Sausage Pizza with Homemade Garlic Herb Crust

When food is involved, I hate buying things when I can make them myself. When you make food yourself, you know and control exactly what goes into it, it's likely healthier and it's probably cheaper. All of the following are the case for the meal I'm about to show you. And fair warning, after seeing these pictures, you're probably going to drop whatever it is you're supposed to be doing and make way for either your kitchen or the grocery store! This was a good dinner!

The make it instead of buy it rule particularly applies to pizza... but not just that. I make my crust from scratch. I don't like to buy the pizza crust mix where you just add water, and I don't like to buy pre-made crusts. To tell you the truth, I can make a pretty kick ass pizza crust.

Growing up, homemade pizza was a go-to favorite in our house. Sure, we ordered our fair share of delivery and carry-out pizza, but we also have plenty of memories (and photos) from making homemade pizzas too! 

(Here's one such picture from the homemade cookbook my mom made for my Christmas gift my senior year of high school... Oh, throwback pictures...)

There's something just innately fun about making pizzas. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that they are so customizable. You can give everyone who's participating in dinner their own crust and they can make it exactly how they want it. You can experiment with toppings and sauces and seasonings and try something new each time you make one. That's certainly not something you get when you call up the local pizza place.

To be perfectly honest, my whole childhood I was a "Cheese Only" pizza eater, and as a teenager and adult I became a Pepperoni pizza eater. Honestly, I didn't like a lot of extra "junk" filling up my pizza. Thankfully, as I've experimented more and more, those habits are dying when it comes to homemade pizza. I'm becoming more free with my ingredients and finding non-pepporoni toppings I can really enjoy. 

Whew, evidently when it comes to pizza, I have a lot of opinions... So without further ado, here's my homemade sausage pizza with homemade garlic herb crust!

The Steps...

This pizza really isn't very difficult to make. The first step begins with making the dough for your crust. You'll dissolve 1 packet of active dry yeast into 1 cup of warm water. Once the yeast has dissolved, you'll add in your remaining ingredients: 2 1/2 cups flour, 1 tsp. sugar, 1 tsp. salt and 2 tbsp. vegetable oil.

Mix these ingredients together until the dough starts to pull away from the bowl and form a ball. It really doesn't take to long for this to be completely mixed.

After you have completed mixing the dough, set the bowl aside and cover with a clean dish towel. You need to let your dough rise, for at least 10 minutes, however you can allow it to sit for longer if you're not quite ready to make your pizza.

While the dough is rising, you can work on a couple of the other preparation steps, including your garlic/herb oil. In a small bowl, mix equal parts garlic salt, oregano and basil. This would also be a good time to preheat your oven to 450*. If you're using a pizza stone for baking (which I would recommend), place the stone in the oven at this time so it can preheat.

Once you have mixed these seasonings, add olive oil just until until it covers the herbs. Mix and set aside. 

While your dough is rising, you can also brown your sausage. I bought one hot Italian sausage link from the meat counter of my grocery store, which provided the perfect amount of sausage for this pizza. Crumble the sausage and cook in a small frying pan until fully cooked, then set aside.

While the sausage is browning, you can also use this time to chop your tomato and green onions.

Once your dough has finished rising (or whenever you are ready to begin making your pizza), it is time to form the crust. Take the pizza stone out of the oven and sprinkle flour on its surface (or use a greased pizza pan if you don't have a stone). Flour your hands and sprinkle a little extra flour over the dough.

Begin forming the dough into a ball using your hands and place on the pizza stone. Using your hand form the crust into your pizza shape onto the stone by pushing from the middle towards the edges. Leave a round crust around the outside as shown.

Once your crust is formed, poke holes in the center with a fork. This will prevent air bubbles. Place in the preheated oven for 2 minutes so the crust can begin to cook. 

Remove the crust from the oven after two minutes and brush on the garlic herb oil you made earlier until the entire crust is coated in the oil.

Don't use so much that it pools in the bottom or you will create a soggy crust, use just use enough so that the entire crust is covered in seasoning.

Once the crust has been coated with the garlic herb oil, you'll begin to add your toppings. Start with the sausage and tomato chunks.

Then add the green onion.

Top with plenty of spinach. The great thing about this is that spinach doesn't add a lot of taste, but it's super healthy, so it's a great thing to add to your pizza.

After all those toppings are added, then you'll cover with mozzarella cheese. Use just enough cheese so that it mostly covers all of your toppings. Again, if you use too much, the bottom of your crust and your toppings won't cook all the way, so only use as much as you need to cover the pizza.

Your pizza is now ready for baking. Place it in your preheated oven for about 10 minutes. Judge it's doneness by the color of the crust and cheese. It may need just a minute less or a few minutes extra, depending on your oven.

Remove your pizza and it should look just like this delicious pie!

Here's another shot of it, because it's just so darn pretty. I'm not going to lie... I was VERY excited to eat this pizza!

Serve it up and watch it disappear!

As I promised in the beginning, this pizza (or any pizza for that matter) really isn't that hard to make. Experiment with your own original topping combinations to come up with your perfect pizza. Although the toppings are important, I really believe it's the crust and the garlic herb oil that really make this pizza!

Sausage Pizza with Homemade Garlic Herb Crust

Ingredients:

1 packet active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
equal parts: garlic salt, oregano, basil (adjust to taste)
olive oil
1 tomato, diced
green onion, diced
hot italian sausage link
spinach leaves
mozzarella cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450*. Place pizza stone (if using) into oven to allow to preheat. Dissolve yeast in warm water. Once yeast is dissolved, add flour, sugar, salt and vegetable oil. Mix until dough starts to pull away from the bowl and form a ball. Set aside and allow to rise for at least 10 minutes.

While dough is rising, dice tomatoes and brown sausage.

Place garlic salt, oregano and basil in a small bowl and add olive oil until seasonings are covered. Mix well.

Once dough has completed rising, pull pizza stone out of the oven (or use a greased pizza pan) and sprinkle flour on top. Using floured hands, form dough into pizza crust, leaving a raised crust around the edge of stone.

Poke holes into the crust to prevent air bubbles and cook crust in the oven for 2 minutes. After 2 minutes, pull out the crust and brush garlic herb oil over the entire crust.

Add sausage, tomato and green onion to the pizza crust and top with spinach leaves. Top the pizza with mozzarella cheese, using only enough to just cover the toppings.

Place pizza back into oven and cook for 10 minutes (give or take a few minutes, depending on your oven). Pizza will be done when crust is golden brown and cheese has melted and slightly browned.