Spicy Sausage and Mushroom Pizza

The Super Bowl will be here on Sunday, and I've got a great recipe for you to try out for the occasion. This one comes from Cooking Light, but have no fear - it's full of all the flavor you would expect from a pizza.

I took a few shortcuts (sometimes you have to on weeknights!) by purchasing a thin crust Boboli shell and by using jarred roasted red peppers instead of dicing up a fresh one. This also saved me time from having to cook it with the other veggies. Any old regular jar of spaghetti sauce should work for this recipe, and I recommend adding more cheese than the recipe says to (I went with 3/4 cup). Lastly, because I have a young son who doesn't tolerate spicy foods yet, I used mild instead of hot turkey sausage. It still had a great punch of flavor with just enough heat to balance out the sweetness of the onions.

The outcome? An awesome pizza, I must say. My husband and son happily gobbled it up. Does that make it a winner? I'd say so.


Spicy Sausage and Mushroom Pizza

Ingredients

• 1 pound refrigerated fresh pizza dough
• Cooking spray 
• 4 ounces hot turkey Italian sausage 
• 1 cup thinly sliced onion
• 1 (8-ounce) package presliced mushrooms
• 1 cup diced red or green bell pepper 
• 1 tablespoon yellow cornmeal
• 1/2 cup lower-sodium marinara sauce (such as McCutcheon's)
• 1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese 
• 1/4 cup (1 ounce) grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese   

Preheat oven to 450°. Place dough in a bowl coated with cooking spray; let dough stand, covered, for 15 minutes.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat; coat pan with cooking spray. Remove casings from sausage. Add sausage to pan; cook 3 minutes, stirring to crumble. Add onion and mushrooms; sauté 4 minutes. Add bell pepper; sauté 2 minutes.

Sprinkle a baking sheet with cornmeal; roll dough into a 12-inch circle on prepared baking sheet. Spread sauce over dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Top with sausage mixture. Sprinkle cheeses over sausage mixture. Bake at 450° on bottom oven rack for 17 minutes or until crust is golden.


Adapted from Cooking Light