Caramelized Onion Sausage Pizza

The one food we have the trouble with in the kitchen is pizza, yes pizza! We can never seem to get the crust crispy enough or the cheese bubbly enough or, you get the drift. Of all the college staples pizza, dear readers, has eluded our mastery.

Until now.

This past weekend we unlocked the secret to making tasty pizza. First we trashed (not literally)all the traditional ingredients found in pizza – marinara sauce? Yeah right, how about some caramelized onions. Pepperoni? Only for babies, why not some sweet apple chicken sausage. Mozzarella cheese? Okay, well that’s alright.

Next we made our own pizza dough instead of using a store bought pre-made dough. Here is a link to the recipe we used which was super easy: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/master-pizza-dough/detail.aspx

Finally, we topped it all off with some fresh arugula for a little extra bite. In the end, we had to force ourselves not to eat this entire pizza in one sitting! We hope you like it too.

Warning: This pizza is highly addicting, proceed with caution!

Print this recipe!

You’ll never go back to boring old pizza again.

• Servings – 8 slices
• Prep time – 5 minutes (without including time for caramelizing onions or making pizza dough)
• Cook time – 20 minutes

Ingredients

• Pizza dough for a 14″ pizza pan
• 2-3 onions, caramelized (check out the link above on how to make them – you don’t want to skip this step!
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 2-3 links of sweet apple chicken sausage, sliced (about 3oz; we got ours at Trader Joe’s)
• Arugula

Protocol

1. Pre-heat your oven to 400F.

2. Sprinkle a pinch or two of cornmeal over your pizza stone or pan and roll out the pizza dough to cover the surface. Roll in the edges to create a crust (we brushed some olive oil over ours and sprinkled some garlic powder yum!)

3. Bake for 5 minutes to get the dough a bit crispier.

4. Remove from the oven and evenly spread the caramelized onions.

5. Sprinkle the cheese and top with the slices of sausage.

6. Bake for another 15 minutes or until the sausage begins to brown.

7. Remove from the oven and top with a handful of arugula.

8. Slice, serve and enjoy!

-D&E

French Onion Soup

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! This is our first as a married couple so we are celebrating by going out to dinner and a ballet this evening (the show was a wedding gift). If you are looking for something low key to do on Valentine’s Day with your special someone we have the recipe for you!

It’s been a “few” days since our last post. We’ve had a couple hit and miss meals since then but we think we found a gem for you today. We were hesitant to post a French onion soup for awhile now, because it does take a long time to make. However, other than caramelizing  onions, the recipe is quite simple.

Since it is hard to explain how to properly caramelize onions, We found this video which you should watch beforehand to learn how to properly caramelize onions:

So what the hey, if you have time one weekend give this a try and let us know how it went!

Print this recipe!

[insert something witty about French onion soup here]

• Servings – 8
• Prep time – 15 minutes
• Cook time – 90 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 large onions, thinly sliced
• 3 large cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoon flour
• 6 cups beef stock
• 2 bay leaves
• ½ cup red wine
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• Croutons
• Provolone cheese slices

Protocol

1. Heat the butter and oil in a large pot over high heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook for 5 minutes. Add the salt and turn down to low. Allow the onions to cook down until caramelized for about 45 minutes, stir occasionally (see video above).

2. Add in the flour and cook for one minute. Add in the beef broth, bay leaves, red wine, thyme and pepper and simmer for 20 minutes.

3. Spoon the soup into oven safe bowls and top with the croutons and cheese. Place under the broiler until the cheese becomes melted and golden brown.

4. Serve and enjoy!

-D&E