Pizza with Bison Italian Sausage and Veggies Recipe

So this summer, after a lot of waiting, my company, NebraskaBison.com, finally got in a product I have been working towards for a long time: Bison Italian Sausage Brats. Since then, I have been enjoying testing them and creating some new dishes with them as they are so so so tasty! You may have already seen my post for Pasta with Bison Sausage and Vegetables and today I am bringing you a homemade pizza recipe using our Italian Sausage!

First, a couple cool things about this Italian Sausage, because they aren't just any other sausage.

• 100% bison meat: we don't use any other meats or fats in these sausages. They are just bison meat and seasoning. Simple as that.
• No MSG.
• No added Nitrates or Nitrites
• Come in Mild and Hot flavors.

You can see why they are already off to a great start. They have a lot of positives, and once you taste their great flavor, you'll be hooked!

So, back to the pizza.

I already knew these sausages were great on the grill, and great in pasta, but I wanted to see what else I could expand them to. I love making homemade pizza and do it quite often, and knew that these sausages would be a perfect fit!

For the pizza, I only used one 4 oz. link. Since the sausage is already fully cooked, I decided the best way to use the sausage on the pizza would be to slice it thin like pepperoni, as you can see in the picture. 

In addition to the sausage, I had some green pepper and onion on hand, which I also sliced up for the pizza. You can certainly add other ingredients as well – mushrooms come to mind as a great option for this pizza combination as well!

Once you have all your toppings prepared, you'll want to prepare the crust. I've included instructions for my homemade pizza crust which is easy and always comes out great. If you have a crust you like to use, it will obviously work here as well!

Once the crust is formed, I always use a fork to poke a few holes in the crust so that it doesn't bubble up while baking. Then you can spread on your sausage and pile on the toppings.

For this pizza, I used a four cheese blend (not on purpose, but only because I realized too late I was low on Mozzarella), but it actually ended up working really well! I used a combination of Mozzarella, Parmesan and Cheddar Jack cheeses. Spread it on generously and make sure the whole pie is covered!

That's it! All that's left to do is bake! I baked this pizza for about 15 minutes at 425*F on a pre-heated pizza stone. And here it is when I took it out:

Pizza with Bison Italian Sausage, Peppers and Onions

Ingredients:

For Crust:
2 1/2 cups flour
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 cup warm water
1 packet active dry yeast

For Toppings:
pizza sauce
small onion, sliced
green pepper, sliced
bison hot or mild Italian sausage link, thinly sliced
Mozzarella cheese (or Italian blend of cheeses)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425*F

Prepare the pizza crust: dissolve yeast in warm water. Add remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly. Let rise for 5-10 minutes.

Form crust on a hot pizza stone. Use a fork to poke holes in crust so it will not bubble up.
Generously spread pizza sauce over crust.

Our Bison Italian Sausages are already fully cooked, so thinly slice up a link like pepperoni. Place sausage slices evenly around pizza.

Add onion and green pepper pieces to pizza and top generously with cheese.


Bake for about 15 minutes or until cheese is golden brown.