Stuffed Crust Sausage Mushroom Green Pepper Pizza
Pizza is probably the best late night after bar snack, and it’s one of my absolute favourite foods to pair with wine since it’s so versatile! It all depends on the toppings - a white sauce Hawaiian-style pizza would be incredible with a dry German Riesling, a chocolate dessert pizza would be perfect with a sweet Tawny Port, and of course, a classic Margarita pizza is the BEST with dry Italian reds, like Chianti Classico or Barbera! Since this is a thick, meaty pizza with a classic red tomato sauce, mushrooms, and green bell peppers, I wanted a robust earthy wine with high tannins, high acidity, and green bell peppers. This describes Cabernet Sauvignon to a T!
I chose to pair this one with the 2020 Glenville Red Hills Lake Country Cabernet Sauvignon. An absolitely delicious Californian Cab Sauv from a small family-owned winery that paired perfectly with this pizza! This wine, with its bold and beautiful flavors, pairs wonderfully with this cheesy, stuffed crust, green pepper and sausage pizza. The rich and fruity notes of the Cab Sauv complement the savory elements of the pizza, while its high tannins are softened by the richness of the cheese and sausage. The shared green bell pepper notes in both the wine and pizza work so well together and elevate each other's flavors, while it’s acidity matches that of the tomato sauce and helps cleanse the palate to make sure that you can fully appreciate each decadent bite.
Stuffed Crust Sausage, Green Pepper & Mushroom Pizza
Ingredients
- Pizza dough of choice
- 1/2 cup pizza sauce
- 2-3 cups mozzarella cheese ( 2 cups shredded with approx 1 cup cut into 'sticks' for the crust. Mozzarella cheese string would also works for this)
- 8-10 Crimini mushrooms, thinly sliced
- 1-2 tbsp olive oil
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1 small green bell pepper, finely chopped
- 1 large pork/beef sausage link, pan fried and sliced into 1/2 inch rounds
Instructions
- Place pizza stone in the oven and preheat oven to 500 degrees F
- Heat skillet over medium heat and dry-fry sliced mushrooms (fry without oil) for approx 5 minutes, or until mushrooms start to release their juices. Add 1-2 tbsp olive oil and sea salt and continue to fry for another ~5 minutes (or until desired doneness).
- Remove mushrooms and add sausage to the same pan. Turn up heat to medium-high, cover, and cook for approx 10-20 minutes, flipping halfway to ensure sausage is evenly cooked. Once sausage is cooked through, slice into 1/2 inch rounds and set aside.
- Roll out pizza dough onto a sheet of parchment paper, keeping the base thick enough to hold the ingredients, but roll out the edges thin enough to stuff with cheese.
- Add mozzarella sticks to the outer edges of pizza dough and then roll to form stuffed crust.
- Add toppings, starting with sauce, then a layer of cheese, followed by green peppers, mushrooms, and remaining cheese. Finish off with sausage rounds so that they can crisp up in the oven.
- Transfer pizza with the parchment paper to preheated pizza stone. Bake for 2 minutes and then remove parchment paper (this is easiest if you place a spatula under the pizza and then quickly pull out the parchment paper.
- Bake for another 10 minutes with pizza directly on the stone. Pizza will be ready when crust is brown and cheese is golden and bubbly.
- Allow to cool for at least 5 minutes prior to cutting, and enjoy with a glass or 3 of Cabernet Sauvignon!
