Spicy Tomato Pizza With Vegetarian Sausage And Burrata

My husband came home with a ready made pizza shell and a continuing case of the flu.  His craving?  A traditional guy pizza. To him that means with meat and without arugula.  Now we were on polar opposites sides of what a good pizza is and I had to figure out how I could create one that pleased us both.  And here it is: one would be hard pressed to realize this spicy, smoky, creamy pizza is vegetarian.

Spicy Tomato Pizza With Vegetarian Sausage And Burrata

One fresh pizza dough ball (always the preference, but I appreciate my husband's initiative in going to the market and buying a ready made shell)

2 T olive oil

2 t minced garlic

3/4 to 1 c cherry or grape tomatoes,{depending on the size of your pizza shell}, cut in halves

1 spicy vegetarian sausage link {I used Field Roast chipotle sausage(*)}

1 large jalapeno, stemmed, membrane removed, diced with seeds

8 oz burrata cheese

kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Sprinkle a little flour on a pizza stone and roll the pizza dough into a very thin round. Press with your fingers to stretch the dough further. When you have the thinnest possible round, fold the edges inward by about an inch to create a thick edge.

In a bowl, combine tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. Spread tomatoes over the the pizza crust.

Remove casing from sausage link and cut the link in half length-wise. Slice each half -link width wise to create large, bite size pieces. Nestle sausage in between the tomatoes. Sprinkle the pizza shell with the chili pepper and its seeds.

Bake until crust is a dark golden brown and tomatoes have blistered, using the time recommended for your pizza crust as a guide (9 minutes was my bake time). Remove pizza from the oven, arrange the 4 pieces of burrata cheese on top and bake for 30 seconds for softened cheese (as I have done here) or 1 minute for melted cheese. Remove pizza from oven and finish with a bit of fresh ground black pepper.

(*) I like Field Crest because it does not contain soy protein isolates or soy protein concentrates. 

Source:  Jill Crusenberry