Friday night’s are usually designated to pizza night in our house. We would normally do a simple round pie using our go-to dough recipe. But this deep-dish pizza recipe was a game changer. Once I told my husband Mike aka “The Pilot” we were having turkey sausage and brussels sprouts pizza for dinner, you had to see his face. But he went with it anyway, mostly because he didn’t want to see me flip out, because he basically “yes’ed” me when I asked him his opinion on the dinner menu that week. (side bar: I do have a dinner menu and plan meals a week out in advance. It is very helpful when food shopping because I can stick to my list.)

I came across this recipe from Real Simple Magazine and it is a wonderful weeknight dinner; actually it’s a great any night dinner or lunch or even breakfast if you are into that kind of thing. No judgement here! We tweaked the recipe a little by changing up was the store-bought pizza ingredient, to our Go-To Pizza Dough recipe, since we can’t get store-bought here. Also the we adjusted some of the measurements of the ingredients, also the serving size was originally for 6-8, I would say its more of a 3-4.

If you used the go-to dough recipe, start off by taking the dough out from however you were storing it, if it was in the freezer you want to put it in the fridge 1 day before to defrost. If the dough was stored in your refrigerator, just put it on the counter a few hours before you are going to bake it.

Once you are ready to start cooking, move your oven rack to the lowest possible position and preheat the over to 425℉. When we do our round pan pizza we normally set the temperature to 500℉, but I will cover that more in another post. We use a glass 9″x13″ casserole, we tried a ceramic one but we felt there was more of a crispness with the glass. Coat the casserole with oil and set aside. Press the dough out on a clean, floured surface to the size of the casserole dish, you can start off by putting the dough in the dish and then pressing it out, but it may get over oiled. So try to get the size on the floured surface first then transfer to the dish.

Next goes down the pesto, we use store-bought, you can use homemade, if you are feeling ambitious, but store bought is completely fine since it is such a small amount. We found a small jar (3.5oz) of Alessi brand and it is the perfect amount. After the pesto goes the provolone; provolone round slices work best and they were a little easier to find here than a block of provolone. Just stack the circles on top of each other, cut in half moons, restack then slice thin along the short side. Once the provolone is spread out, add the turkey sausage. Now you don’t have to use turkey sauce, you can use pretty much any sausage you like. We have tried a variety of pork sausages, hot Italian, mild, sweet, the list goes on and on. The next layer is the brussels sprouts; if you never had brussels sprouts before definitely give this dish a try. They are pretty much shredded up, so you don’t really know that they are actually that green leafy vegetable and they get so much flavor for the sausage. But if you are completely anti the sprouts you can use broccoli, broccolini or make a sad pizza and omit the veggie completely. To shred them, cut in half the long way, then cut the base off each half and slice. Next top with some oil and the pizza is ready to go! After the pizza is done, try to wait a few minutes, then run a spatula or knife along the sides and try to get under the pizza with out tearing,and slide onto a cutting board. If you like a little more spice, you can add some crushed red pepper. I must say this recipe is pretty kid friendly. My kid 1 and kid 2 ate brussels spouts and had no idea, score for the parental units!

Turkey Sausage and Brussels Sprouts Deep-Dish Pizza
recipe adapted from Real Simple Magazine, October 2015
Serves 3-4

2         tablespoons olive oil, separated
1.5      pounds store-bought pizza dough or half a recipe of Go-To Pizza Dough Recipe
3.5      ounces store bought pesto (we use Alessi brand)
5         ounces shredded provolone
4         ounces, about 1 link uncooked turkey or preferred sausage, crumbled
8         ounces brussels sprouts, thinly sliced (around 5 sprouts)

Set the oven rack at the lowest position and preheat the oven to 425℉. Coat a 9″x13″ glass casserole dish with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and set aside.

Roll the dough out on a floured surface to the size of the casserole. transfer dough to the coated dish and press down and up the sides. Trim up any excess dough. Spread the pesto over the dough, top with the provolone, uncooked sausage crumbles, the brussels sprouts and drizzle the remaining tablespoon of olive oil.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the sausage is cooked through. Let the pizza rest for 5-10 minutes, use a knife or thin spatula and run along the side of the crust and baking dish. Slide pizza onto a cutting board. Slice and enjoy!