Homemade Sweet Sausage Flat bread Pizza [Zack]

One of my favorite pizzas is made by Delucia’s in Raritan NJ.  They make a nice dough, have a wood-burning oven, but what really sets their pizza apart is the fresh homemade sausage.  They season ground pork with some spices and then put the raw pork on top of the pizza.  Their oven cooks the sausage right on the pizza.  It’s way better than sliced formed sausage because the ground pork has nooks and crannies in order to increase browning.

I chose to add this sausage to a flatbread pizza.  I brushed the flatbread with olive oil and topped it with sausage, cooked spinach, red onions, and sea salt.

You can adapt this very basic sausage recipe however you choose.  You can:

• make it more spicy by adding hot pepper flakes
• omit the brown sugar for a savory sausage
• add any type of herbs (including fennel seeds)

Process:

Start by making your pizza dough.  Get a big bowl and combine the lukewarm water + the yeast packet + the honey.  Mix it all together and let it sit for 5 mins.  Gradually add in your flour, mixing constantly.  Once you can start kneading the dough, add only enough flour so the dough doesn’t stick to your hand.  Knead for 2 more mins until the dough is silky.  Drizzle a bit of olive oil on top and cover the bowl with a kitchen towel.  Let the dough rise for an hour or so.   

In another bowl, combine all of the ingredients for the sausage and mix well. 

Pre-heat your oven well in advance to the maximum broil setting.  I like to use an overturned cast iron skillet on the middle rack of the oven instead of a pizza stone (thanks Kenji!). 

Roll out your pizza dough and add the toppings.   I like to brush the crust with olive oil.  Open the oven and carefully place the pizza on top of the cast iron skillet.  Cook the pizza until the crust browns nicely and the sausage has a few crisp edges. 

Ingredients:

1 lb ground pork

2T brown sugar

1tsp harissa powder (or ½ tsp paprika, ½ tsp pepper flakes)

1tsp onion powder

1tsp garlic powder

1tsp sea salt

Pizza dough:

Approx 3 ½ cups pastry or type 00 flour

1 envelope instant yeast

1T honey

2 tsp salt

1 ½ cup lukewarm water

Song:  Kavinsky - Nightcall