Make any night pizza night at home with this recipe for sausage pizza. Once you get the hang of making your own pizza, you'll never get the frozen stuff again.
Sausage Pizza
Let’s face it: Any pizza is good pizza. With our easy recipe for sausage pizza, you can have pizzeria-quality pizza at home, full stop. It’s so good, you’ll never have to do delivery or suffer through cardboard frozen pizza ever again.
There are a couple things that make our sausage pizza unique. First, our homemade pizza dough rests and ferments overnight in the refrigerator. This gives the flour time to hydrate and the gluten to relax, so it’s easier to roll out when you’re ready to use it. Because of this step, you need to plan ahead at least one day.
Secondly, our trick is to bake the dough without any toppings, which allows the crust to get crisp on the outside but soft and pillowy inside. Because conventional ovens don’t get as hot as a pizzeria oven (unless you have something like an Ooni pizza oven), this extra step ensures a well-baked crust.
After you add the toppings, bake the pizza until everything is nice and melty. Slice with your pizza cutter, and serve the pizza while it’s still hot and bubbly. Like many of our favorite pizza recipes, this makes two sausage pizzas, so have a pizza party or freeze one for another day.
Ingredients for Sausage Pizza
- Pizza dough: Our best pizza dough recipe is one of the easiest routes to a great pizza crust at home. It’s made with all-purpose flour, but if you can find 00 flour, even better. Of course, many grocery stores carry pizza dough now, which can be used for this recipe in a pinch.
- Italian sausage: Use hot or mild Italian sausage. If you can only find links, take the meat out of the casings before cooking.
- Pizza sauce: Try your own homemade pizza sauce, or use your favorite store-bought pizza sauce.
- Cheese: We use shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese for our sausage pizza. Grating your own cheese is always worth the effort—it tastes and melts better. But you can easily use pre-shredded mozzarella cheese, or even a pizza cheese blend. Here’s the best mozzarella cheese, according to our Test Kitchen.
- Vegetables: Red onion, green bell pepper and mushrooms top our pizza. Omit any that you don’t like or bump up the ones you do. Bell peppers should be chopped, and red onion and mushrooms should be thinly sliced.
Directions
Step 1: Bake the pizza dough
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Divide the pizza dough in half. With greased fingers, pat each half onto an ungreased 12-inch pizza pan, then prick the dough thoroughly with a fork. Bake until lightly browned, 10 to 12 minutes.
Editor’s Tip: Remove the dough from the refrigerator at least 30 minutes before you want to use it so it comes to room temperature. This will make it easier to stretch out onto the pan. If the dough doesn’t easily stretch into place, let it rest on the pan for a couple of minutes, then go back to patting it out.
Step 2: Cook the sausage
Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook the sausage over medium heat until it’s no longer pink. Make sure to break it up into crumbles while it cooks so you have bite-size pieces on your pizza. Drain the fat out of the pan and set aside.
Step 3: Make the pizza
Spread pizza sauce over the baked dough, making sure to leave room at the outside edge for the crust. Top with cheese, then onion, green pepper, mushrooms and sausage. Bake at 400° until the top is golden brown and the cheese is bubbling, 12 to 15 minutes.
Remove the pizza from the oven and serve with optional toppings: grated Parmesan cheese, crushed red pepper flakes and fresh oregano leaves.
Editor’s Tip: Cook each pizza individually. Cooking them both at the same time could result in an uneven bake. If you do both in the oven at the same time, rotate them between the two racks halfway through.
Recipe Variations
- Switch up the pizza toppings: Pizza is one of the most versatile and adaptable things you can make. Top with any kind of meat or sausage, like chicken, turkey or vegetarian sausage. Or incorporate any other toppings, like spinach, zucchini, olives or anchovies.
- Change the cheese: Have you ever had smoked mozzarella on a pizza? Try it! It melts like a dream and adds so much flavor to pizza.
- Make personal pizzas: You can easily divide the dough into four and make personal-size pizzas, and let everyone choose their own toppings. You may need to adjust the baking time for smaller pizzas.
- Try air-fryer pizza: Follow the instructions for making mini air-fryer sausage pizza if you want to go that route.
- Cook your pizza outdoors: For a change of pace, here’s how to grill pizza. Or try using one of the best outdoor pizza ovens.
How to Store Sausage Pizza
Keep leftover sausage pizza in an airtight container in the refrigerator. It will last up to three days. To reheat pizza, pop it in a 400° oven for a few minutes, or put it in the toaster oven. Microwaving leftover pizza is fine, but it will be less crispy. And of course, cold pizza is sometimes just perfect.
Can you freeze sausage pizza?
You can definitely freeze sausage pizza. For unbaked pizzas, wrap tightly and freeze for up to two months. To use, unwrap the pizzas and place on pans, then let them thaw in the refrigerator. Bake the pizzas at 400° until the crust is golden brown, 18 to 22 minutes.
Sausage Pizza Tips
Do you need to cook sausage before putting it on pizza?
You need to cook the sausage before putting it on a pizza. Home ovens don’t get hot enough to cook the sausage on top of the pizza, so cooking it beforehand ensures it is safe to eat.
Can you substitute spaghetti sauce for pizza sauce on pizza?
Yes, you can use spaghetti sauce or any pasta sauce on pizza, especially if you’re going with a traditional red sauce. You can even use crushed tomatoes and season with a bit of salt, pepper and oregano. Just make sure not to put too much sauce on your pizza or it will get soggy.
The Best Sausage Pizza
Ingredients
- 1 batch The Best Pizza Dough
- 1 pound bulk Italian sausage
- 1 cup pizza sauce
- 4 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
- 1 medium red onion, sliced
- 1 medium green pepper, chopped
- 2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
- Optional: Grated Parmesan cheese, crushed red pepper flakes and fresh oregano leaves
Directions
- Divide dough in half. With greased fingers, pat each half onto an ungreased 12-in. pizza pan. Prick dough thoroughly with a fork. Bake at 400° until lightly browned, 10-12 minutes. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook the sausage over medium heat until no longer pink, breaking it into crumbles; drain.
- Spread pizza sauce over crusts. Top with cheese, onion, green pepper, mushrooms and sausage. Bake at 400° until golden brown and cheese is bubbling, 12-15 minutes. If desired, top with grated Parmesan cheese, crushed red pepper flakes and fresh oregano leaves.
Nutrition Facts
1 piece: 311 calories, 17g fat (6g saturated fat), 33mg cholesterol, 565mg sodium, 26g carbohydrate (2g sugars, 2g fiber), 14g protein.