Italian Sausage and Alfredo Pizza
Mix up pizza night! This Italian Sausage and Alfredo Pizza features a delicious alfredo sauce base topped with juicy Italian sausage and fresh arugula!
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*ahem* *ahem* In my best Cookie Monster voice: “P is for Pizza, that’s good enough for me…” We love our weekend pizzas around here. We’ve been making the same pizza dough recipe for, gosh, 6 or 7 years now. It’s a damn good pizza dough! I’ve got that thing memorized by now. I’ve always said a pizza is only as good as its crust! But the crust is just the beginning. Then you get to go all Picasso on it and create a masterpiece of a pie. Ok, masterpiece might be stretching it a bit, but it is fun to play around with pizza toppings, right?
I’d say that at least 3 out of 4 weekends, we go with our tried and true toppings – pepperoni, sliced red onions and diced jalapenos. Delicious! I’m not gonna lie – sometimes pizza night is a frozen pizza. That’s one of our guilty pleasures around here on days when we’re just too tired to cook. (Or on days when I forgot to start the pizza dough the night before…) We almost always doctor our frozen pizzas with a sprinkle of garlic salt and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Those are different than our homemade pizzas, but we don’t mind. Variety is the spice of life, right?
Italian Sausage and Alfredo Pizza
Italian Sausage and Alfredo PizzaLast weekend, I decided to have a little fun with our pizza toppings. I’ve always loved pasta with alfredo sauce, so I decided to top a pizza with alfredo sauce. We had some Italian sausage in the freezer, too, so that got cooked up and spread on top of this Italian Sausage and Alfredo Pizza. And one last little trick: fresh arugula. There’s a restaurant around the corner from us that makes one heck of a good pizza, and they toss a whole handful of fresh arugula on top of their pizzas right as they come out of the oven. The peppery flavor of the arugula adds a fun, bright finish, so I decided to do the same here.
All together, this Italian Sausage and Alfredo Pizza was delicious. It was cheesy (mmm…fresh mozzarella!) and packed with flavor (mmm…Italian sausage!). Will it replace our tried-and-true pepperoni pizzas? Heck, no! But will we make this pizza again? Heck, yes!
I want to leave you with one very important thought about homemade pizzas: the crust. Yes, the crust. If you remember one thing from this post, remember this: seasoned olive oil on the crust. Every time we make a pizza using homemade dough, we brush the outer 1″ of the crust with a seasoned olive oil mixture. The olive oil bakes into the crust and gives it a ton of flavor! Our version is 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 2 tsp dried Italian seasonings, 1 tsp kosher salt and ¼ tsp of garlic powder. Whisk this mixture together and brush it around the edge of your pizza. I promise you won’t see any crusts left on plates after dinner! Enjoy!
Did you make this Italian Sausage and Alfredo Pizza at home? Leave a comment, or better yet snap a photo and tag me on Instagram (@Spicedblog). I’d love to see your version!
Italian Sausage and Alfredo Pizza
Ingredients
For the Sauce
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup low-sodium chicken stock
- ⅓ cup milk
- 2 tsp minced garlic
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
For the Pizza
- 8 oz. hot Italian sausage crumbled
- 1 batch pizza dough store-bought or homemade
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 2 tsp Italian seasonings
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- 1 8-oz. ball fresh mozzarella, cut into thin slices
- ¼ cup red onion thinly sliced
- ½ cup fresh arugula chopped
Instructions
For the Sauce
- Using a heavy saucepan, add butter and place over medium heat until butter has completely melted.
- Add flour and stir well. Continue cooking for 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent flour from burning.
- Add chicken stock, milk, garlic, salt and pepper; stir mixture until smooth.
- Bring mixture to a simmer and cook on low heat, stirring often, for 8-10 minutes.
- Remove from heat and add Parmesan cheese; stir until smooth.
For the Pizza
- Using a medium skillet, cook sausage over medium-high heat until fully cooked. Drain sausage and set aside.
- Preheat oven to 460°F.
- Roll pizza dough into a 15-16” round circle. Place dough on a piece of parchment paper.
- In a small dish, combine the olive oil, Italian seasonings, salt and garlic powder. Brush this mixture around the outer 1” of the dough. (This will become the crust for the pizza.)
- Spread sauce evenly around the inner portion of dough.
- Place slices of mozzarella evenly on top of sauce.
- Top with sliced onions and cooked Italian sausage.
- Bake at 460°F for 12-13 minutes, or until pizza crust is golden brown in color.
- Garnish with fresh arugula before serving.
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Variety is the spice of life! I love homemade pizza and sometimes vary my toppings a bit, but one thing I need to start adding is fresh greens! I always think about adding my toppings before the pizza goes into the oven. I need to spice things up around here with our pizza!
Variety really is the spice of life! I’ll be honest, though, it’s hard to beat our classic pepperoni + onion + jalapeno combination. But with that said, it’s fun to mix it up. Using alfredo sauce as the base was a fun twist on a classic! Thanks, Kathy!
I LOVE pizza with white sauces. This one looks perfect, and I love that the sauce is made from scratch–delish!
You and me both, Lauren! Ever since I tried a white pizza way back in college, I’ve been hooked on ’em. I do love a good classic red sauce pizza, but I have to say that this alfredo version was a fun way to mix things up! Thanks so much!
