Keep refrigerated pizza dough on hand to have the base for a fresh, homemade pizza any night of the week. Italian sausage adds a twist to classic Pizza Margherita, and you can tailor the pizza to your taste buds by choosing mild, sweet, or hot sausage. The Johnsonville sausage called for in this recipe is available at local Safeway, Lucky, and Save Mart supermarkets. For the pizza dough, you can either go with the ubiquitous Pillsbury refrigerated pizza crusts, or try the fresh pizza dough sold at Trader Joe's. Trader Joe's fresh pizza dough comes in several varieties, such as white, whole wheat and herb.
Sausage Pizza Margherita
1 package refrigerated pizza dough
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, divided
1 package Johnsonville Mild Italian Sausage
1/2 medium red onion, minced
1 tablespoon parsley, minced
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 tablespoon oregano
8 Roma tomatoes, sliced (divided, save 10 slices for the top)
10 fresh basil leaves (divided, save half for the top)
2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 cup fontina cheese, shredded
Pepper and sea salt
1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
Position an oven rack on lowest shelf and preheat to 425°F. Lightly oil a pizza pan. Roll out dough as thin as possible and arrange on the pizza pan. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes.
n a small skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high, add sausage and cook until browned. Remove from skillet, cool slightly and coin slice. In the same pan, sauté onion and parsley to golden, then stir in garlic and oregano for a few seconds. Add tomatoes to the pan, crushing them as they are mixed (do not substitute crushed tomatoes). Boil, stirring 5 minutes or until thickened.
Spread sauce over crust, sprinkle with half the basil, mozzarella, fontina, sausage, remaining slices of tomatoes and finally the remaining olive oil. Finish with generous pepper and a little sea salt. Bake for 10 minutes.
Using a spatula and an oven mitt, slip the pizza off pan directly onto the oven rack and bake for two more minutes. Slip pizza back onto pan, remove from oven. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and remaining fresh basil. Cut pizza into 6 slices.
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