Italian Sausage Deep Dish Pizza

Total Time: 1 hr Preparation Time: 25 mins Cook Time: 35 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 8
• 1 (19 ounce) package johnsonville mild or hot italian sausage links, casings removed
• 1 small green bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1 (2 1/4 ounce) can sliced black olives, drained
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 4 teaspoons yellow cornmeal
• 2 tubes refrigerated country italian bread dough (13.2 ounces)
• 6 slices provolone cheese
• 3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
• 1 (15 ounce) can pizza sauce

Recipe

• 1 cook sausage links according to package directions; drain, cut into ¼-inch slices and set aside.
• 2 in a skillet, sauté green pepper slices in 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat until lightly browned.
• 3 remove peppers and set aside.
• 4 in the same skillet, add remaining olive oil; sauté mushrooms over medium-high heat until lightly browned.
• 5 position oven rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 400ºf.
• 6 butter the bottom and sides of two 9-inch round baking pans.
• 7 sprinkle 2 teaspoons of cornmeal in the interior of each pan.
• 8 remove bread dough from tubes, unroll and press one tube of dough up sides and over the bottom of each prepared pan.
• 9 arrange 3 slices of provolone over dough, followed by 1 ½ cups of mozzarella and ¼ cup of parmesan into each pan.
• 10 spread ¾ cup of pizza sauce over cheese layer.
• 11 top each pizza with half of the green peppers, mushrooms, olives and sausage slices.
• 12 bake at 400ºf for 30-35 minutes or until crusts are golden brown.
• 13 remove from oven and let rest for 5 minutes.
• 14 cut into wedges.
• 15 serve.