The Best Dough for This Pizza
There are many different pizza dough recipes out there, but for my money (and time) I like No-Knead Pizza Dough. Generally, I’ll make it a day in advance so it has plenty of time to rise slowly. Then I take it out at least an hour before I’m ready to make pizza so it can come to room temperature. If you don’t want to bother with homemade dough, you can buy dough at most supermarkets these days, or if you have a local pizzeria, they will most likely sell you a few dough balls for a few bucks.
Toppings for Spicy Sausage Pizza
The toppings for this pizza are few, but it’s important to not over-top the pizza. Add just enough sauce to lightly coat the dough and enough cheese so the pizza is covered, but not so much that the cheese is piled on. For the sausage, find a good-quality spicy Italian sausage and tear it into very tiny meatballs. Small meatballs are important so that the sausage cooks all the way through during cooking. Dot the entire pizza with these meatballs, and they will cook very quickly in the hot oven. Other than that, I like a little sprinkle of salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes on my sausage pizza. Add some fresh basil when it comes out of the oven, and you are in for pizza perfection!
Hot Honey Dipping Sauce
One of my little tips for homemade pizza (any homemade pizza!) is to make this hot honey sauce. It takes literally seconds to stir together the honey, hot sauce, and red pepper flakes and is always a hit. After you finish your pizza, dip the crust in this hot honey, and you’ll never want non-honeyed pizza crust again!
Cooking Pizza in the Oven
Cook this pizza on a pizza stone in a 500°F oven. Preheat the oven for at least 20 minutes so the pizza stone is nice and hot. Then slide the pizza onto the stone. The pizza will need to cook for 8 to 10 minutes in a traditional oven to get cooked through. This will vary to some degree based on your oven and pizza stone, so check the pizza every few minutes. Or you can grill the pizza.
Reheating Leftover Pizza Like a Pro
If you have leftover pizza (lucky!), please avoid the microwave! All that work will be wasted as your crust turns soggy in the microwave. Instead, add the pizza to a skillet and warm it over medium heat. Cook for a few minutes so the crust heats up. For the last minute, add a lid to the skillet so the cheese melts. Be very careful removing the pizza from the skillet. It will be very hot!
MerguezChorizoAndouilleSobrassadaSpicy Pepperoni
Raw or Cooked Sausage to Start?
Start with raw sausage—not in a casing—on your pizza. Tear the raw sausage up into tiny pieces, sort of like meatballs. The tiny pieces will cook completely while the rest of the pizza cooks.
More Pizza Recipes to Try
BBQ Chicken Sheet Pan Pizza Homemade Pepperoni Pizza Spinach Artichoke Sheet Pan Pizza Grilled Pizza With Red Peppers, Broccoli, and Onions Easy Summer Vegetable Pizzas
1/4 cup honey 1 tablespoon hot sauce 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Divide the dough into 4 balls and let them sit at room temperature so they become easier to work with. Keep the dough covered with plastic, though, so it doesn’t dry out. (If your dough was not refrigerated, divide the dough just before shaping.) Then top the pizza with 4 ounces of cheese and dot on 2 ounces of spicy sausage. Be sure to tear the sausage into very tiny meatballs so they cook quickly. Season the pizza with red pepper flakes and a tiny pinch of salt and pepper.
