Spicy Sausage and Pepper Pizza
, Updated Jan 18, 2021
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Fully-loaded spicy sausage and pepper pizza – so much better than takeaway and the perfect midweek meal!
I recently had lunch at a well-known London restaurant famous for its sourdough pizza. The restaurant is so popular we had been unable to visit for several months as it always had queues of people waiting outside. Needless to say expectations were pretty high when we finally managed to get a table.
Sadly the expectations were completely dashed once our order arrived – not only was the pizza base floppy and doughy, the toppings were so sparse it could qualify as flatbread. When you can make a better meal at home than at a restaurant, then it’s definitely not worth your while or the expense.
All this to say, don’t bother with pizza chains or takeaway because you can very easily make the PERFECT pizza in the comfort of your own home. All you need is a little help from The Pizza Steel, an awesome new product I was lucky enough to review for the blog.
The Pizza Steel (Bagestålet Aps) was established in Denmark in 2015 and is a family company. Brian, his wife Tina and their two daughters brought their ‘baking steel’ in the UK in 2016 and the company now ships their product throughout the UK (there’s also EU shipping here).
The pizza steel is 6mm, 6.5kg carbon steel that absorbs, stores and leads heat energy 20 times better than stone. And unlike pizza stones which can break (don’t I know it) the pizza steel is actually guaranteed for 5 years.
The pizza steel takes about 45 minutes to heat up so you can prepare your dough and toppings while it is in the oven. The pizza steel company also offers a combi peel and dough cutter which complement the pizza steel perfectly.
The combi peel is made from aluminium and can be used both to prove your dough and is also helpful for sliding your pizza into the oven. The dough cutter has many uses if you love baking and currently all products are on offer for a fab prize of £67.80.
So what is the pizza steel like to use? When I first took it out of its packaging my first thought was ‘whoa, heavy!’ – and it is indeed quite hefty. But once you get over the initial shock you realise that the pizza steel is a thing of beauty. Before you use it for the first time you have to season it with oil and bake it for 60-90 minutes (similar to seasoning an iron skillet).
After that you will need to preheat it for about 45 minutes when you use it and it can obviously be used for baking bread as well as pizza. To protect it from grease and spills, it is best to place your pizza on greaseproof paper – which will also make it easier to slide off the combi peel into the oven.
I used leave pizza making to my husband as I simply could not find a way of doing it without burning myself when sliding the pizza in the oven on our old pizza stone. So I was thrilled to discover that the process is a piece of – wait for it – pie when using the pizza steel.
I did the prep on a piece of baking paper dusted with semolina on the combi peel and slid it on the hot steel. The pizza cooked in record time – only 8 minutes! – and it was absolutely perfect. Crisp, evenly cooked, without a soggy middle despite being absolutely loaded with toppings. Guys, I think I am in love!
And I am equally over the moon about this fully-loaded spicy sausage and pepper pizza – it uses salsa instead of tomato as the base, two types of mozarella, sausage, spicy smoked chorizo, onions and peppers with some fresh rocket added on top for good measure 😉 Forget takeaways, this is the real deal.
MAKING THIS RECIPE OR OTHERS?
Post a photo on my Facebook page, share it on Instagram, or save it to Pinterest with the tag #supergoldenbakes. I can’t wait to see your take on it!
Fully loaded spicy sausage and pepper pizza
Ingredients
- Makes 1 pizza - double if making 2
- 200 g | 7oz thick salsa I used El Paso
- 3 pork sausages
- 100 g | 3 1/2 oz spicy chorizo sausage
- 1 small red bell pepper slced into thin rings
- 1 small green bell pepper slced into thin rings
- 1 red onion peeled and slced into thin rings
- 2-3 large handfuls grated mozzarella
- 8 mozzarella pearls roughly torn
- sweet paprika to sprinkle
- olive oil to drizzle
- handful rocket arugula to serve
- For the pizza dough
- makes enough for 2 large pizzas
- 500 g | 1lb 2oz white bread flour plus more to dust
- 360 ml | 12fl oz tepid water
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 2 tsp dried yeast suitable for bread makers
- 1 tsp salt
- cornmeal or fine semolina to dust
Instructions
- Make the pizza dough in a bread maker, checking your machine can handle the quantity of flour first. Add the water, oil, sugar, flour, salt and finally the yeast. Use the dough or pizza setting. The machine will mix and prove the dough. See notes for how to make by hand.
- Preheat the oven to highest temperature and heat the pizza steel or stone if using for 45 minutes.
- Remove the casing from the sausages and dry fry in a non-stick fryling pan until nicely browned, breaking them up with the back of a wooden spoon. Set aside.
- Remove the casing from the chorizo and slice into disks. Dry fry for a couple of minutes and set aside.
- In the same pan, fry the onion and pepper for 5 minutes until slightly softened.
- Spread greaseproof baking paper over your worktop and sprinkle with semolina. Cut your dough in half and keep any you are not using in a an oiled bowl. Roll the dough out to a circle slightly smaller than the peel.
- Spread the salsa over the base and sprinkle with the grated mozzarella.
- Spread the onion, peppers and mozzarella pears over the top. Top with the sausage and chorizo and sprinkle with a little paprika. Add a drizzle of oiive oil. Transfer onto the combi peel.
- Transfer from the peel onto the pizza steel and cook for 8-10 minutes.
- Served topped with a little rocket.
Notes
that pizza steel looks great but the pizza looks even better. I adore homemade pizza and you’re so right, so much better than the restaurants!
The pizza steel is really so great. Very happy with it! I never liked pizza until I made my own at home – spent most of my life hating pizza in fact!
I have to say, am not fully sold on Sourdough Pizza as an idea. The pizza base is always so dough (great in bread, not pizza), anyway, I’m happy to hear that making your own is the best compromise! Looks tasty!
I didn’t have a good experience with it although maybe it was an off day!
This sounds GREAT, would love to try it at home. Such a shame when you go to a place full of expectation and it’s dashed. Sometimes I think people go for the hype and daren’t say how disappointing the food was when they get there.
Using a good stone or tray makes all the difference to pizza or bread. It sounds very interesting, and if you factor in the price of a few takeaways it is also good value.