For the past few months I've been taking a more realistic approach to pizza making. Instead of obsessing over technique (though I am interested in Kenji Alt's idea) I have been reveling in the ease of what a few simple ingredients can do. With flour, yeast, water, cheese, and tomatoes I can now make a pretty mean pizza. Though my dough isn't quite as springy and as DiFara's, and my sauce isn't light and bright like Patsy's, it is immensely better than most of the pies I could buy in my neighborhood. And more importantly, much, much cheaper.
Which all means I know make pizzas at home about once a week using the broiler method Blake and I explored over at Serious Eats. Each week my wife and I have tried a different combination, from the standard Neapolitan pie, to ones topped with nothing more than good olive oil and salt. This time I wanted something meaty, but didn't want to resort to give up the "make it from scratch" ethos that has served us so well. We wanted to make it ourselves, but also be able to eat that night.
For the sausage novices, nothing could be quite so easy as this recipe from Michael Ruhlman's Charcuterie. Because I was using it straight away I had no need to stuff it into casing only break them free a moment a latter. I essentially just mixed everything together, ground it on the small die of my meat grinder, and cooked it. It was about as time consuming as cutting up a bunch of vegetables. And since I controlled the seasoning, it was rich, herbal, slightly spicy and utterly delicious. It's so flavorful, I only needed a sprinkling on each pie. So it never tasted weighty and greasy.
This recipe is for far more sausage then you'll need. But you'll want extra. It's a great addition to many other dishes. I immediately froze a bunch to keep around when the next pangs for sausage pizza hits.
Spicy Italian Sausage
- 2 pounds boneless pork shoulder
- 1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon fennel seeds, quickly toasted
- 1/2 tablespoon ground coriander
- 1 1/2 tablespoon paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 2 tablespoons fresh oregano
- 2 tablespoons fresh basil
- 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 6 tablespoons ice water
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Dice the meat into 1/2 inch cubes or so. Toss in a large bowl and add the rest of the ingredients except the water and red wine vinegar. Set in the freezer for 20 minutes or so to get real cold.
Grind the meat through the smallest die.
Transfer the ground meat to the large bowl in the Kitchen Aid. Hook in the paddle attachment. Pour in the water and red wine vinegar and turn on the paddle. Mix for about 1 minute on medium.
To cook, add a little bit of canola oil to a large skillet set over medium heat. Then add as much sausage as you want and cook until no longer pink. Drain on paper towel.
Sprinkle on top of a pizza. If you need help with homemade pizzas, check out these posts:
The Pizza Hack: Broil Your Pies
A Night of Broiled Pizzas So Hot, Things Shattered
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Another great recipe! I've been looking for ways to use my meat grinder and with all the pizza we make this would be perfect. Plus I'm always a bit suspicious about the ingredients in commercial sausage…
Phoo-D
Broiling pizza, curious… I will check it out. I did mine at 500.
I made the no-knead pizza dough by Jim Lahey which is like a crispy bread. perhaps that was why it was so crispy. That and the fact that I let it rise for 36 hours becuase I procrastinating.
I also love the idea of homemade pizza. I made the cheese and my friend cured bacon. He also does sausage, so I may ask him to ht up this site (which I do on a regular basis) and come check out the recipe.
Dominos has nothing on us…
My daughter really loves your website. She's sitting here looking at the pictures with me and yelling YUM in my ear.
Phoo-D: Me too. Sometimes it's more filler than meat.
katiek: No knead pizza dough? That is really interesting. I'm going to have to check that out. I actually have made a very good homemade pie with dominoes crust. I just needed dough fast, so I conned them into selling me some dough. It was not cheap, but made a much better pie than than would have.
Julie: ha! I sometimes do that at work when I only have pictures to remind of my meals…
That *does* look like a good pie. I'm usually not a big fan of what comes out of the home oven (too thick and bready) but this looks like it might be worth a go. Thanks!
missginsu: That's what I'm always fighting against. I have to keep the dough real thin, and make sure it can get as close to the broiler as possible. Good Luck!
Great recipe as always. I'll have to try the upside down cast iron skillet. Had not heard of that technique before. I have bought pizza dough at Walmart for 89 cents! It was good and made the evening's dinner alot quicker. But I have a copy of the Artisan Bread in 5 min a day book and will try his no knead dough. That and this recipe and technique will be a winning combo I'll bet! Thank you once again Nick!
Wow, fantastic. I think I may make just the sausage. Maybe with a bit extra fennel, I'm a huge Gianelli fan (http://www.gianellisausage.com/), you should try their's sometime.
The no-knead recipe was featured in a tasting table article. His empire expands!
http://tastingtable.com/entry_detail/99/Jim_Lahey_reveals_his_recipe_for_no-knead_pizza_dough_.htm
Nick – We made the Italian sausage last weekend to incorporate into a bolognese sauce and it was absolutely wonderful! I swapped balsamic for the red wine vinegar but otherwise followed your recipe exactly. I will never buy Italian sausage from a store again. Thank you so much for posting this. If you are interested I wrote about our meal here: http://www.phoo-d.com/2009/02/otbn-2009-italian-feast.html
Thanks again!
Phoo-D