Sausage and Peppers Pizza
Make pizza night delicious with this Sausage and Peppers Pizza!
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The weather has been hot and grilling season has been in full force here lately. As I’ve said before, I think I could grill for 3 meals a day and be a happy camper. Actually, that happened back when I’d tailgate with friends for LSU games. We’d start with bacon and eggs on the grill for breakfast, and the day would only get better from there. But, even though grilling season is officially open, I still have to fire up the oven for occasional pizza nights! (Or sometimes I combine the two and grill the pizza.)
One of my curling buddies recently built an outdoor pizza oven. It took him about a year, but he researched that oven and built something that would rival the pizza oven in any restaurant. (Heck, his version probably beats the pizza ovens in most restaurants!) One side of his oven uses fire bricks while the other side uses a biscotto base. (Biscotto is the traditional base for Italian pizza ovens.) Yeah, like I said, Jon did his research! And now I need to convince Jon to come build a pizza oven in my backyard.
But until that happens, Laura and I have our own pizza routine down to a science. I make the dough and stretch it into a rough round shape. Laura comes in and finishes it off and puts down the sauce. Then I swoop in with the cheese and toppings while Laura brushes the crust with an herbed olive oil. It’s like watching a fine-tuned machine at work! Oh, and we use a good quality pizza stone and pre-heat the oven for at least 30 minutes. That makes a huge difference…at least until I get Jon to come over and build me an oven. Hah!
This past weekend, we decided to mix up our pizza toppings a bit, and we went with a Sausage and Peppers Pizza. I didn’t grow up eating sausage and peppers, but I’ve been a huge fan ever since Laura brought me sausage and peppers for dinner one night when I was working late. But instead of sausage and peppers in sandwich form, we deconstructed it and turned it into Sausage and Peppers Pizza. And it was awesome!
We got this pizza prepped while Robbie was getting ready for bed, then we baked it up once the little guy was asleep. Then Laura and I sat on the couch with our pizza, a beer (or two) and some old episodes of New Girl. (I’m ashamed to admit that we still have episodes dvr’d from last February. Ah, such is the life with a toddler, right?)
Here’s to an awesome pizza-filled week, my friends! Enjoy!
Sausage and Peppers Pizza
Ingredients
- 8 oz. Italian sausage sliced
- 1 batch of pizza dough homemade or store-bought
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- ¼ tsp coarse salt
- 1 tsp Italian seasonings
- 1 cup pizza sauce
- ¼ cup Parmesan cheese grated
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese shredded
- 1 medium green bell pepper cut into rings
- 1 medium red bell pepper cut into rings
- ½ medium white onion sliced
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 460°F.
- Using a large skillet, brown the Italian sausage on both sides (~6-8 minutes total). Once fully cooked, place sausage on plate and pat dry with paper towels.
- Meanwhile, shape dough into a 16-17” round pizza and place on a piece of parchment paper that has been dusted with cornmeal.
- Using a small dish, combine the olive oil, salt and Italian seasonings. Brush this mixture evenly around the outer 1” of dough.
- Spread the pizza sauce evenly over the interior portion of the dough.
- Sprinkle the Parmesan and mozzarella evenly on top of the sauce.
- Layer the sliced peppers, onions and cooked sausage around the top of the pizza.
- Bake at 460°F for 13-14 minutes, or until crust is golden brown. (Tip: Using a pre-heated pizza stone will yield a much tastier crust!)
Hi David. We quite often have brats with peppers and onions so this is perfect, especially with a couple of beers! I’d seriously start schmoozing your friend to get an outdoor pizza oven. Think of the wonderful breads you could bake in there.
Yes! Those brats with onions + peppers are just the inspiration for this delicious pizza. And we all know pizza requires beer, right? In fact, I’m pretty sure my econ professor in college used beer and pizza as an example of ‘complementary goods.’ So let the schmoozing begin in terms of that outdoor pizza oven…what do you think I was trying to do with this post? 😉
David, sounds like you and Laura have the pizza waltz down pat! And speaking of Laura, so glad that lady introduced you to the joys of sausage and peppers – cos a pizza with them is simply a joy to feast my eyes on! And – if Jon comes by and builds you that backyard pizza oven, am so gonna have to move there!