Oh my goodness, now I have that song stuck in my head, lol! What a freaking delicious pizza! Alfredo. Italian sausage. Whoa. Talk about a treat and so much better than anything the pizza delivery could bring. Wish I could reach out and grab a slice (ok, the whole pie 😉 ). Happy weekend, my friend!
Haha! Nothing like getting a song stuck in your head first thing in the morning, right? 🙂 We love pizza around here, but it is fun to put a twist on the classic – and using alfredo sauce as the base was a delicious twist. Thanks so much, Dawn! Hope you have a great week ahead!
Pizza and rocket (arugula) are a perfect match. We make pizza now and then but have never tried one with an alfredo sauce. Sounds really yummy. I like Italian sausage and red onion for mine. Then after it comes out of the oven I top it with fresh sliced tomatoes and rocket. Eva’s fav is Hawaiian pizza, slivered ham and canned pineapple chunks. Oh, and you’re so right about the crust.
When we lived in the US we would often pick up a Papa Murphy take home and bake pizza and doctor it up. Have you ever tried a Papa Murphy’s take and bake pizza?
Red onion is one of the key ingredients on our ‘go-to’ pizza, Ron. Red onion, pepperoni and diced jalapenos. However, we do enjoy mixing up the toppings now and again, and the alfredo sauce base was a fun twist, too. Adding the fresh tomatoes after it comes out of the oven is something I need to try!
I have to admit that I’m not familiar with Papa Murphy’s. I just went over to their website, and they don’t have any stores in the northeastern US. I guess I’ll just have to wait until we move back South! 🙂
I love that olive oil brushing trick. I’ll bet that really puts a fantastic touch on your pizza. I have a constant pizza conundrum. I love pepperoni pizza so much, that while I’m often very interested in other types, in the end, they’re all “not pepperoni.” The only solution is to eat lots of pizza, alternating pepperoni in on every other one. I swear by it.
You speak the truth, Jeff. We wrestle with that same conundrum on a regular basis. We love our classic pizza toppings – pepperoni, red onion and diced jalapenos – and we’re already wary about straying away from those. But we also like to mix things up on occasion. Your idea of making two pizzas is the way to go!
Such a fabulous pizza, David! Love the toppings and brushing the crust with seasoned olive oil is brilliant. Your crust looks insanely good!
Thank you so much, Kelly! I have to say that the herbed olive oil brushed on the crust really took our homemade pizzas from good to great. 🙂 Try that trick out next time you make a pizza!
Wow, well this is wonderful! Pizza instead of pasta. Brilliant!
Well pizza and pasta are kinda similar, right? Sorta. So why not use alfredo sauce as a pizza base? 🙂 Thanks, Mimi!
I should be there next weekend specially if you say you are making them weekly 🙂 That dough looks amazing
Haha! We do love making our homemade pizzas on the weekends, Raymund. Come on over! We’ll have a socially distant pizza together. 🙂
Caputo’s on Rt9 in Clifton park has an Alfredo broccoli and bacon pizza which is one of my favorites. Will have to give this a try!
Oooo…interesting! I haven’t had a Caputo’s pizza in, hmm…8 years now!? I remember they used to make one with thinly sliced roasted potatoes. Unique and delicious. Thanks, Brian!
We love making our own pizza’s. Something we do weekly too. Depending on what night I’m working late at my part-time job we switch it around weekly and get the pizza stone out when I’m on an earlier shift. This means I can make the dough before I go to work, leaving it to prove and then its ready to bake in the evening when I get home. Must try your delicious alfredo sauce base. I haven’t done a white pizza sauce before. Yum!
I hear ya there, Neil. Making homemade pizzas is definitely one of the things we look forward to each weekend! You should totally try out using alfredo sauce as a pizza base – it’s a fun way to mix things up when you want to try something new!
We simply love to doctor up frozen pizzas too! It’s been a hot minute since I made pizza – dough and all -from scratch.. and your post is making me want to because I love sausage on pizza and Lil S loves fresh arugula on hers – and what better way to unite the two than in this from scratch version!
This sounds like the perfect combination then! Sausage + arugula is a magical combination, and on pizza? Yeah, it’s pretty amazing! Plus, the alfredo sauce is a fun way to mix things up. You should try your hand at homemade pizza for something to do on one of these weekend nights! 🙂
How did you know that I’ve been craving pizza, David? This one looks fabulous! Love the play of the creamy sauce and the spicy, salty sausage! And clearly I need to try your pizza dough recipe.
Haha! Well, we’re pretty much always craving pizza around here. 🙂 And, yes, homemade dough + the herbed olive oil trick totally revolutionized our pizza making nights! Thanks, Marissa!
as i’m not a tomato sauce fan at all, your sauce looks the bomb:) it’s the one thing on a pizza i find hard to swallow (tee he). great idea with the olive oil and dough.
There are so many different ways to make pizza! Sure, tomato sauce is the most common, but most of the time a good alfredo sauce can be used in place of a tomato sauce. I love a good alfredo! 🙂
We love homemade pizza at our house too. I love a good white sauce on a pizza. I love the combination of flavors on this pizza.
I’m with ya, Dawn! A good white sauce on pizza is hard to beat. And I’ve gotta say that the Italian sausage crumbled on top of this one + the fresh arugula is a fun combination of flavors. Thanks so much!