First things first: you need to start with the dough because it has to proof (rise) for two hours. This dough recipe is really delicious and simple. It's from the same fantastic old school book that the recent meatball recipe is from. Begin with 1/2 an envelope of yeast and mix with 1/3 cup of lukewarm water and set aside. Next you should sift 1 1/2 cups of water with one teaspoon of salt. Cut 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter into cubes and mix it into the flour with your fingers. Mix one egg with the yeast and water, then stir into the flour mixture until a ball dough is formed. If the dough is feeling a little stiff, add a smidge of water. Now comes the fun part: kneading! Sprinkle some flour on your kneading surface and turn your dough ball out onto it. Don't know how to knead? It's easy! Use the palm of your to push the dough into the surface, turn a quarter turn, and repeat. I'm sure if you Google it you'll find a video demonstrating. Knead that dough until it's smooth and elastic, form into a ball, an then place into a lightly oiled bowl. Cover the bowl with a towel and let rise in a warm place for two hours.
Whilst your dough is rising, make the snausage! Now, don't be intimidated, it's really quite easy. If you have a stand mixer with a meat grinding attachment, fantastic! If not, don't worry! That's what your food processor is for! This recipe is a modified Mark Bittman. Begin with one pound of boneless pork shoulder and 1/4 to 1/2 pound fresh pork fatback.
..Uh, Dana? Where the hell do I get fresh pork fat back?
Yeahhhh. I'm going to guess Whole Foods or a specialty butcher. If you don't feel like searching fatback out (which we didn't because we're lazy) you can go with pancetta or bacon. You can buy the pancetta nice and cubed up right at Trader Joes, but I'll warn you - as delicious as our sausage was, I think it was a tad dry. The fatback (I think) would have been perfect.
Okay so cube up the pork and fatback (or pancetta/bacon). Place around one cup of the mixture into a food processor and mince in one second pulses until well chopped. If you have a meat grinding attachment for your stand mixer, use the medium-small grinder plate, and you don't have to do grind in batches. Add some fresh parsley (a small handful) to your food processor or meat grinder to incorporate with the meats. If food processing, take your time and be careful not to pulverize the meat. Place the ground meats/parsley into a bowl.
Time for spices! If you have a mortar and pestle, this is a great time to use it! If not, do you have a coffee grinder for spices only? If you don't have any of that, I would use ground fennel, not fennel seeds. I have a mortar and pestle (a great investment - you may not use it often, but when you do it's incredibly handy; when you don't they are beautiful to look at), so I went with the fennel seeds - one teaspoon. Crush the fennel a little, then add one teaspoon of minced fresh garlic, 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and a few grinds of black pepper. Crush with the pestle until well mixed, then gently incorporate your spices with the ground meat with your hands. Wrap the sausage mixture in parchment paper and then place into the fridge for 1-2 hours. Let those delicious spices do their work! If you don't use all of this sausage on your pizza (and you probably won't) the sausage can be in the fridge for three days or frozen for up to three months.
Okay, next! I made some tomato sauce by mincing one small yellow onion with two cloves of garlic, and sweating that out in a three count of olive oil in a small saucepan. After 5-7 minutes over medium heat, add one 14 ounce can of pureed tomatoes. Turn the heat to medium low and season with salt/pepper to taste. If you have some red wine it would be lovely to add a few glugs of that. Some fresh basil and or parsley would be fantastic as well. Partially cover and let this bubble away as you prepare the rest of your toppings.
We made one pizza pie with sausage and fresh mozzarella (grated parm on top) and the other with minced sauteed mushrooms and artichokes (not minced). For the mushrooms, put a three count of olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat. While that is heating up, finely mince one basket of brown mushrooms and add to the pan. I know you're tempted to salt now, but don't do that until the end! Saute the mushrooms until they've browned, then add a pinch of dried thyme and salt/pepper to taste. Set aside. Next grab a bag of frozen artichoke hearts (defrosted - you can find these at Trader Joe's) and saute in the same pan as the mushrooms with some red pepper flakes (to taste, I used a large pinch), S/P and fresh parsley. Once you get some color on the artichoke hearts, deglaze the pan with a few glugs of marsala wine. Cook the wine out and they're done! Set aside. Now it's time to brown that gorgeous homemade sausage! Take a large pinch of the raw sausage, flatten in the palm of your hand, then brown in the olive oil in batches. Drain on paper towels, and now you're FINALLY ready to build those pizzas! Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Grease two 8 inch pie pans. Divide your dough ball into two, then roll out on a floured surface to fit the pie pans - it's okay if it falls over the top of the pan because you're going to roll it down. Spoon some of your delectable red sauce on top of the dough and spread around. There's no rule here, if you like a ton of sauce put it down! For the sausage pizza, place a good amount of your brown sausage around the pie plate. Dot with torn pieces of fresh mozzarella, sprinkle with grated parmesan, drizzle with a touch of olive oil and that's ready for the oven! Same for the veggie pizza - spread the sauce, dole out the mushrooms, divide up the artichoke hearts, tear the mozzarella, sprinkle the grated parmesan and olive oil! There are before and after pictures above for reference. Once all of your toppings are in, roll down the excess dough (see above photos!).
Bake for twenty minutes or so, but keep a weather eye on those 'zas in the last five minutes - no burning! Let them rest out of the oven for at least five minutes so those guys can set up and so you don't burn your poor mouth!
Use any toppings that you love, but do try the homemade sausage. It's mush easier than you think and one million times more delicious!
Xo,
D
