Let’s Cook!

Today I’m cooking a Sausage Mushroom Pizza.When my children were young and still at home we had a Sunday night pizza tradition. I made my pizza semi-homemade then, opting for a boxed crust mix and jarred sauce. Lots of things have changed since then, including our taste for pizza. Today is not Sunday and now we prefer our pizza homemade sans sauce. Pizza can be dressed any way you like it with prosciutto, Canadian bacon, olives, spinach, grape tomatoes, or any other of your favorite toppings.

This is a quick dinner to make even on a hurried week night because the crust can be made ahead and refrigerated several days. The crust recipe that I use is borrowed from the Tasty Kitchen website and was posted by Ree. It makes enough dough for two large pizzas.

Pizza Crust
1 teaspoon Active Dry or Instant Yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Sprinkle yeast over warm water and let stand a few minutes. In a mixer, combine flour and salt. With the mixer running on low speed (with the paddle attachment), drizzle in olive oil until combined with flour. Next, pour in yeast and water mixture and mix until just combined. Coat a separate mixing bowl with a light drizzle of olive oil, and form the dough into a ball. Toss to coat dough in olive oil, then cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator until you need it. It’s best to make the dough at least 24 hours in advance, and 3 or 4 days is even better.

Sausage Mushroom Pizza
1/2 pound ground pork sausage
1 large red onion, thinly sliced
8 oz. baby bella mushrooms, sliced
16 oz. mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Brown the sausage in a skillet, drain and set aside.

Using the skillet that the sausage was browned in, saute the onion and mushrooms just until tender.

Divide the pizza dough in half, and spread half the dough on a pizza pan that has been greased with olive oil.
I like to use a heavy 12 x 18 inch baking sheet.

Dough will be very thin. Slice the mozzarella and lay over the surface of the dough. We like lots of cheese.

Arrange browned sausage over the cheese, then cover sausage with onions and mushrooms. Sprinkle parmesan cheese over all.

Bake in the lower half of the oven for 10 -12 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Remove from the oven and cut into slices. Serve immediately.

                                              Enjoy Sausage Mushroom Pizza.