Sausage Pizza with Spring Spinach Topping

Votes: 2

Time: 50 min.
Complexity: easily
Servings: 4

Make a bright and juicy spring pizza that everyone will love. Instead of traditional sausage, the topping is made with raw, casing-less pork sausage, pan-fried in olive oil. Besides the sausage, the topping also includes four types of cheese, making this pizza simply divine. Ricotta, mozzarella, provolone, and Parmesan are layered on a prepared pizza crust along with the meat base, and baked for a few minutes until the cheeses melt. The finishing touch is a luscious salad of fresh spinach, fennel, roasted peppers, and marinated artichokes. The salad is placed directly on the finished pizza, and it's ready to eat.

The recipes use measuring containers with the following volumes:
1 glass (st.) - 250 ml.
3/4 cup (st.) - 180 ml.
2/3 cup (st.) - 160 ml.
1/2 cup (st.) - 125 ml.
1/3 cup (st.) - 80 ml.
1/4 cup (st.) - 60 ml.
1 tablespoon (tbsp) - 15 ml.
1 teaspoon (tsp) - 5 ml.
1/5 teaspoon (tsp) - 1 ml.

Ingredients for the recipe:

450 g pizza dough, room temperature
Premium flour for work
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
220 g raw sweet Italian sausage, without casings
3/4 cup whole milk ricotta
0.5 tbsp. grated mozzarella
0.5 cup grated provolone
1/3 tbsp. grated parmesan
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
Half a small red onion, thinly sliced
4 cups small spinach (about 60 g)
1 small fennel root, trimmed and thinly sliced
0.5 cup chopped roasted sweet peppers
3/4 cup marinated artichoke hearts, quartered, patted dry and halved
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
Red pepper flakes, for serving

Ingredient Substitution Suggestions

We recommend

Cooking the dish according to the recipe:

Place an upside-down baking sheet or pizza stone on the bottom rack of the oven; preheat to 450°F (245°C).
Pizza:

On a floured piece of parchment paper, stretch the pizza dough into a 27 x 37 cm rectangle; trim off any excess paper around the dough. Place the dough (on the parchment) on a pizza peel or another inverted baking sheet and transfer the dough on the parchment to the hot baking sheet. Bake until golden brown, 10 x 12 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and cook, breaking up the pieces with a wooden spoon, until the meat is darkened, about 4 minutes.
Remove the pizza crust from the oven. Spread the ricotta on top, leaving a 1-inch border. Sprinkle with mozzarella, provolone, and Parmesan; top with the meat and garlic. Return the pizza to the oven and bake until the cheese is bubbly, 8 to 10 minutes. Sprinkle with oregano.
Get busy with the salad:

Soak the red onion in ice water for 10 minutes, then drain. Combine the spinach, fennel, roasted red pepper, artichokes, and red onion in a large bowl with the vinegar and olive oil; season with salt and pepper to taste.

Place the salad on the pizza and cut into wedges. Sprinkle with red pepper flakes.