Italian Sausage Pizza

Sorry I haven't posted in the last few days. We've been eating out of the freezer, so nothing new. Last night I thawed a whole wheat cornmeal dough ball left from making the Ginger BBQ Pizza and the remaining Italian sausage from the stuffed acorn squash to make an Italian sausage pizza.

I didn't allow the dough enough time to come to room temp and rise properly though. Hence, our wee yeasty friends were a mite sluggish. I'll just say that it was no great loss, we just had more of a (dense) cracker crust this time round. If you're thawing out dough, make sure to let it sit on your counter for a gooooood while. Even though it had completely thawed in the fridge overnight, two hours on the counter still wasn't even close to being enough time.

I made a pizza sauce using no-salt added diced tomatoes (liquid and all), a dash of garlic and onion powder, a pinch of Italian herbs (or herbes de Provence), a pinch of red pepper flakes, a dash of Worcestershire sauce and a smidge of agave nectar. Cooked down and then buzzed with a stick blender in the pot to make a nice thick sauce. I will add that I'd originally started with a can of Italian herbage-afied tomato sauce and regular tomato paste. This mixture was sooooo salty I could hardly taste any tomato! I could only imagine how bad it would be after cooking it down further. I dumped almost all of it out of the pot and then started again, retaining ~1/4+ cup of the original mixture, then adding the other ingredients from above.
Much better! I like to keep no-salt added tomato products in my pantry so that I can better control the amount of salt going into our dishes. I like salt, but when you're also adding pancetta, Parm, canned beans, etc. to a dish it tends to get too salty for my tastes.

The rest of the pizza consisted of 1 1/2 links of Italian turkey sausage (probably about 8 oz., squeezed from the casing and cooked up in a skillet with a little olive oil), sliced Mozzerella cheese, and thinly sliced red onion. I topped the whole pizza with freshly grated Parmesan after it came out of the oven.

I'd waited too long already for the dough to warm/rise (read: erin's blood sugar was dropping and she was getting pissed off) that we were so hungry by the time the pizza was done, we devoured the whole thing with no green salad in sight. I ate way more than I should of and had the tummy ache to prove it. Although, The Monster will contend it had more to do with the bag of carob chips I polished off post-pizza, while anxiously watching a Survivor challenge. ;-)

Chicken Pizza with Gingered BBQ Snauce

This is my very first homemade pizza crust and it was a resounding success! I was a little worried that the recipe called for only a 20 minute rise time, but it worked out great. Just meant it took that much less time to make the dough. I froze half the dough and also the extra chicken mixed with bbq sauce for a future pizza. The recipe makes enough for two 12" pizzas.
I built the pizza on a rimless baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal hoping to slide it off onto the hot pizza stone, but that did not work. I ended up awkwardly lifting my heavily topped pizza from sheet to stone. I see a pizza peel purchase in my future...


Chicken Pizza with Gingered BBQ Snauce:

1 recipe for pizza dough (store bought or homemade)
2 cups cooked chicken breast, shredded, or sliced
~3/4 cup Ginger bbq sauce, divided (if short on time, just buy a good store bought sauce, but the recipe that follows was really good)
red, sweet or green onions, sliced thinly
red bell pepper, thinly sliced
fresh or frozen corn (spray with a little oil, then broil on a sheet pan)
Monterey Jack, Mozzerella, or other cheese, shredded (I used pepper jack)
cilantro, chopped

Preheat oven with pizza stone if using to 425 for about 20 minutes. If you're using a baking sheet, dust it with a little cornmeal, then place the circle of dough on top.

Toss the chicken with about a third of the bbq sauce. Spread the remaining sauce across the dough, leaving a 1/2" border. Top the pizza with onion, pepper, and the chicken, then top with cheese.

If using a baking sheet, place the pizza in the oven. If you're using a baking stone, carefully remove it from the oven and sprinkle it with cornmeal. Slide the pizza onto the hot stone. Bake for 15 minutes, or until crust is brown. Sprinkle with cilantro before serving, if desired.


Whole Wheat Cornmeal Pizza Dough:

I'll just link to the recipe I used from Bob's Red Mill Recipe site in the interest of making this post a little shorter. The only change I made was using agave nectar in place of the honey.
I hope you'll try this recipe, since it really wasn't very hard to do at all and you get a 5-8 minute workout kneading the dough. :-)

Bbq Snauce:
I made this the day before...

1 Tbs canola oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbs fresh ginger, minced
1 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
a couple good squeezes of ketchup
2 Tbs brown sugar
1 Tbs molasses
2 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbs cider vinegar
1 Tbs Dijon mustard
1 tsp chili powder
1/8 tsp ground allspice
1/8+ tsp ground cayenne pepper
a pinch of salt

Saute onions in skillet on medium in canola oil until soft. About 4-5 min.
Add garlic and ginger and cook about 30 seconds more.
Puree onion mixture in a food processor until smoothish.
Put onion mixture back in skillet and add the rest of the ingredients.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cook for about 20 minutes, or until you think it's done to your liking.