The Opinionated Foodie: The Love (or Not) of Food and Everything That Goes with It

Don’t you just love it when you happen to have all the stuff you need to make something that sounds really good?

Rarely does it happen for me.

I almost always have to make do because some ingredient is missing. Like, I will think I have mushrooms, and I will remember buying mushrooms. I know I almost always have mushrooms. I will have seen the mushrooms. When I go to the refrigerator? No mushrooms.

I wish I had a dollar for every time I poured a bowl of cereal to reach into the refrigerator to find no milk.

Stuff like this happens to me all the time.

So I am totally amazed that I can share this recipe with you today. As I thought about what sounded good for supper, I knew that I needed to use the Italian sausage I bought earlier this week. I also figured it was time to use the pizza crust I had laying around. Then, the ingredients that sounded good just kept popping in my head, and believe it or not, I had them all.

That never happens to me.

Except this one time.

The recipe:

One thin crust pizza dough in a can from the refrigerator
One pound of Italian sausage, casing removed if in the casing
One onion, sliced
One small can of sliced mushrooms, or fresh if you have them
One clove of garlic, very finely minced
One can of quartered artichoke hearts-I used the non-marinaded kind, but they would be good too
One ball of fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced
Freshly grated Parmesan to sprinkle on top

Preheat your oven to 400. On a large baking sheet, sprinkle a little corn meal on the bottom of the sheet. Spread the pizza dough over the corn meal as thinly as you please. When the oven is ready, prebake your crust for five minutes.

Meanwhile, brown your Italian sausage until it is nice and done. Remove from the pan. In the same pan, add a little oil if necessary and brown your onions for about five minutes over medium heat. When they begin to turn golden, add the mushrooms for about two minutes. Turn your heat off, and add the garlic. Allow the garlic to warm through.

Now, assemble. On your prebaked crust, drizzle some olive oil. On that, layer the sausage, onions with mushrooms and garlic, quartered artichokes, and then the cheeses. Sprinkle a little salt on top for good measure.

Bake at 400 for twelve minutes.

Our pizza was better in the middle than on the edges where the toppings never seem to make it. My husband wasn’t a fan of the artichokes, but I liked them a lot. I didn’t drain my sausage, but I did drain everything else very well. The middle of our crust was just a little soggy anyway, but it was soggy in a savory good way.

I hope you everything you need to try this one day.