I’m so excited to share this recipe with you today! We all have our favorite pizza place but this recipe will have you making pizza at home instead of ordering it. It’s that easy to make and that good!!! It’s more about the technique to make it than it is the ingredients.
All the ingredients were purchased at Trader Joe’s, so if you have one nearby you can get everything you need in one stop!
You could certainly make your own pizza dough and pizza sauce from scratch, but the Trader Joe’s refrigerated pizza dough and their jarred pizza sauce are delicious and save you a ton of time.
My best friend Michelle treated me to dinner and her famous pizza was on the menu. After one bite, I can totally understand why she is famous for her homemade pizza! It’s FABULOUS!!! Once you see how easy it is to make, you will be making it at home more often than you will be ordering a pizza for delivery. Yes it’s that good! Not only is it fun and easy to make but you will have bragging rights for the best homemade pizza in the entire neighborhood!
I’ve made several attempts at making a homemade New York style pizza with less than stellar results. The biggest problem I have is getting the dough nice and thin and keeping it crisp, not doughy and soggy, especially in the center. Michelle’s technique produced a wonderfully thin and crisp crust, just the way I love it!!!
Start by preheating your oven to 475°F.
Remove pizza dough from the fridge. Dust a cutting board generously with flour. Remove pizza dough from package and place it on the cutting board. Allow the dough to rest for about 10-15 minutes while you prepare the toppings.
Add a tablespoon of olive oil to a large skillet and heat it up over medium heat. Add sliced sausage to skillet and cook until browned and cooked through, remove from heat and set aside.
Note: Michelle cooks the sausage in individual slices instead of breaking it into crumbles as it cooks. I jumped in to help and crumbled the sausage. It was still good but her preferred method is to leave the sausage in larger pieces so you get a delectable bite of sausage in every big bite of pizza.
Prepare toppings; shred Mozzarella cheese, seed and slice red bell pepper and cut red onion into rings about 1/4 inch thick.
Variations: Michelle uses sweet Italian sausage, red bell peppers and red onions for the toppings and it’s delicious! But you can certainly use your favorite toppings of choice.
Use a paper towel to spread out and coat pizza stone/steel with about a teaspoon of olive oil.
Use a rolling pin to start rolling out the pizza dough on the floured cutting board. Once you have the dough going, transfer it onto the oiled pizza stone/steel and continue rolling out the dough towards the edges.
Use your hands to gently press the dough out to the edges of the pizza stone/steel.
I love that the crust is formed directly on the stone/steel. No sliding the raw pizza off of a pizza peel and having it stick or buckle when transferring it onto the stone/steel in a screaming hot oven.
Top dough evenly with pizza sauce, then half the shredded Mozzarella cheese and the cooked Italian sausage.
Top with sliced red onions and sliced red bell peppers.
Top pizza evenly with the remaining shredded Mozzarella cheese.
Bake pizza in preheated oven for 15-25 minutes. Bake time will vary by oven. Start checking it after about 10 minutes in the oven.
Bake until the edges of the crust are a deep golden brown, the toppings are slightly charred along the tips, and the cheese is hot, bubbly and golden brown along the edges of the pizza.
Remove pizza from oven and allow it to rest for 5-10 minutes on the hot stone/steel before cutting it into slices.
Hands down, this was one of the BEST homemade pizzas I have ever eaten!!! Not only was it DELICIOUS but I shared it with my very best friend while enjoying a glorious sunset and one of the most spectacular views ever!!!
Don’t you wish you were here? Good food, great company, glorious view! Life is good!!!
Michelle’s Marvelous Pizza
Equipment
- Large pizza stone or pizza steel
Ingredients
- 1 pkg refrigerated pizza dough
- 1 tbsp flour, for dusting
- 1 lb sweet Italian sausage, cut into ½ inch slices
- 2 tbsps olive oil
- ½ cup pizza sauce
- 16 oz Mozzarella cheese, shredded
- 1 red bell pepper, seeded and sliced
- ½ red onion, sliced into ¼ inch thick rings
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 475°F.
- Remove pizza dough from the fridge.
- Dust a cutting board generously with flour. Remove pizza dough from package and place it on the cutting board. Allow dough to rest for about 10-15 minutes.
- Add a tablespoon of olive oil to a large skillet and heat it up over medium heat.
- Add sliced sausage to skillet and cook until browned and cooked through, remove from heat and set aside.
- Shred cheese, slice red bell pepper and red onion.
- Use a paper towel to spread out and coat pizza stone/steel with about a teaspoon of olive oil.
- Use a rolling pin to start rolling out the pizza dough on the floured cutting board.
- Transfer the dough onto the oiled pizza stone/steel and continue rolling out the dough towards the edges.
- Use your hands to gently press the dough out to the edges of the pizza stone/steel.
- Top dough evenly with pizza sauce, then half the shredded Mozzarella cheese.
- Add cooked sausage, sliced red onions and sliced red bell peppers.
- Top pizza evenly with remaining cheese.
- Bake for 20-30 minutes until the edges of the crust are a deep golden brown, the toppings are slightly charred along the tips, and the cheese is hot, bubbly and golden brown along the edges of the pizza.
- Remove pizza from oven and allow it to rest for 5-10 minutes on the hot stone/steel before cutting it into slices.
Did You Make This?
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