Tag Archives: sausage

Classic Pizza Margherita with Sausage

1 Mar

Back in January, I talked about a Johnsonville Pizza Possibilities House Party I had won a while back.  This pizza recipe is another recipe from the book that came in the party box.  I used some fresh spices, red onion, and tomatoes I had gotten from Bountiful Baskets to make this.  It was very good, a lot of sausage, but I think it’s one of those recipes you can add more or less sausage to.

Classic Pizza Margherita with Sausage
Original recipe found here 

What you need:

1 package (19 oz.) Johnsonville Mild Italian Sausage Links
1 package pizza dough crust mix, prepared according to package instructions for the dough
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 tablespoon parsley, minced
1 tablespoon oregano
Sea salt and pepper
8 Roma tomatoes, sliced (divided-save 10 slices for the top)
1/2 medium red onion, minced
2 cups Mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 cup Fontina cheese, shredded (I didn’t have these cheese, so I didn’t use it)
10 fresh basil leaves, divided
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded

How to make it:

Put oven rack on lowest shelf and preheat to 425 F.
Lightly oil a pizza pan. Roll out dough as thin as possible. Let rest 10 minutes.
In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil and cook sausage until browned.  Always cook sausage to internal temperature of 160°F.  Remove from pan and slice.
In the same pan, cook onion and parsley to golden, then stir in garlic and oregano for a few seconds.  Add tomatoes to pan, crushing them as they are mixed (do not substitute crushed tomatoes). Boil, stirring 5 minutes or until thick.
Spread sauce over crust, sprinkle with half the basil, Mozzarella, Fontina, sausage, and the remaining slices of tomatoes. Spray with olive oil.  Sprinkle generously with pepper, then with a little sea salt.
Bake for 10 minutes.  Using a spatula and an oven mitt, slip the pizza off the pan directly onto the oven rack, bake for two minutes.  Slip pizza back onto pan, remove from oven.  Or, I just baked for 12 minutes on the pan.
Sprinkle with the remaining fresh basil and Parmesan cheese, cut and serve.

Johnsonville Pizza Possibilities House Party

24 Jan

If you like to try out new products and host parties, you should look into HouseParty.com.  Manufacturers that want to promote a product work with House Party to get those products out to people who are interested in hosting parties.  Previously, I have hosted a Shutterfly Photobook party, a Febreze Set & Refresh party, and a Huggies Pull Ups Potty Dance party.  Each time, I got free products to share with guests, plus coupons and idea booklets for them to take home.  They all went really well.

In October of last year, I applied and was selected to be a Johnsonville Italian Pizza Possibilities party hostess.  I am already a big fan of Johnsonville sausage and brats, but had never used the sausage for pizza, so this was a good fit for me to try something new.  Unfortunately, some things came up in life and I wasn’t able to host an actual party.  So, now that things have slowed down a bit, I’m able to tell you about Johnsonville and share some of the recipes that were in the booklet with the party.

To start, let’s first talk about what I received in my party kit.

Shown above is an apron, recipe booklet, oven mitt, pizza cutter, paper plates, napkins, and a spoon for spreading pizza sauce.  Also included were coupons for me to get free packages of Johnsonville Italian Sausage and Sargento shredded cheese to use for the party, plus $1 off coupons for the party guests (which I did distribute to some friends).  If you would like to see the recipes in the booklet, you can find them here.

 

So, tonight I made the Sausage Florentine Pizza.  I didn’t have mushrooms, but used onions instead.  I used a homemade pizza sauce for it (recipe coming soon), and because my sauce had lots of fresh spices in it, I did not add the oregano and basil called for in their recipe.  I also used fresh spinach that I chopped instead of using frozen spinach.  I used 2 packages of pizza crust mix to make the pizza a little larger, on one of my baking sheets, so I also used more sauce, spinach, and cheese than what their recipe calls for.  It was great and the family loved it!

 

I’m not sure which recipe I will try next, but they all sound delicious!  So, stay tuned to see what I pick.

Biscuit Waffle Breakfast Sandwiches

5 Dec

Last week I posted about making Biscuit Waffles, and said that I thought they would be perfect for breakfast sandwiches.  Well, I was right!

 

So here is what I used to get 8 breakfast sandwiches:

1 can Grands biscuit, each biscuit split in half, then reshaped to a biscuit shape, giving me 16 biscuit waffles
1 package Jimmy Dean fully cooked turkey sausage rounds, 8 count
2 eggs, beaten, then cooked and divided into 4 sections (I did half with eggs, half without)
Shredded Mexican blend cheese

For the eggs, I sprayed a small skillet, then added the eggs.  Once they started to cook up, I flipped the whole thing.  Once fully cooked, I divided it into 4 pieces.  I then put some of the shredded cheese on each piece of egg, then added them to 4 of the sandwiches.  The other 4 sandwiches I left as just the biscuit waffles and sausage.  2 thumbs up from my family!

