A couple of nights ago, I was in the mood for pizza, and had some Italian sausage. I went with an unusual twist, a double decker pizza.
Basically this is a thin crust cheese pizza, set on top of a thin crust garlic and sausage pizza, with the two edges rolled together to make one stuffed pizza, and then baked. Here’s how I did it. Use any assortment of cheeses you like.
2 - 1/2 cups of flour
1-1/4 cups of water
Olive oil
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tbs. yeast
8 oz. can of tomato sauce
1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp. of oregano, plus some more
Louisiana Hot Sauce
2 cups of Longhorn marble cheese, shredded
1 Italian sausage, broken up
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1-1/2 cups of shredded Mozzarella cheese
Fresh ground white pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
Preparation
Place the flour, water, salt, yeast, and about two tablespoons of olive oil in a mixing bowl. Use the dough hooks to bring the dough together. Adjust as needed, with a little extra flour or water. Knead the dough for a minute, divide it in half, and let it rest.
Place the tomato sauce in a small bowl, and add about a teaspoon of olive oil to it, along with two tablespoons of the Parmesan cheese. Add the oregano, and several shakes of Louisiana Hot Sauce, and stir to mix well.
Heat a small skillet and add just enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Add the sausage, and stir. When the sausage is almost cooked through, add the chopped garlic. Stir until the garlic softens, and turn the heat off.
Take the first half of the dough and work it into fourteen inch circle using your fingers, turning it over and flouring it as you do. Slide that into a pizza pan, which has been sprinkled with corn meal. Add two thirds of the pizza sauce to the dough. Spread it out, but leave the outer two inches uncovered. Add the sausage and garlic evenly over the sauce. Add the Longhorn cheese (or whatever you are using) along with the remaining Parmesan cheese.
Now, work the remaining dough into a fourteen inch circle, the same way. Gently slide it over the top of the pizza. Roll the two edges of the dough up together, until you reach the start of the sauce. Add the remaining sauce to the top dough. Sprinkle the Mozzarella cheese over the sauce. Sprinkle a couple pinches of oregano over the cheese. Bake at 380º for about twenty minutes, until the cheese has turned golden brown. Remove the pizza to a cutting pan, and drizzle your best olive oil over the top of it. Grind on some white pepper, and wait at least five minutes before slicing.
