Cook with Us #16 - Cast Iron Pizza w/ Hot Sausage, Caramelized Onions, and Roasted Red Peppers

Hello, my fellow Steemians! This weeks cookwithus challenge is pizza. There is nothing that's more in my " wheelhouse", I got my start in the cooking world in a hole in the wall Italian restaurant/pizzeria. I have worked in so many pizza places over the years I couldn't begin to name them. Hands down the best pizza I have ever produced was in a little bar that I cooked for. They didn't have a pizza oven so we made due with what we had available... Cast Iron pans. If you don't have a pizza stone for your oven get a cast iron pan. In my opinion they are better than a stone because it heats up faster and you can maneuver it while hot because it has handles. I got a cast iron pizza pan from Amazon a couple months ago and haven't had a chance to try it out. When using a hot pan like this I recommend getting some bbq gloves. I picked up some from Amazon for 8 bucks. Make sure you get a pair that you will still have some dexterity so you can get the dough in the pan easily.

Ingredients:
For the dough:
3 1/2 to 4 cups of all-purpose flour( for a crispier crust use bread flour)
1 envelope of instant dry yeast
1 teaspoon of sugar
2 teaspoons of salt
1 1/2 cups of water, 110 degrees
2 Tablespoons of olive oil
1/4 cup cornmeal

Toppings:
3 links of Hot Italian Sausage
4 onions caramelized
1 jar of Roasted Red Peppers
1 jar of favorite pasta sauce
Mozzarella and Provolone cheese

In a mixing bowl combine the flour, salt, water, sugar, yeast, and olive oil. Give the ingredients a good mix. Dust your clean work surface with some flour and scrape the dough onto the surface. Knead in a rhythmic manner for about 10 minutes, until the dough is elastic and smooth. Roll into a ball and place into a well oiled mixing bowl. Spray a little cooking spray over and cover with a sheet of cling wrap and then with a towel and place in a warm and dark environment for 90 minutes to 2 hours or until the ball doubles in size. Turn dough ball out onto a lightly flour dusted surface and divide into 2 equal pieces. Reshape each into a ball and cover with cling wrap. Let them rest for 10 minutes.

To caramelize onions cut off ends and slice into semi-thin slices. Melt 2 Tablespoons of coconut oil over medium-low heat. Break up and add onions to the pan. Stir to coat onions in oil. Cook for 45 minutes to an hour stirring frequently, until they are a deep brown and caramelized. Deglaze pan with 2 Tablespoons of Balsamic vinegar, making sure to scrape up all the bits from pan. Place cast iron pan into the oven and preheat to 500 degrees. Remove sausage from casings and brown over medium-high heat. Using a spatula break up sausage into crumblings. Remove from the heat and set aside. Flour your work surface and shape dough ball into a pizza shape. Begin by flattening the ball and put your left hand in the middle of the ball and with your right hand push outwards while spinning to form a crust. Keep pushing dough from the center out towards the crust until you have desired size.

Take pan out of oven and place on an overturned cookie sheet. Sprinkle a little cornmeal into the bottom of the pan and using gloves place dough into the pan. Lightly brush with olive oil. Sauce dough with as much sauce you would like and cover with mozzarella and provolone. The provolone adds a smokey touch to pizza which is very tasty. Cover with sausage, onions, and peppers. Sprinkle a little extra mozzarella over top and place back into the oven. Cook 7 to 10 minutes or until it is to the doneness you like. Remove pan from oven and with a spatula carefully remove pizza and slice.

These ingredients really came together for a fantastic tasting pizza. The caramelized onions really set it off, they were a great compliment to the spiciness of the sausage. Alright, that's all I've got this time around. Let me know how you enjoyed the pizza. Bon Appetit. - @slowcookingchef

Kitchen music: The Pixies- Surfer Rosa