Have you ever tried your hand at homemade pizza, just to watch your efforts fall terribly flat? Perhaps you just couldn’t get the dough to stretch into a circle. Maybe you watched in dismay as a fully loaded pizza refused to budge from the pizza peel just as you were about to put it in the oven. Or, once properly situated on the pizza stone, the bottom of the crust burnt to a crisp while the cheese on top is still undercooked. For such a seemingly simple food, there sure is a lot that can go wrong with making a pizza.
But, believe it or not, crazy-good homemade pizza is just a few easy steps away. The trick, in this case at least, is to swap out the pizza peel and stone for a cast-iron skillet, which creates a decadent deep-dish pizza that sort of half fries/half bakes in the oven. Of course, our recipe also involves all local ingredients: prepared pizza dough (most local shops will sell you a dough ball or two for a few dollars), PA mozzarella, super-high-quality pizza sauce from Vesper Bros. Foods (based in Wayne, PA), and Pennsylvania-made hot Italian sausage. The result is a gooey, addictive PA-proud homemade skillet pizza — easy as pie!
Cast-Iron Skillet Pizza
| Yield |
|---|
| Serves 2–4 |
| Prep Time | Cook Time | Total Time |
|---|---|---|
| 5 min | 20 min | 25 min |
Ingredients
- 1 (1-pound) ball store-bought pizza dough
- 12 ounces bulk PA hot Italian sausage
- 1/2 cup Vesper Bros. Foods Signature Pizza Sauce
- 1 cup fresh PA mozzarella, grated
- Fresh basil for serving
Method
- Preheat oven to 475°F. Place oven rack in top-most position. Roll out dough into 12” circle on floured work surface.
- Heat 12” cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add sausage to skillet and cook until browned, using wooden spoon to break into small pieces, about 8 minutes. Transfer sausage to plate lined with paper towels. Turn off heat, but keep skillet on stove for residual heat.
- Carefully set pizza dough into skillet, pushing dough towards edge. Top with pizza sauce, leaving 1/2” space around edge of crust.
- Top pizza sauce with cooked sausage and sprinkle mozzarella over sausage. Bake on top rack in oven until crust is golden-brown and cheese is melted, 12 to 15 minutes.
- Remove from oven and top with fresh basil. Slice into wedges and serve.
- Photo and recipe: Dish Works
