Sausage and Wild Garlic-Mustard Pesto Pizza

We took one look at this pizza—all crisped up and sausage-y/pesto-y and the quote of famed culinary connoisseur Liz Lemon came instantly to mind: I want to go to there. In truth, we’re not sure the bottom of the cast iron pan even touched the table top before every piece had been claimed and moved to someone’s plate.

This is the “Everything Pizza”, you can’t get at a restaurant. The “supreme pizza” that exchanges limp green peppers, barely cooked onion slivers, and mass-produced pepperoni with locally sourced Woodland pork sausage, pesto made from garlic mustard (or arugula) foraged hours before use, and spinach, fresh and minerally, straight from the field that day.

There’s one catch, though. . . some assembly is required.

Ingredients

1/2 lb Woodland Pork Sausage
1 cup Wild Garlic-Mustard Pesto (or any pesto recipe of your choice)
1 cup Spinach
1 cup Garlic-Mustard leaf
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
2 oz Slivered Almonds
Grapeseed Oil and Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
1 tsp Lemon Juice
Pinch Red Pepper Flakes
Salt
1/2 Red Onion, sliced
2 oz Goat Cheese, crumbled
2 oz Parmesan Cheese, grated
1 ball of pizza dough (We used 16 Bricks dough)

*Optional Garnishes* Hot Sauce or Red Pepper Chili Flakes, Garlic-Mustard chiffonade

Directions

Preheat oven to 450.

In a cast iron skillet, brown the sausage over medium-high heat. Drain the fat occasionally as it cooks. When the sausage is cooked through, remove from the pan and set aside. Drain excess fat from the pan, leaving about 2 Tbsp remaining.

Add the red onion and a generous pinch of salt to the cast-iron and reduce heat to medium.

Caramelize the onions, stirring occasionally. About 15 minutes.

While the onions caramelize, make the garlic-mustard Pesto. Use the recipe for Kale and Garlic
Scape Pesto as a guide for the method. Spinach and Garlic-Mustard are more tender than Kale,
so blanch the leaves for only 30 seconds to 1 minute. Process the remaining ingredients in a
small food processor.

When the red onions have finished caramelizing, remove them from the skillet. Take the skillet
off heat and dust the bottom with cornmeal. Stretch the pizza dough directly into the skillet while it is still hot, this makes the crust extra crispy and helps it cook through faster. Spread on the garlic-mustard pesto, followed by the cooked sausage, caramelized red onions, goat cheese, and parmesan cheese.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes on a middle rack, until the crust is golden brown around the edges. Let rest for 5-10 minutes before slicing and serving. Garnish with fresh garlic-mustard leaves and red pepper flakes or your favorite hot sauce.