You haven’t tasted pizza until you’ve made our sausage pizza with simple tomato sauce. An easy weeknight meal ready in under 30 minutes!
Take advantage of fresh pizza dough from your local grocery store bakery or pizza shop. It’s easy to make at home but it’s even easier to pick up at the store. I’m not talking those pre-baked shells, nope, I’m talking about fresh pizza dough.
My Publix carries the pizza dough but you need to know where to look for it. Go to the bakery section and look in the refrigerator. If you don’t see the dough, then ask behind the counter and they’ll direct you. Most groceries carry fresh pizza dough now, it’s just that many of us are unaware, it’s worth asking if you don’t see it.
Some pizza parlors will sell you their dough as well.
How To Make Sausage Pizza With Simple Tomato Sauce
This simple meal is perfect for weeknights or for a casual lunch or dinner on the weekend. In under 30 minutes you’ll have a pizza that far exceeds even delivery or eat in pizza, and at a MUCH lower cost. For about $10 you can make (2) 12” pizzas with quality ingredients and perfectly to your taste.
It’s as simple as shaping the pizza dough, browning the sausage and making the simple tomato sauce. In under 30 minutes you’ll have dinner on the table and hands grabbing as much sausage pizza with simple tomato sauce as they are allowed.
Sausage Pizza With Simple Tomato Sauce Makes Great Party Food
Pizza is a great party food, it’s a favorite for kids and adults alike. Make ahead the tomato sauce, brown the sausage and pre-shape the pizza dough. Stacking the dough in between parchment or wax paper. You can also par bake the shaped pizza dough a few minutes. Just until it stiffens and won’t stick to each other, about 5-8 minutes at 425 degrees, make sure to brush the dough with lite olive oil or canola oil first before baking.
Then when you are ready to eat just assemble and bake. You don’t want to assemble beforehand because he sauce will make the pizza dough soggy. If it’s necessary to assemble a little early, like up to 30 minutes early, then put the sausage on first, then the cheese, then tomato slices. At the last minute put on the sauce, this reverse pizza I’ve heard referred to as Detroit style pizza.
You can also pre-make the sausage pizzas and freeze, then you only have pull from the freezer and bake when you are ready. See How To Freeze a Sausage Pizza With Simple Tomato Sauce later in this post.
How To Make Simple Tomato Sauce For Pizza
Soooooooooo simple, in 15 minutes you’ll have a homemade tomato sauce for pizza that is truly a signature and brings your pizza to a new level. Forget the canned or bottled pizza sauce, it’s just expensive marinara sauce anyway.
Use whole or diced tomatoes. Either way you’ll want to squeeze the tomatoes between your fingers to break them up so that the simple tomato sauce isn’t so chunky. The diced tomatoes makes this go much faster. Then add the spices and simmer for about 10 minutes.
Let the sauce cool so that it doesn’t steam the pizza dough to keep the dough crisp. This is why it’s important to follow the order of directions we have in the recipe. You start by making the sauce first so that you have time to cool it down.
If you are in a pinch then skip the heating process all together. Simmering thickens the sauce, the longer you cook the thicker the sauce.
If you use an uncooked sauce then use a slotted spoon so that you don’t get too much juice and that will make your crust soggy.
Why Does My Pizza Dough Keep Shrinking?
If you bought your pizza dough at the grocery store or local pizzeria you are at the mercy of the recipe. But there are some tips that don’t involve the pizza dough recipe but rather the handling of the dough.
Most frequently your problem is probably cold dough. Ideally you want to let the dough rest at room temperature for at least 2 hours, or at least 30 minutes. The longer the rest the less the shrinkage.
If the pizza dough is at room temperature and it still keeps shrinking, then walk away for 5 or 10 minutes. This will allow the gluten to rest and not fight you as much.
Other tips have to do with a making your pizza crust homemade. Look at our recipe for homemade pizza dough and the tips and tricks to keep the pizza dough from shrinking.
Tips, Techniques & Time Savers For Sausage Pizza With Simple Tomato Sauce
Sausage pizza with simple tomato sauce is a quick dinner, but you can make it even quicker with some make-ahead ideas.
The fresh pizza dough can be frozen so that you have it handy when you are ready to make pizza. It’s best to defrost the dough in the refrigerator either the night before or morning of making the pizza.
The simple tomato sauce for pizza can be made the night before or morning of making the pizza. It can even be frozen ahead of time.
The sausage can be browned up to 2 days beforehand and kept in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it.
You can even prepare the pizza completely, par bake it and then freeze once it’s completely cool.
