Old fashioned sausage pizza

By now you know that I make a lot of pizza. I make every different size, shape, thickness and style of pizza I can think of. Ironically, when I order pizza for take-out, nine times out of ten, I order a simple sausage pizza like this.

Dough

2-1/2 cups flour 

2 tbs. instant yeast 

1 tsp. sugar 

1 tsp. salt 

3 tbs. olive oil 

water 

Sauce

1 28 oz. can of ground tomatoes

1/4 cup of extra good olive oil

1 clove of garlic, smashed and minced very fine

1 tsp. oregano

1/2 tsp Cajun seasoning

Several grindings of black pepper

A couple of dashes of onion powder

1/4 white wine

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

Dash of Tabasco

Pizza

Corn meal

1/2 lb. sweet Italian sausage

1 cup grated asiago cheese

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese

Fresh ground white pepper

Preparation

Start by making the sauce. Put all the ingredients in a bowl. Stir to mix well. Allow the sauce to sit at room temperature for about a half hour to blend the flavors.

For the dough, add the flour, sugar, olive oil, yeast and salt to your mixer bowl. Add enough water - a little at a time - to form the dough. Now, donʼt flip out on me. If you added too much water just add a little flour to make the dough right (that will teach you to add the water a little at a time). Knead the dough for a few minutes and let it rise for 15 minutes.

Sprinkle some flour on to a very clean counter. Place the dough on the counter and using your finger tips on both hands (shape your hands like you have bear claws), poke the dough. Turn the dough over and keep poking it while shaping it. Be patient. Keep poking and sprinkle it with a little flour as you turn it over. After about 5 minutes the dough should be a circle about 17 inches. Take a large pizza pan (at least 16”) and sprinkle on a generous layer of corn meal (this will allow the pizza to easily come out of the pan). Slide the your dough into the pan and roll the edges up to form a crust.

Spread out a layer of sauce evenly over the dough, right up to the crust. Save the leftover sauce for tomorrow’s pizza. Evenly add the asiago cheese and then add the cheddar. (Note: you can try different cheeses then just asiago and cheddar. These are the ones I had on hand.) Now spread the mozzarella cheese evenly over the pizza. Slice the sausage into inch long segments and place them evenly over the pizza. Sprinkle the pizza with some fresh ground white pepper.

Place the pizza pan in a 450º oven on a rack that is 1/3 the way up in the oven. Bake that for about twenty minutes, until the cheese is golden brown and bubbling. Remove the pan from the oven and let it sit for five minutes before slicing.

Serving

With sausage pizza, I like to start with a Caesar salad.  I usually don’t have much else with it because I have a bad habit of turning a 16” pizza into a single serving portion (yes, I need to be supervised). All I need is a bottle of Chianti to wash it all down with.