Happy Monday to all of y’all in the Spiced home!
Pizza waltz. I like that! But that’s kinda what it is. Over time, we have each developed our own roles so that we’re now a fine-tuned pizza-making machine. No discussion needed. We just each move in and out doing what we do until that pizza reaches perfection! 🙂 So that peppers and sausage sandwich? Laura totally brought me that when I was working late at GT one night. Haha! Oh, and you’re saying you’ll move here if we get that backyard oven? That’s just one more reason to build it! I’ll have to use that when trying to convince Laura!
A pizza oven in my backyard would be a dream come true! After Jon builds yours tell him to head out to Phoenix to work on mine :). I’m drooling over this pizza. The crust looks completely perfect! Have a great week!
Hah! Will do. But you’ll have to get to Jon before the curling season starts…or maybe just give Job directions to the Phoenix curling club. 🙂 Wait, can’t you just bake bread on your back porch without an oven? Isn’t it hot enough there already? Thanks so much, Kelsie!!
Your pizza routine sounds cool, David. It’s like a real ritual when all family being involved. Wait. What about the little guy? I think it’s time to delegate a part of this routine to him:) Anyway, this pizza looks and sounds amazing. I haven’t made a pizza for a long time. Wait, I have made zero pizzas this year. Omg, thanks for helping me realize this 🙂
Routine/ritual is totally the right way to describe our pizza dance, Ben. It’s kinda funny how it has evolved over time. And now we each get to work on our roles, and the next thing you know…pizza time! 🙂 What? Zero pizzas this year!? Well you have 5 months left. So get to it! That’s approximately 150 pizzas if you get started today. Haha!
I love pizza night – especially when the pizza looks so so fabulous! I have homemade pizza crust on my list, it’s just something I’ve not yet mastered. But sausage and peppers is a combo I love!
Why thank you so much, Laura! So homemade pizza crust was something on my list a long time ago. And we kept at it, and kept at it, and kept at it…until now we have a pizza crust that we love. Do it! Seriously! And make sure you have a nice baking stone, too. We got ours at a local restaurant supply store as the ones in the mass market are just too thin. (I researched pizza stones, and the thickness is a big factor!) Anyways, thanks for the comment, my friend, and I hope your week is off to a great start!
I love homemade pizza, it is so much better than anything you can buy. I like the idea of brushing the crust with the olive oil, salt, and Italian seasoning. I will have to remember this the next time I make pizza. This pizza looks delicious!!
I absolutely couldn’t agree with you more, Dawn! Homemade pizza really is amazing, and it’s something that was really high on my list when I started to learn how to bake breads. We’ve got a crust that we’re quite happy with now…and that olive oil + herbs trick? That’s seriously one of our favorite ‘secret weapons’ to a pizza crust. Now we almost look forward to the crust as much as the actual pizza! 🙂
Soooo I haven’t eaten meat in a very long time, and if its one thing I miss it’s sausage. I love sausage, it can be spicy or sweet, tangy or mild, sausage always puts a smile on my face. Yay for grilling season, I wish I had access to a grill. I would totally build a pizza oven in my back yard. I can’t wait to have a house of my own so my bigger crafting projects can finally come to life.
Oh, sausage really is something special! I wasn’t on the Italian sausage bandwagon until I met Laura, but her entire family is Italian…so I had to learn to love Italian sausage! 🙂 But you could still make this pizza vegetarian, my friend. Just pile on a couple extra peppers. Or you could do it half-and-half with vegetarian on one side and sausage on the other. That’s the beauty of making your own pizzas at home! Thanks so much, my friend! Oh, and there’s a house for sale down the street. Want to come look at it??
I’ve got a bunch of travel scheduled in August but we have to get together and fire the oven up.
Yes!! Let’s do it, Jon. We’re around the whole month…and then most of the next month. And then it’s time to curl, so we’ll be around then, too. 🙂
Hurrah for yours and Laura’s Pizza routine David! It is exactly like Lynne and mine. Pizza stone into the oven for 30 minutes, and then I do the dough, then Lynne does the sauce etc. etc. Like minds eh? 🙂
Now Lynne prefers more of a veggie pizza herself, but THIS would be mine. Oh yes give me this with the sausage and peppers topping any day!
