Sicilian Pizza with Italian Hot Sausage, Peppers and Onion

By Golfwidow7

Ingredients

• For the pizza dough:
• 2 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon dry yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1/4 cup olive oil, plus more for the bowl
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• For the Farm Fresh Pizza Tomato Sauce:
• 5 heirloom tomatoes
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 3 links Italian hot sausage
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 large white onions, sliced
• 2 bell peppers, red and green, deseeded and sliced
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons pepper
• 1 cup olive oil
• 1/2 pound whole milk mozzarella, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1/4 pound fresh mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup grated Pecorino cheese
• All-purpose flour (for dusting dough)

Details

Servings 4
Preparation time 10mins
Cooking time 45mins
Adapted from rachaelrayshow.com

Preparation

Step 1

For the dough, combine salt, yeast and water in a large bowl and mix with a spoon. Add the olive oil and flour, and mix until the ingredients form a ball and look smooth. Remove the dough ball from the bowl, coat the bowl with oil and put the dough back in the bowl to proof. Cover the bowl with a dishtowel or something else that's not airtight so the dough can breathe. Set it aside for an hour until the dough doubles in size.

For the sauce, bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. With a sharp knife, cut a shallow X on the bottom of the tomatoes so the skin comes off easily after cooking. Blanch the tomatoes for 5-7 minutes or until the skin is wilted on all sides. Remove and submerge tomatoes in an ice water bowl. Once cooled, slide off the skin of the tomatoes and transfer the tomatoes to a separate bowl. Crush peeled tomatoes by hand until desired consistency is met. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat the oven to 400°F. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and peppers, salt and pepper, and sauté until softened. Remove from heat and let cool.

In a large baking pan, bake the sausage for approximately 10-12 minutes or until browned then remove and set aside to cool. Once cooled, cut diagonally into 1/4-inch thick slices. Once sausage is removed from the oven, raise oven temperature to 450°F degrees in preparation for baking the pizza.

Pour 1 cup of olive oil into a 16x11-inch roasting pan or rimmed baking dish. Turn out the dough onto a floured surface. Gently stretch it, pressing down from the outside and working your way toward the middle. Try not to take all the air out of the dough. Once it's flattened, place it in the prepared baking dish and gently pull it to fit the shape of the dish. Take a knife and poke as many holes as you can through the dough. (If it's an aluminum roasting pan, make sure you don't poke any holes through the pan!) Brush dough with some olive oil and spread 1/4 cup of the tomato sauce on top. Bake for about 5 minutes, until the dough gets golden brown on top. Remove the pan from the oven and distribute the whole milk mozzarella as evenly as possible over the dough. Spread some sauce to cover the mozzarella. Cover that with the peppers and onions then top with sausage wheels. Add more sauce and spread small, torn pieces of fresh mozzarella then generously spread pecorino cheese on top. Bake for 12 minutes more, or until the cheese is golden brown. Remove from the oven, top with additional Pecorino, and serve hot.