Italian Sausage Deep Dish Pizza

Johnsonville makes it easy to make your own authentic deep dish pizza with this fantastic recipe! If you’re looking for a pizza pie feast, this dish is packed with mushrooms, green peppers, black olives and delicious mounds of mozzarella, Parmesan and provolone cheese. Add in your favorite Johnsonville Italian Sausage for that extra layer of goodness, and you’re good to go!

• Ready In: 1 hr
• Serves: 8

Ingredients

• 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 1/4ounce) 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

Directions

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.