Spicy Sausage Pizza With Fresno And Hot Cherry Peppers
We’re cranking up the heat for this spicy pizza with hot Italian sausage, Fresno and cherry peppers, and chili oil all built up on a base of our homemade spicy pizza sauce. This fiery pizza comes together in just 30 minutes for a fun, easy, and delicious heat-packed weeknight dinner.
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound pizza dough ball see notes
- ½ cup spicy pizza sauce
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- ½ cup shredded Monterey jack cheese
- ½ cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
- 1 medium Fresno pepper sliced into thin discs
- 12 slices jarred hot cherry peppers
- ⅓ pound hot Italian ground sausage cooked
- 1 pinch sea salt
- 1 teaspoon chili oil for drizzling
- Chives minced (optional garnish)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F and and lightly flour a 14-inch pizza pan.
- Lightly dust your hands with flour and carefully stretch the pizza dough into a 14-inch circle. Pick up the dough and work around the edges, gently pulling and letting gravity help you, then lay the stretched dough flat onto the pan.
- Top the dough with the spicy pizza sauce, leaving a quarter-inch of space around the edges for the crust. Sprinkle the blended cheeses evenly over the pizza, then top with sliced Fresno peppers and hot cherry peppers. Finally, top with hot Italian ground sausage and a pinch of salt.
- Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, or until crust is crispy and cheese is bubbly and golden-brown.
- Let the pizza cool for about 1 to 2 minutes, then top with a drizzle of chili oil and a sprinkle of chives. Slice and serve immediately.
Video
Notes
Pizza dough: We love making our own pizza dough at home following our favorite recipe from Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast. But you can easily use your own recipe or use store-bought dough. This recipe will work with any dough ball that is about a pound. Pizza should always be baked following the directions for the dough. If your dough doesn't have directions, bake at 500F for 10 to 12 minutes, but keep an eye on it. The crust should be browned and the cheese should be fully melted and bubbly.
Pizza sauce: We included a full recipe here for our spicy pizza sauce since it uses one 28-oz can of crushed tomatoes. It’s more than enough sauce for one pizza (it will make about 3-1/2 cups total), but you can easily freeze the rest for easy pizza nights. We love using our half-cup Souper Cubes tray for this!
Cheese: We recommend buying blocks of cheese and shredding it fresh for this recipe. Freshly shredded cheese melts the best and makes the best pizza!
Fresno peppers: Slice the fresno peppers into very thin discs, but leave all the seeds in. They'll be spicy but they give this pizza delicious flavor!
Nutrition
Serving: 1slice | Calories: 409kcal | Carbohydrates: 39g | Protein: 19g | Fat: 20g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 7g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 51mg | Sodium: 1016mg | Potassium: 157mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 423IU | Vitamin C: 5mg | Calcium: 241mg | Iron: 3mg
