Sausage, Fennel, and Ricotta Pizza

We never get tired of pizza – it’s so quick to make, versatile, so easy to make it healthy, and so bloody tasty! Pizza is one of the things we crave on Friday night at the end of the work week (well, MY work week)

With this recipe from the folks at Cooking Light, dollops of ricotta cheese top crispy Sausage, Fennel, and Ricotta Pizza. While it does not specifically call for fennel sausage we decided that more the better so we used fennel turkey sausage instead of the Italian turkey sausage that is called for.

Be sure to use a preheated pizza stone or baking sheet to ensure an extra-crisp crust.

The end result was amazing - so good that we have whipped this up three times since (and if you know anything about us we rarely cook the same thing twice, let alone three times!) Of course, the fact that a serving has 350 calories helps too. :-)

Sausage, Fennel, and Ricotta Pizza

12 ounces refrigerated fresh pizza dough
1 (4-ounce) link Italian turkey sausage
1 cup thinly sliced fennel bulb
1 tablespoon cornmeal
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/3 cup part-skim ricotta
1 teaspoon minced fresh garlic
1/3 cup thinly sliced red onion
2 teaspoons fennel seeds
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

Place a pizza stone or heavy baking sheet in oven. Preheat oven to 500° (keep pizza stone or baking sheet in oven as it preheats). Let pizza dough stand at room temperature, covered, while oven preheats.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Remove casing from sausage. Add sausage to pan; cook 4 minutes or until lightly browned, stirring to crumble. Add fennel bulb; cook 4 minutes or until tender.

Roll pizza dough into a 16-inch oval on a lightly floured surface. Carefully remove pizza stone from oven. Sprinkle cornmeal over pizza stone; place dough on pizza stone. Brush dough evenly with oil. Sprinkle sausage mixture evenly over dough, leaving a 1-inch border. Combine ricotta and garlic in a small bowl; top pizza with teaspoonfuls of ricotta mixture. Sprinkle red onion and remaining ingredients evenly over pizza. Bake at 500° for 11 minutes or until golden. Cut into 8 slices.

Comments

[bellini]

I made a similar calzone a while ago I have yet to post with sausage, fennel and provolone. I love the flavour combination.

[Kayte]

Oh, my that pizza looks stellar, no wonder you have made it three times already. We love all those ingredients, and we love pizza on Saturday nights, so this could be a great deal coming up this weekend...wait, next one as we have a wedding to go to this one coming up...soon, very soon. Thanks.

[JDeQ]

MMM- I'll look forward to that post Bellini!

Funny how we have pizza night Kayte! It makes for a nice easy dinner.

[Kayte]

Delicious!! Thanks so much!