Skillet Pizza with Sausage and Chili Garlic Tomato Sauce
Yield: 4 servings
This homemade pizza is made in a cast iron skillet and yields an excellent pizzeria-style crust with lightly crispy edges and a soft, chewy interior. You'll love the sweet-heat Asian inspired twist from the chili garlic tomato sauce!
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 cup warm water
- 1 packet (¼-ounce) active dry yeast
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus a bit more for the dough ball in the bowl and a bit more for the cast iron skillet
- 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting your work surface
- 1½ teaspoons Morton kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon yellow corn meal
Toppings
- ½ pound bulk pork sausage
- ¼ teaspoon Morton kosher salt, divided
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper, divided
- ¾ cup drained Red Gold® Petite Diced Tomatoes
- ¼ cup Red Gold® Tomato Sauce
- 2 teaspoons chili garlic sauce (use more if you really like heat)
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- 4 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese (use whole milk mozzarella if you can find it)
- 2 tablespoons diced red onion
- 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
Instructions
Crust
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, pour the warm water in and sprinkle with yeast. Aim for the water to be the warmth of a bottle you’d feed a baby. If the water is too hot, it will kill the yeast. Let stand until yeast is foamy, about 5 minutes.
- Add olive oil and sugar to yeast mixture. Turn mixer on low and slowly add flour and kosher salt. Turn speed up to medium and mix until everything comes together and forms a ball of dough. Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead just a couple times to bring it together into a ball. Transfer dough ball to a bowl that has a light coating of olive oil. Turn the dough ball to coat with olive oil. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm area for about an hour. The dough should approximately double in size.
- While dough is rising, prepare pizza toppings (directions below). Place a 12" cast iron skillet in the oven and preheat oven to 450°F.
- Cut risen dough in half. Place both pieces on a lightly floured surface and gently knead each one a few times. You can now prepare both pieces (if making two pizzas, you will need to double the pizza topping ingredients listed) or freeze the second piece by wrapping it in plastic and placing it in a resealable freezer bag for up to 3 months. With a rolling pin, roll a piece of dough into a 10″ round, or the diameter equal to the bottom surface of your 12″ cast iron skillet.
Toppings
- In a separate skillet over medium to medium-high heat, brown the sausage, breaking it up into bite-size pieces until no longer pink. Drain away excess grease and sprinkle pork with 1/8 teaspoon of kosher salt and 1/8 teaspoon of black pepper, and stir. Remove skillet from heat and set aside.
- While sausage is browning, prepare chili garlic tomato sauce. In a small bowl, combine diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, chili garlic sauce, brown sugar, remaining 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt, and remaining 1/8 teaspoon black pepper. Set aside.
Assemble
- Very carefully remove hot skillet from oven. Pour just enough olive oil into bottom of skillet to very lightly coat the bottom and about 1″ up the sides, spreading with a brush. Evenly sprinkle cornmeal over bottom of skillet. Carefully place rolled round of dough into bottom of pan, pushing it as needed into the sides of the skillet just a bit (look at my photo in the post). Spread all but 1/4 cup of the chili garlic tomato sauce over the dough, leaving about 1/2″ of dough exposed around the perimeter. Add half of the mozzarella, then all of the sausage. Add remaining mozzarella and then dot the top of the pizza with the remaining chili garlic tomato sauce. Sprinkle red onion over the top of it all. Bake for 17 to 20 minutes, or until crust is golden and cheese is perfectly melty and a bit blistered. Remove from oven and let rest a couple minutes before cutting. Sprinkle with Parmesan and cilantro and serve immediately.
Nutrition Information:
Serving: 1 Calories: 1043kcal Carbohydrates: 121g Protein: 34g Fat: 47g Saturated Fat: 16g Polyunsaturated Fat: 27g Cholesterol: 74mg Sodium: 2596mg Fiber: 6g Sugar: 8g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated by Spoonacular. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee accuracy. If your health depends on nutrition information, please calculate again with your own favorite calculator.