Hope you get that outdoor pizza oven build one day David. Again, I’d be insanely jealous of that!!!
Yes! It sounds like our routines are mighty similar there, Neil. In fact, why don’t you and Lynne come on over, and we can compare routines. You guys make the pizza the first night…we make the pizza the second night…and then repeat! 🙂 So the beauty of making pizzas at home is you can totally go vegetarian on one side and sausage on the other. Cheers to a fellow pizza friend, Neil!
I love how that Pizza looks!! Better than from the best Italian kitchens! It seems you two have so much fun together in the kitchen!! Let’s see how it goes, when Robbie grows up a bit and participates in this family cooking 😀
Why thank you very much, Deepika! We’re big pizza fans around here. 🙂 And I can’t wait for Robbie to get older and start helping me in the kitchen! He’s already gotten to the point where he wants to help, but I’m not so sure I want him helping quite yet…unless food all over the floor is considering helping. Haha! Hope your week is going well so far, my friend!
wow, that sounds like a fantastic pizza oven! I am sure pizza coming out of that oven would taste out of the world. I just got a pizza stone, excited to use it. This looks great, love the peppers!
Awesome! Pizza stones are where it’s at when it comes to making delicious pizzas at home, Manali. Just make sure to really preheat that stone! Oh, and I like to sprinkle a bit of cornmeal on top of the parchment paper. It keeps the pizza from sticking, and it adds a bit of flavor to the bottom of the crust, too. 🙂
Sounds like you and Laura have fun in the kitchen. We know of someone that has their own pizza oven and the pizza crust is always amazing, the only problem is that they have to start the oven hours before. Fantastic combo, my husband’s favorite.
Oh man, we do have fun in the kitchen…well at least on pizza night! It’s funny how we’ve evolved over time into each having our own tasks to get the pizza ready. 🙂 And, yes, starting that pizza oven early is the key to getting a great crust. We only start our oven about 30 minutes early, but we do have the pizza stone in there the whole time. It gets nice and hot, and that makes the perfect pizza! But I do want to try out my buddy’s real woodfired pizza oven sometime soon, too. Thanks, Cheri!
Sounds like a great combination of flavors, even though I have never eaten sausage on pizza. The crust looks amazing!
Enjoy grilling season!
Sausage on a pizza is a fun addition, but you do have to cook it first as it won’t fully cook in the time it takes to bake the pizza. Pizzas provide so many ways to have creative and fun toppings! Thanks so much, Balvinder! 🙂
I think we’re going to need a video of you and Laura working your pizza magic! 😉
Your crust is absolute perfection and I can’t think of a better topping combination! Nicely done…
Oh geez! A video of the pizza waltz? Haha! That would mean Robbie would have to hold the camera, and I can’t promise the resulting video will be of the pizza…it might be of his toys instead! 🙂 Thanks so much, Marissa!
Such a delightful pizza recipe, David! Pitch-perfect for family gatherings! Can I use some other kind of sausage?
Hey there, Agness! This is indeed a fun pizza. 🙂 As far as sausage, Italian sausage is the most common when you’re talking about ‘sausage and peppers sandwiches’ but you can go any direction you’d like with the pizza! It’s all about personal preferences here…so any ground sausage would be fine in my opinion! 🙂 Hope you are doing well, my friend!
Looks Perfect love your pictures & colors keep sharing more recipes & looks like such a fresh and protein lunch thanks
Thank you so much, Juliana! 🙂
Oh would my husband be a happy man if I made him this pizza tonight…it is his favorite.
Haha! This is one of my favorites when we’re looking to mix up pizza night. 🙂 Thanks so much, Karen! I hope you guys got a chance to make pizza this past weekend. Yum!
Wow! The picture of the pizza above is making my mouth water. If you look at the cover of Mario’s new book, there is another picture of his pizza that looks totally good, that nice brown crust makes me want to try his technique. I too wish that his cast iron pizza pan was bigger, at least 12-14 inches. The one thing I ask: does the pizza get that nice puffy cornicone with all the nooks and cranies inside?
Hey Maria! This pizza is a good one for sure! The crust makes a huge difference in a pizza, and this one does indeed get nice nooks and crannies throughout. It’s delicious! I’ll have to check out Mario’s photo now. Thanks for the tip!