Last Night's Dinner: Sausage, Pepper and Onion...

This was last night's dinner. The original was from the latest issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray Magazine. I adapted it, added a couple of things and made my own dough.

Sausage, Peppers and Onions Pizza

1 ball pizza dough

3 links sweet Italian sausages, casings removed

1 bell pepper, seeded and julienned

1 large onion, thinly sliced

1.5 cups pizza sauce

1/2 cup ricotta cheese

1/2 lb mozzarella cheese, or a bit less

Roll out pizza dough to 16 inches or a bit more, depending on the size of your pizza pan. Spray pizza pan with cooking spray. Put dough on pizza pan and place in a 425 degree oven (or higher). Cook for 10 minutes until crust is just set and a bit brown on the bottom. Remove from oven.

While crust is in the oven, preheat a nonstick skillet over MED-HIGH heat. Add sausage and cook, breaking it up into tiny bits as you cook it. Once it has lost its pink color, and is totally cooked through, remove from skillet. Add onions and peppers and cook until softened, about 5 minutes or so.

Place sauce on crust. Spread it to cover, leaving 1" of crust edges free of sauce. Top with the sausage, spreading it around the pie. Top with the veggies. Then with a teaspoon, place ricotta cheese around the pie and then put mozzarella where the ricotta isn't. Drizzle with some olive oil and sprinkle with some kosher salt.

Bake at 425 or higher (450-500) for 10 minutes until slightly blackened on the bottom and the cheese is all melted. Nice if the toppings get a bit browned.

Slice into 8 slices and serve with your favorite condiments - garlic powder, chopped raw garlic, oregano or chile flakes.

Risa's notes:

Original recipe did not call for pizza sauce OR mozzarella. I added them.

Yield: 8 slices

Source: February 2011 Everyday with Rachael Ray Magazine

Posted by RisaG 2/5/11