Name: Sausage & Spinach White Deep Dish Pizza
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 40 min
Ingredients: 2 lbs. Pizza Dough; 3 links Sweet Italian Sausage, cooked and sliced; 1/4 c. +/- Extra Virgin Olive Oil; divided; 4 c. Fresh Baby Spinach, washed, stems removed; 2 cloves Garlic, minced; 1 c. Part Skim Ricotta Cheese; 4 oz. Shredded Part Skim Mozzarella Cheese

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Sausage & Spinach White Deep Dish Pizza made with part skim Ricotta and Mozzarella cheeses, fresh spinach, garlic and sweet Italian sausage.

Last week I made Italian Stuffed Spaghetti Squash and had extra sausage, so I made this recipe for Sausage & Spinach White Deep Dish Pizza. Waste not, want not. Right?

I've made and shared several pizza recipes before, but never this combination. Probably because it's the type of pizza we order out from our local pizza place when we're in the mood for a thin NY crust style pizza and I don't feel like cooking. Yes, I get that way too, trust me!

Whenever we order pizza out, we get two round, thin pies: plain cheese and sausage & spinach white pizza.

This way we have extra slices to freeze for last minute weekend lunches or weeknight dinners when we're all off and running in different directions.

White pizza is one of our favorites and allows us to enjoy pizza without the red sauce; which can sometimes upset our stomaches. Even when I make pizza at home, I usually forgo the sauce and make it Margherita style instead.

Since I was making one of our favorites at home, I decided to make it deep dish style to change it up a bit.

Ingredients needed

For this recipe you'll need:

pizza dough
cooked and sliced Italian sausage (I used sweet)
fresh baby spinach
garlic
EVOO
Ricotta and shredded Mozzarella cheeses (I used part skim for both)
And two 9" cake pans.

I use a brand of defrosted frozen pizza dough which is made in NJ. You can also make your own dough, buy it fresh from your grocers refrigerated section or even your local pizza place.

For the sausage, you can use the links and bake them in the oven or use ground sausage. As long as it's cooked through and no longer pink before you add it as a topping to your pizza. This can be done ahead of time and refrigerated up to 3 days until you're ready to use.

How do you make Sausage and Spinach White Deep Dish Pizza?

Start by preheating your oven to 425 degrees F; then generously grease two 8-inch (or 9-inch) cake pans with extra virgin olive oil. Mine had 1 ½″ sides so if your pan has 2″ sides, the crust may be a little thinner.

Add 1 lb. of the dough to the pan and stretch it out on the bottom and up the sides of the pan.

It may take a few minutes to do this as the dough will keep shrinking back down the sides, but stick with it, it will stay eventually. Repeat with the second pan.

Add a little more olive oil to the top of the dough, place both pans in the oven for 10 minutes to par bake the crust; then remove the pans from the oven.

While the dough is par cooking, heat a little olive oil in a large pan, add the garlic and spinach and saute until the spinach has wilted. Now it's time to assemble your deep dish pizza.

Spread a thin layer of the Ricotta cheese on top of the dough, then add the Mozzarella cheese, spinach and garlic mixture and the sausage.

Finally, place the pizza back in the oven for another 10-15 minutes until the crust is golden brown and the cheese has melted; then cut the pizza into wedges.

I got eight wedges per pizza, served it with a tossed salad and one to two slices were plenty for dinner because of the denser crust.

This Sausage & Spinach White Deep Dish Pizza was amazing and my family really enjoyed it. Now I don't know whether I prefer the thick or thin crust variety better. ~Enjoy!

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A plate of Sausage and Spinach White Deep dish pizza

Sausage & Spinach White Deep Dish Pizza

Carrie's Experimental Kitchen

Sausage & Spinach White Deep Dish Pizza made with part skim Ricotta and Mozzarella cheeses, fresh spinach, garlic and sweet Italian sausage.

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Prep Time 15

Cook Time 25

Total Time 40

Course Appetizer, Main Entree

Cuisine Italian

Servings

Calories 245 kcal

Ingredients

2 lbs. Pizza Dough
3 links Sweet Italian Sausage, cooked and sliced
¼ c. +/- Extra Virgin Olive Oil; divided
4 c. Fresh Baby Spinach, washed, stems removed
2 cloves Garlic, minced
1 c. Part Skim Ricotta Cheese
4 oz. Shredded Part Skim Mozzarella Cheese

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F; then generously grease two 8-inch (or 9-inch) cake pans with extra virgin olive oil. (Mine had 1 ½″ sides so if your pan has 2″ sides, the crust may be a little thinner.)
Add 1 lb. of the dough to each pan and stretch it out on the bottom and up the sides of the pan. (It may take a few minutes to do this as the dough will keep shrinking back down the sides, but stick with it, it will stay eventually.)
Repeat with the second pan. Add a little more olive oil to the top of the dough, place both pans in the oven for 10 minutes to par bake the crust; then remove the pans from the oven.
While the dough is par cooking, heat a little olive oil in a large pan, add the garlic and spinach and saute until the spinach has wilted. Remove from the oven to add your toppings.
Spread a thin layer of the Ricotta cheese on top of the dough; then add the Mozzarella cheese, spinach and garlic mixture and the cooked sausage.
Finally, place the pizza back in the oven for another 10-15 minutes until the crust is golden brown and the cheese has melted; then cut each pizza into eight wedges.

Notes

*You can substitute ground sausage for the links and whole milk cheeses for the part skim.

Nutrition

Calories: 245kcalCarbohydrates: 27gProtein: 14gFat: 10gSaturated Fat: 3gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 25mgSodium: 646mgPotassium: 431mgFiber: 3gSugar: 0.4gVitamin A: 5639IUVitamin C: 17mgCalcium: 180mgIron: 2mg

Keyword pizza, sausage

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