 

Wild Rice & Sausage Dressing

23 Nov

My Aunt Paula started making this for holiday meals a while back, and I just loved it.  Her recipe is super simple, 1 box of Uncle Ben’s wild rice, 1 package of breakfast sausage, 1 beaten egg.  Make rice according to the box, brown the sausage and crumble, mix it together with the egg, and bake at 350 F for 20 minutes.  This year, I wanted to make it more into a dressing, like the traditional bread & celery dressing, and make it a gluten-free dressing, so that it could be an alternative for a Thanksgiving meal.  Or, in our case, an addition to our meal.  We don’t have anyone in our household that needs to eat gluten-free, but I wanted to try this out in case we need it in the future or have someone over.

Wild Rice & Sausage Dressing

What you need:

1 cup wild rice blend (I used Lundberg Wild Rice Blend)
2 cups water (or amount specified on package directions)
1 Tbsp olive oil or butter (optional)
1 Tbsp dried parsley
1 tsp poultry seasoning (make sure blend is just spices, not any “blends”)
1 package breakfast sausage (most are gluten-free, but check the label)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small onion, chopped
2 cups celery, chopped
1 egg, beaten

How to make it:

Put rice, water, oil or butter, parsley, and poultry seasoning in a medium sauce pan.  Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to simmer for amount of time on rice package directions, mine was for 50 minutes.

Meanwhile, remove casings from sausage (if there are casings).  Place in a large skillet, crumble, and brown.  Add garlic, onion, and celery to skillet and continue cooking until onions and celery soften.

Mix together rice, sausage mixture, and the egg.  Pour into a greased 8×8 or 11×7 baking dish.  Bake at 350 F for 20-30 minutes.

Sausage & Potato Pie

21 Nov

 

This recipe came from a cookbook I received called Bake Until Bubbly.  My Papou almost always got me a cookbook for Christmas, and after he passed away, this was a cookbook my mom found in his house, and she figured it was most likely meant for me.  It’s a pretty good cookbook, I wish it had pictures of the dishes, but I do like that it’s dishes made more from scratch, not from a lot of processed foods.  For this Sausage & Potato Pie, I end up not following the recipe exactly, but pretty close.

Sausage & Potato Pie

What you need:

2 1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled and diced.  I prefer Yukon Gold, but a lot of times use Russet.
1 large egg
1 lb Italian sausage, casings removed
1 small onion, chopped
1/4 lb fresh mozzarella cheese, cut into cubes OR 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
1/2 cup plus 1 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley OR 1 Tbsp dried parsley

How to make it:

Preheat your oven to 350 F.  Spray a 9 inch deep dish glass pie pan.

Place the potatoes in a large pot and cover with water.  Bring to a boil, and cook at a gentle boil until potatoes are soft.  Drain, and return to pot.  Blend egg into potatoes until smooth.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, break up the sausage and cook until browned.  Add onion to the pan and cook until onions are translucent.  Use a slotted spoon and add sausage and onion to potatoes.

Add in mozzarella cheese, 1/2 cup Parmesan, and parsley, and mix well.  Spoon the mixture into the pie pan, forming a smooth, flat surface on top.  Sprinkle the 1 Tbsp Parmesan over the top.  Bake for 40 minutes, or until golden brown.  Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes.

Sausage, Zucchini, and Tomatoes over Rice

29 Sep

I had been intending to make egg rolls, but still hadn’t had a chance to get everything I needed.  So, I needed a quick dinner using something else I had on hand.  I had bought Italian sausage and some zucchini that was on sale over the weekend, so I decided to make a dinner I haven’t made in a long time, sausage, zucchini, and tomatoes over rice.  My good friend and former neighbor introduced me to this dinner and we love it!  Plus, it really is quite easy.

Note: This is 2 packages of sausage since I have 3 adults and 2 kids in the house to feed.

What you need:

1 package of Italian sausage, mild or hot, depending on your taste
1-2 zucchini, diced
1 can flavored tomatoes, I use basil, garlic, and oregano diced tomatoes
Cooked rice

Remove the casings from sausage and break up.  Cook until all the sausage is browned.  Add in zucchini, cook about 5 minutes, or until it becomes tender.  Add in the can of diced tomatoes, and let simmer for 5-10 minutes.  Serve over cooked rice.

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