White Pizza with Chicken Sausage, Artichokes and Peppers

Having just returned from a long weekend in Las Vegas for my sister and her fiance's bachelorette/bachelor extravaganza... I have yet another easy week night supper for you... (I promise to step it up here soon.)

I ALWAYS have a Pillsbury refrigerated pizza dough on hand for nights like tonight. The new thin crust one is really quite good. I then played what John and I call "the pantry game" which is essentially "what I can make with whatever I happen to have in the fridge/pantry?" Tonight I had some hot Italian chicken sausage, a yellow pepper, a roma tomato, and a jar of marinated artichokes. My kind of pizza actually!

I browned three chicken sausages whole in some oil until cooked through and then set aside to rest while I assembled the rest. I then sprinkled a sheet pan with yellow corn meal, unrolled the pizza crust and pressed it into an even layer. I didn't have any tomato paste which is actually my go-to for "pizza sauce" these days. It has a really bright and fresh flavor and because it has such little liquid in it, the pizza crust doesn't get soggy... In this case however, I went white pizza style so instead I pressed two cloves of garlic into 2 or 3 tablespoons of olive oil and then brushed it generously over the crust. I sprinkled about a half a teaspoon of dried oregano over the crust as well.

I sliced my yellow pepper, drained and roughly chopped my marinated artichoke hearts, and sliced the roma tomato thinly. I layered the veggies over the crust and then topped with the sliced sausage and two or three cups of shredded mozzarella cheese. The pizza baked for 14 minutes at 450 degrees in the lower half of the oven.

John and I enjoyed our homemade pizza and a couple of beers while catching up on DVR'd Top Chef Las Vegas!!!! Not a bad Monday night.