Put both the peppers and the mushrooms into the pan and mix them until everything is coated with the oil. Once everything has softened up, pour everything into a strainer and let it drain for a minute or two just to get most of the oil and fat off. The last steps are to put the sauce, cheese, and toppings on before throwing it all in the oven. There is no set way of putting them on so just spread everything out evenly. This should cook for about 12 – 15 minutes but watch for the cheese to be fully melted and you’ll know it is done.

     There is no way the weight from the toppings would let raw dough cook all the way through so it was good that we used a precooked crust. I would have liked a more bready crust but the amount of toppings made up for that. Because the toppings layer was so thick, I used a knife and fork to eat most of mine. The sausage was from Spera’s and had a ton of flavor from the spices that they add when they grind it. Sautéing the peppers and mushrooms added another dimension that I don’t normally get from pizza shop pizza. The garlic and olive oil gave them a sweet taste that went well with they semi-spicy sausage. My favorite part of it all I think was the sauce which is just Wegmans brand pizza sauce. I’m not sure what it is about the sauce but I could eat it with a spoon, it is that good. Overall not a bad attempt at pizza but the crust needs some work.

Rating: Yummy – Who doesn’t like homemade pizza?