Substitutions or Add-On Ingredients for Sausage Pizza With Simple Tomato Sauce
Don’t want to make the simple tomato sauce? Use leftover pasta sauce or marinara sauce. Perfect alternative and preferred by some who don’t want the chunky tomato sauce we have here. You can even open a regular can of plain tomato sauce, add a little salt, pepper and Italian spices. Boom, you now have pizza sauce!
Prefer a different kind of meat? Heck, use whatever you want or have on hand. Cut up Canadian bacon, chorizo sausage, or cooked ground beef. You can even use prosciutto or deli ham, but those meats are delicate enough that you want to add them after the pizza comes out of the oven.
Fresh basil is a great addition to a simple sausage pizza like this.
Make Sausage Pizza Easy To Eat On The Go – Walking Pizza
The smaller you shape the pizza dough the easier it is to eat on the go. Only precaution is that the small 4 inch pizzas have a lot of crust to topping ratio. Fine for crust lovers. But if you want to eat it on the go and not be wearing your sausage pizza then I suggest making these cute little sausage pizzas with simple tomato sauce. They make great lunch box treats too.
You can also make little calzones which really are “walking pizzas”. Roll the dough into a 4” circle, put about 2 tablespoons topping, then fold the dough over on itself to form a half circle. Crimp to close and follow directions for cooking pizza.
How To Freeze Sausage Pizza With Simple Tomato Sauce
Start by shaping your dough, then lightly brush with some lite olive oil or canola oil. Bake at 425 degrees for about 5-8 minutes, until it’s partially baked and won’t stick to anything. You are not browning the crust at this time, just par baking it.
Put on your sauce, cheese and toppings. Flash freeze on a baking tray for about 2 hours until the sausage pizza with simple tomato sauce is frozen. Then place in a freezer bag, label with contents, date frozen and directions to reheat.
You’ll want to bake the pizza at a lower temperature so that it heats all the way through. Remove directly from the freezer, do not defrost, and cook for about 15-20 minutes at 425 degrees. Just like any store bought frozen pizza.
Sausage Pizza With Simple Tomato Sauce
Easy, weeknight meal, ready in under 30 minutes. Just a few ingredients brings this sausage pizza to new heights, everyone will be asking for more
Ingredients
Pizza Dough
- 16 ounces fresh pizza dough find in the grocery bakery section
Simple Tomato Sauce
- 14 ounces diced tomatoes canned, drained
- 2 Tablespoons Olive oil or canola oil
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
Toppings
- 16 ounces Italian sausage bulk or casings removed
- 4 Roma tomatoes sliced and salted
- 8 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese or fresh mozzarella sliced
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 550 degrees. Remove pizza dough from refrigerator for 30 minutes if you have the time.
Make Simple Tomato Sauce
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Drain cans of tomato juice and discard. If tomato pieces are too large then squeeze them as you add to the pot to break into smaller pieces. Put all the tomato sauce ingredients into a saucepan and stir. Simmer over medium to medium low heat for about 10 minutes. Let cool.
Brown The Sausage
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While simmering the tomato sauce, brown sausage over medium heat for about 10 minutes, if in casings remove and discard the casing. Breaking into small pieces and stirring every few minutes to keep from burning.
Shape The Pizza Dough
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Shape the pizza dough into (2) 12” pizzas, (4) 6” pizzas or (8) 4” pizzas. Use the palm of your hand to press into the shape and thickness you want. I like to use a rolling pin so that the dough doesn’t balloon up when baking.
Assemble The Pizza
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Brush crust with the olive oil, top with sauce, cheese, sliced tomatoes and cooked sausage, in that order.
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Bake for 6 minutes for 4” pizzas, 7 minutes for 6” pizzas and 8 minutes for 12” pizzas or until cheese is melted and a golden crust appears.
Recipe Notes
Smaller Tomato Pieces - I like to break up the diced tomatoes even more by squeezing the contents of the can in my hand as I put the tomatoes into the saucepan. Otherwise the tomatoes are a bit chunky.
Pizza Dough Keeps Shrinking - If you pizza dough keeps shrinking it's probably too cold, ideally you want to let the dough sit at room temperature for 2 hours. If the pizza dough still keeps shrinking back then walk away for 5-10 minutes and let the dough rest.
When shaping the dough keep in mind that the 12” pizza slices have more toppings and less dough. The smaller individual pizzas have more dough and less toppings. But the convenience of having those smaller individual pizzas makes it easy to eat on the go and to pull from the freezer when you want a quick snack.
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This recipe beats bagel bites any day. so easy to just shape small and easy to eat on the go.
4 inch pizzas are easy for kids and adults to eat on the go. Glad you like them.