Sausage Pizza Topping
Here's how to make a quick and easy, super-satisfying sausage pizza topping to use on a classic sausage pie.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon (15 ml) olive oil
- 6 medium garlic cloves chopped
- ½ teaspoon fennel seeds crushed
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes optional
- 1 pound (454 grams) bulk sweet Italian sausage
Instructions
- Warm the olive oil in a 10-inch frying pan over medium-high heat.
- Add the garlic, fennel seeds, and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring frequently, for a minute or so, until very fragrant.
- Add the sausage. Cook, breaking up with a spatula into small bite-sized pieces and moving around the pan from time to time, until opaque throughout and lightly browned.
- Drain well on multiple layers of paper towels.
Notes
- You can buy sweet Italian sausage in bulk (which is easier and usually less expensive) or buy sausage links and remove it from the casings if that's what you can find. If you'd like a spicier pie, you can use hot Italian sausage.
- Italian sausage already contains some fennel seed, and I like to add a little bit more. (In fact, the two are so nearly synonymous that adding some fennel seed to vegetarian dishes can almost convince your palate that there's sausage in the mix.) Giving the seeds a quick bash with a mortar and pestle helps release the natural flavors and distribute them throughout the topping.
- Beyond that, all you need is plenty of garlic, some red pepper flakes if you like, and a little olive oil to get things started. You'll drain off excess fat at the end.
- Once cooled, sausage topping can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for a week or the freezer for a year, making it a wildly practical addition to all your last-minute pizzas.
Nutrition
Serving: 1 | Calories: 35kcal | Carbohydrates: 1g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 3mg | Sodium: 60mg