Pizza - Caramelized Onions and Peppers, Italian Sausage and Tomatoes

It's Monday, so it must be PIZZA DAY!!!!


And today I have a real winner.  Now, normally, I am a single ingredient fan for pizzas.  Pepperoni is perfect on it's own.  There is just no need for a supreme pizza with so many ingredients that nothing stands out.  My wife on the other hand appreciates a loaded 'za.  She also likes a thicker crust.  So this one is all her idea.  LOTS and LOTS of onions, LOTS and Lots of peppers, a full pound of Italian sausage and a double layer of mozzarella cheese! 


Oh, and as opposed to last week, where I revealed my fast and easy winter tomato sauce (click HERE), this week I just lined the crust with sliced tomatoes.  This time of year, the most flavorful tomato available is usually a ROMA tomato.  Sprinkle a little salt on the tomato slices to help enhance the taste.


And that's my tip for the day...

Pizza Tip #3... 

Think outside the box for sauces.  A pesto sauce, a white garlic sauce, or even as in this case, just a layer of fresh tomatoes make for an alternative to just a marinara sauce..

I wanted all these vegetables to SING.  And one of the best ways would be to caramelize the onions and peppers a bit.  I was using a red and a green jalapeño, as well as a few slivers of a sweeter Poblano pepper.  I just sliced the peppers into slivers, sliced the onions into half rings.  I melted butter and added the onions and peppers and sprinkled a couple tsp of sugar onto the veggies.  Sauteed for about 20 minutes.  


The sausage I used was from a local farm.  They pride themselves on the spicy quality of the Italian blend, and it did not disappoint.  I browned the sausage to just remove the pink color.  the sausage would finish cooking while the pizza was in the oven.


This was a heavy pizza.  The veggies and raw tomatoes would have a lot of moisture in them.  I patted them dry with paper towels, but there would still be lots of moisture coming out of them.  I decided to put a layer of  mozzarella cheese (freshly grated of course) on the bottom as a protective layer between the dough and the moisture.


I also cooked on a VERY HOT pizza stone.  I'll cover pizza stones in another post one day.  But preheating is a must.  I fire up my oven to it's highest setting, 500 degrees.  I put the stone in for at least 30 minutes before I put the pizza in.  The HOT stone will get a nice crisp crust, even with all the liquid that was added to this pizza.

And finally, I topped with a few slices of Mozzarella on the top.

OK... Here's how to make a 

Caramelized Onions and Peppers, Italian Sausage with fresh tomatoes PIZZA...

Crust of choice, premade or homemade 
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
3 sliced Roma Tomatoes
Mozzarella Cheese (freshly grated of course)
1 sweet Onion, sliced into rings, rings cut in half
2 Jalapeño Peppers cut into slivers (be nice if you find a couple of red ones for color)
2 Pablano Peppers, also sliced into slivers
1 pound Italian Sausage, browned

• Preheat oven and pizza stone (or heavy baking sheet) to 500 degrees for at least 30 minutes.
• Begin caramelizing the onions and peppers
• Roll your crust out on parchment paper to your likeness... Thin, Chewy or thick like a bread.
• Brush Olive oil around the edges to get a beautiful Golden Brown and Delicious looking crust.
• Salt and pepper the crust at this time
• layer the mozzarella
• Layer the sliced tomatoes to within 1/2 inch of the edge
• Top with Sausage..
• add the Onions and peppers
• Add the slices of Mozzarella on top
• Bake for 10-12 minutes until the cheese starts to bubble and get that baked color.

...