Jennifer had planned on going back to Bloomington Thursday morning, but Roger was unable to get a flight back to Minnesota at a reasonable time, so she decided to stay for pizza. I had only planned one pizza, because I had originally thought it was just going to be the four of us. Our family tradition for Christmas Eve is to make and eat appetizers all day. We still had quite a few of those left by Thursday, so we added that to our meal to stretch it out a bit.
My dad got into the spirit of things and bought me the andouille sausage I needed. He took Jeff with him to shop for it - I think it was safety in numbers - one of them was bound to remember what the sausage was called.
Andouille Sausage Pizza
Adapted from The Everything Pizza Cookbook by Belinda Hulin
½ cup warm water
¼ teaspoon active dry yeast
¼ teaspoon sugar
1¼ cup flour
½ teaspoon salt
1½ teaspoons olive oil
1 cup barbecue sauce (I used Sweet Baby Ray's)
10 ounces sliced cooked andouille sausage
3 ounces shredded monterey jack cheese
3 ounces shredded sharp cheddar cheese
Combine the yeast, water, and sugar in a bowl and set aside for at least five minutes. Stir the salt and flour together in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the yeast mixture and the olive oil and stir on a low speed until the mixture forms a ball around the hook. Continue mixing a little longer until the dough becomes smooth and elastic. Let rest for an hour in a greased bowl in a warm, dry place.
Preheat the oven to 450º F with a pizza stone inside, if using. Roll or stretch the dough out into a 15 inch circle on a cornmeal dusted pizza peel or board. Spread the barbecue sauce from the center of the circle almost to the edges. Sprinkle half of each of the cheeses over the sauce. Arrange the andouille sausage over the cheese. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the sausages. Slide onto the preheated pizza stone or onto a pizza pan and into the oven. Bake for about 15 minutes or until the crust is lightly browned and the cheese is melted.
I had cheated a little. The original recipe called for making your own barbecue sauce. If I had been at home, I might have done that. However, I was visiting my parents, and I wanted to spend time with them, not alone in the kitchen. Sometimes, sacrifices have to be made in order to preserve the spirit of the moment. I also did not grill the sausages first. They were precooked when we (Dad) bought them, and I took one look at the 10º on the thermometer outside and decided they didn't really need to be grilled first.
The pizza was easy to put together (especially since I had premade sauce and precooked sausage). The biggest challenges were making the crust using someone else's machine and shredded all of the cheese for our toppings.
I rolled out the crust as thinly as I could. I wanted to make sure that the pizza was going to be large enough for each of the seven of us to at least try a piece. I think I may have overdone it a tad, or maybe I should have increased the amount of sausages to make up for a larger base. They seemed a little lonely out there on that large expanse of dough. None-the-less, I forged forward. I sprinkled my cheese on and put the pie in the oven.
This pizza was a great success. My dad wouldn't stop commenting on how wonderful it was. The kids even liked it, and Mom had no complaints. Even the sad distribution of sausages couldn't make me criticize this pizza. The sauce was slightly sweet and combated the hidden heat of the sausages. The cheese held everything together perfectly and acted as a neutralizer between the sweet and spicy of it all. This was definitely a great, easy, weeknight pizza.
I had cheated a little. The original recipe called for making your own barbecue sauce. If I had been at home, I might have done that. However, I was visiting my parents, and I wanted to spend time with them, not alone in the kitchen. Sometimes, sacrifices have to be made in order to preserve the spirit of the moment. I also did not grill the sausages first. They were precooked when we (Dad) bought them, and I took one look at the 10º on the thermometer outside and decided they didn't really need to be grilled first.
I rolled out the crust as thinly as I could. I wanted to make sure that the pizza was going to be large enough for each of the seven of us to at least try a piece. I think I may have overdone it a tad, or maybe I should have increased the amount of sausages to make up for a larger base. They seemed a little lonely out there on that large expanse of dough. None-the-less, I forged forward. I sprinkled my cheese on and put the pie in the oven.
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