sausage fennel and kale pizza
I only recently accepted fennel bulbs into my cooking repertoire. They’re so funky looking that I assumed a high difficulty level in dealing with them. Then I learned you only really use part of it in the meat of a dish and the frilly little green fronds as garnish. Who knew? Fresh fennel features in this vegetarian- OR carnivore-friendly weeknight pizza, depending solely on whether you use a veggie sausage or the real thing. Highly cheesy, comforting, and savory, all good things for chilly winters eves.
Pizza nights occur maybe every other week, despite my wanting it more often than that. J is very traditionalist with his pizza, preferring margherita over anything else, but he graciously accepts when I throw him a knuckle curve on a baking stone. This pie isn’t ridiculous in its profile, and especially easy if you purchase a premade dough. I love making my own no matter what, since I can plop everything into a bowl and forget about it an hour or so while I piddle about with other tasks, and pulling a fluffy bit of flour is rather meditative.
I think this combination begs for a sharper style of cheese, so I opted for a chardonnay-soaked toscana from Trader Joe’s. It bites like parmesan or asiago and marries well with the fennel. Use plenty of it. I oddly prefer pizzas without sauce most of the time, as I think if you add enough by way of toppings a baselayer isn’t really needed. Kind of like clothes. Choose something warm enough and you don’t need the longjohns, especially if you live in Florida.
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Black Fig, Goat Cheese & Caramelized Onion Pizza with Arugula + Easy Homemade Pizza Dough
Ingredients
- 1 pound pizza dough, homemade or store bought
- 1/4 cup olive oil, divided
- 2 links Italian sausage, meat or vegetarian (I used Trader Joe's vegetarian sausageless links)
- 1 yellow onion, sliced fajita-style
- 1 fennel bulb, sliced into strips
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- kosher salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 cup shredded toscana cheese
- 1 cup kale leaves, packed
- 1/2 cup fresh basil, loosely packed
Instructions
- If making your own pizza dough, allow an additional hour in your prep time for prepping and rising.
- When ready to assemble toppings, heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a skillet over medium. Slice sausage links on a bias and toss into pan. Allow to brown slightly on one side, about 3-5 minutes, turn turn and cook an additional 2-3 minutes to brown on the other side. No need to get the meat super crispy since it will continue to cook in the oven. Once nicely golden, remove from pan and scoop onto a plate lined with paper towels to drain.
- If you used a real-meat Italian sausage, you probably don't need to oil your pan again. If the skillet looks dry, add another teaspoon of oil and swirl to coat. Toss onion, garlic, fennel, salt and pepper together and caramelize for about 5-8 minutes until soft and fragrant.
- Whichever method of dough-making you select, you'll probably need to parbake it. Preheat oven to 450 degrees with either a pizza stone or large (12 inch preferably, or even bigger if you have it) on the rack to preheat as well. Form your dough into your preferred size – I usually get about a 12-inch crust from my homemade formula, though I do like it thinner so 10-12 inch is likely apt – and carefully transfer to your stone or skillet. Brush dough with 1 tbsp olive oil and parbake for 6-8 minutes until slightly firm.
- Assemble your pizza – the fun part! Line bottom of the crust with kale, then top with 1/2 cup shredded cheese. Dot evenly with fennel mixture, sprinkle rest of cheese, then top with sausage and basil leaves. Cook for about 10 minutes until cheese melts, then turn broiler to HIGH and cook an additional 2-3 minutes, watching closely, until crust is nicely brown and cheese bubbles. Carefully remove from oven, slice, and serve!
