Pizza With Sausage And Red Pepper Sauce

Pizza with sausage and roasted red pepper sauce, so easy and good! Swap your traditional tomato pizza sauce for roasted red bell peppers and you won't believe how easy, thick, creamy and packed with flavour it is (p.s there's no cream involved). Try something new on your next pizza night!

Pizza with sausage is always going to be good!

We love topping our pizza with sausage and especially Italian ones because they have so much flavour. We've tried a lot of different combinations from sausage and rosemary, spicy sausage, red onion and broccoli to sausage, pear and gorgonzola (<<< so good).

But one thing we haven't tried when making a sausage pizza is swapping the typical tomato pizza sauce for something else. For this recipe, we decided to blitz up some roasted red bell peppers, tomatoes and garlic into a thick, smooth and creamy pizza sauce and omg it's SO good!

Other Ways To Use This Sauce

This sauce is good spread on pizza but it could also be used for so many different meals such as

• Pasta (use as a pasta sauce and dilute with reserved pasta water)
• Meatballs (toss meatballs in this sauce and have on a ciabatta)
• Chicken (Pour the sauce over grilled or breaded chicken)
• Calzone (Turn your pizza into a calzone for something different)

What Type Of Sausage To Use?

• Use good, high quality sausages (nothing under 70% pork)
• Italian sausages work great (sausages with added herbs and garlic)
• Spicy sausages would also be a great option

Tip: We add the sausage to the pizza raw. Take it out of the skin and dot it over the pizza in small amounts before baking.

How To Make Pizza With Sausage And Roasted Red Pepper Sauce – Step By Step

First make the pizza dough, you can find an in-depth tutorial for making traditional pizza dough here. If you don't have time to make pizza dough from scratch then check out our instant pizza dough recipe (ready in 10 mins) for a great, quick thin pizza crust recipe.

Cut the red bell peppers in half and remove the white pith. Use two small/average sized red bell peppers or one large (in Italy they are extra large so we only need one). Cut the tomatoes in half too.

Place them in a large baking tray with 2 cloves of garlic, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with a good pinch of salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until soft and slightly charred (photos 1 & 2).

Once roasted, remove the garlic from their skins and place all the veg in a food processor or use an immersion (hand-held) blender. Blitz the peppers, tomatoes and garlic until smooth and thick. Taste and add season if needed (photo 3).

Tip: The peppers should be slightly charred if there is a lot of black charred bits then remove some of them before blitzing.

Tip: This pizza is topped with capers, they give a sharp, saltiness that goes well with the sweet red pepper sauce. If you don't like capers or aren't using them then add a little squeeze of lemon juice to the blitzed peppers so it isn't overly sweet.

Sprinkle semolina flour or polenta over your baking tray (the one you can bake the pizzas on). Roll out your pizza dough to fit your tray, either round or rectangle and place on the tray (photos 4-6).

Top the pizza with roasted red pepper sauce then sausage, capers and mozzarella. Bake in a hot oven for 7-10 minutes or until the crust is crispy and cheese is melted and bubbling. Finish the pizza with a sprinkling of rocket (arugula) (photos 7-9).

Ingredients

Makes 4 people

For The Dough

• 1 batch of basic pizza dough OR
• 1 batch or Instant pizza dough

For The Topping

• 2 sausages
• 2 red bell peppers
• 5-6 grape tomatoes
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tbsp capers
• 8.8 oz (250g) mozzarella (2 balls)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 pinch salt and pepper
• 1 small handful rocket/arugula
• 1 tbsp semolina flour or polenta (, for dusting)

Method

Pizza Dough

1. First, make the pizza dough by following one of the first two links. Basic Pizza dough (traditional dough) or Instant Pizza dough (no yeast, no rise, thin crust dough).

Pizza Topping

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350F/gas mark 4. Cut the red bell peppers in half and remove the white pith. Use two small/average sized red bell peppers or one large (in Italy they are extra large so we only need one). Cut the tomatoes in half too.

2. Place them in a large baking tray with 2 cloves of garlic, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with a good pinch of salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until soft and slightly charred.

3. Once roasted, remove the garlic from their skins and place all the veg in a food processor or use an immersion (hand-held) blender and blitz the peppers, tomatoes and garlic until very smooth and thick. Taste and add season if needed.

4. Increase the oven temperature to 225°C/425F/gas mark 7. Sprinkle semolina flour or polenta over your baking tray (the one you're going to bake the pizzas on). Roll out your pizza dough to fit your tray, either round or rectangle and place on the tray.

5. Top the pizza with roasted red pepper sauce then sausage, capers and mozzarella. Bake in a very hot oven for 7-10 minutes or until the crust is crispy and cheese is melted and bubbling. Finish the pizza with a sprinkling of rocket (arugula).

Kitchen notes

• Recipe makes 2 large pizzas
• Overall time does not include rising time for traditional pizza dough.
• Use our Instant Pizza Dough if you're short on time.

Using semolina flour

Semolina flour is commonly used in Italy to line trays or pizza stones before baking the pizzas. It stops the bases from sticking and gives a nice crispy crust. You can also use polenta for this or a light dusting of regular flour.

What Type Of Sausage To Use?

Use good, high quality sausages (nothing under 70% pork)

Italian sausages work great (sausages with added herbs and garlic)

Spicy sausages would also be a great option

Tip: We add the sausage to the pizza raw. Take it out of the skin and dot it over the pizza in small amounts before baking.

Roasting the peppers

The peppers should be slightly charred if there is a lot of black charred bits then remove some of them before blitzing.

If not using capers

This pizza is topped with capers, they give a sharp, saltiness that goes well with the sweet red pepper sauce. If you don't like capers or aren't using them then add a little squeeze of lemon juice to the blitzed peppers so it isn't overly sweet.