Johnsonville Italian Sausage Deep Dish Pizza

 

 

Before and after baking - look at that puffy, golden crust! 

This is a fantastic deep dish pizza recipe - I've never made deep dish at home before, but am so glad I gave this one a try! I am quite sure, when we make homemade pizza, we will be using this method of baking it again soon! The Mild Johnsonville Italian Sausage is the star of this delicious, saucy, cheesy, pizza recipe. I was thrilled to have the chance to work with their products again this month. I have previously showcased several Johnsonville sausage products in these Sliders, this Sausage and Pepper Skillet, this super yummy Chili (that I will be making for our upcoming Chili Cook-Off at work!) and these breakfast muffins... mmm....

I am really not a fan of Sausage... at all... I make biscuits and gravy at least 2 - 3 times a month for my husband and son for weekend breakfast, but I don't eat it. However, if you put a Johnsonville brat, or Italian sausage links, or maple flavored breakfast link in front of me I will devour it. I seriously don't know what it is - but I truly love Johnsonville products. They are perfectly seasoned, the texture is awesome, and they are high quality. You can genuinely taste the difference. I have actually gotten hooked on their breakfast sausage links, and keep them in the refrigerator now. This non-sausage eating person has to have Johnsovnille sausage breakfast links at least once or twice a month now. 

All of that to say that this is yummy - this is happy pizza eating right here! I tweaked a little based on what we already had in the refrigerator. We did some "save the green peppers that are about to go bad" a few days before making this by dicing them and cooking them into some spaghetti sauce, so I skipped adding additional peppers to the recipe since there were quite a few (some blended, some chunks) in the sauce I used. I also skipped olives (my hubby HATES olives - weirdo), and I used canned mushrooms in place of fresh. I didn't have provolone cheese, so used some cheddar instead - but man provolone would have been really yummy and I am definitely going to have to get some to make this one again with! I used non-stick spray on my baking pans (I used 2 silicone 9" round cake pans) and then sprinkled with the cornmeal. My mom used to always make pizza that way - I remember that crumbly texture on the bottom of the crust when I'd pick it up to eat it... I also remember that my dad totally hooked me on slathering cottage cheese and fresh slices of tomato on hot homemade pizza slices... I haven't done that in ages, and it sounds so weird, but it is SO good... hot, cool, and creamy... yumm!! (My mom also had us hooked on strawberry yogurt with whole dill pickles to dip in it... we ate some weird stuff when we were little - don't judge).

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Johnsonville Italian Sausage Deep Dish Pizza from Johnsonville on AllRecipes

Ingredients

1 (19 ounce) package Johnsonville® Mild or Hot Italian Sausage Links, casings removed
1 small green bell pepper, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 cup sliced mushrooms (I used a small can, drained)
1 (2.25 ounce) can sliced black olives, drained
1 tablespoon butter (or use non-stick cooking spray)
4 teaspoons yellow cornmeal
2 (13.2 ounce) tubes refrigerated country Italian bread dough (or use 1 recipe Homemade Pizza Dough, split in half)
6 slices provolone cheese
3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 (15 ounce) can pizza sauce

Directions

Step-by-step View

Directions

1. Cook sausage links according to package directions; drain, cut into 1/4-inch slices and set aside. In a skillet, saute green pepper slices in 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat until lightly browned. Remove peppers and set aside. In the same skillet, add remaining olive oil; saute mushrooms over medium-high heat until lightly browned.
2. Position oven rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees F. Butter the bottom and sides of two 9-inch round baking pans. Sprinkle 2 teaspoons of cornmeal in the interior of each pan.
3. Remove bread dough from tubes, unroll and press one tube of dough up sides and over the bottom of each prepared pan. Arrange 3 slices of provolone over dough, followed by 1 1/2 cups of mozzarella and 1/4 cup of Parmesan into each pan. Spread 3/4 cup of pizza sauce over cheese layer. Top each pizza with half of the green peppers, mushrooms, olives and sausage slices.
4. Bake at 400 degrees F for 30 to 35 minutes or until crusts are golden brown. Remove from oven and let rest for 5 minutes. Cut into wedges. Serve.

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