Pizza with Sardinian fennel sausage, red chicory and Pecorino cheese

• 15 minutes to prepare •  30 minutes to cook  • Serves 4

Eja

Pizza is a pretty common meal choice, with hundreds of variations to be found.
This particular version of the popular dish emulates the one we tasted last summer, during our holiday in Sardinia.

With savory fennel sausage, mild Pecorino cheese and crisp chicory this recipe definitely looks like a winner: the sweetness of Sardinian sausage with anice-flavored fennel seeds and the mix of cheeses make the perfect pizza for any meat lover.

Here are ingredients for a 4-serving recipe (4 pizzas):

1 kg pizza dough divided into 4 balls (you may find here my pizza dough recipe)
500 g red chicory
400 g tomato passata
100 g Pecorino cheese
200 g Sardinian fennel sausage
400 g mozzarella cheese
EVO oil
salt and pepper

1. When you are ready to bake the pizzas, take the dough out of the fridge, leaving at least 1 hour and half for it to warm up and get pliable
2. Rinse endive under cold water and cut it into strips. Braise it with 2 tablespoons of EVO oil, salt and freshly ground pepper (be generous with it). Cover with a lid and go on with the cooking for about 15 minutes
3. Cut Pecorino into thin slices with a grater
4. Cut mozzarella into thin slices and place it in a colander to drain
5. Cut the skin of the sausage with the tip of a sharp knife and remove it. Cut the sausage into nibbles of equal size
6. Preheat oven to 270°C (or, better, as far as oven temperatures go)
7. Generously dust the counter with semolina flour. Make the pizzas one at a time. Dip your hands in flour and lift a ball of dough. Very gently lay the dough across your fists and carefully stretch it by bouncing the dough in a circular motion on your hands, carefully giving it a little stretch with each bounce. Once the dough has expanded outward, move to a full toss. When the dough is stretched out to your satisfaction (about 25 cm in diameter), lay it on the baking tray covered by baking paper
8. Lightly top it with the tomato sauce and sprinkle both red chicory and sausage over
9. Bake the pizza for about 10 minutes. If the top gets done before the bottom, you will need to move the baking tray to a lower self before the next round
10. When the crust of the pizza is golden - it means that the pizza is almost ready -, add the slices of mozzarella on top. Let mozzarella to melt for a couple of minutes
11. Remove the pizza from the oven and transfer it to a wooden cutting board. Add the Pecorino cheese and wait 2 minutes before serving, to allow the cheese to set slightly. Buon appetito!

Nutrition Facts are detailed in the table below. Data is provided per serving.

Pizza.
73% delicious.
27% also delicious.