Sausage & Grape Pizza
Everyone loves pizza, right? It’s basically a blank canvas for whatever you’ve got lying around, though this version’s a little bit fancy without trying too hard. I’ve included a dough recipe below, but no one’s handing out medals for making your own base. There are plenty of great ones you can buy these days, from low-carb to gluten-free to “I’d rather not deal with flour today.”
If you do make your own, don’t get hung up on the shape. A big rectangle that fits your baking sheet makes perfect sense when feeding more than just yourself. The secret to a decent crust? Preheat the oven longer than you think while you’re faffing about with toppings. You want that instant blast of high heat so the base crisps up nicely. And look, homemade pizza isn’t trying to be restaurant pizza; it’s its own delicious, rustic thing and let’s all be fine with that.
ingredients
- 400g bread flour
- 2 tsp salt
- 310ml tepid water
- 7g instant yeast
- 20ml olive oil
- 100g mozzarella (dry style not fresh), grated
- fresh sage leaves
- 150g pork & fennel sausage meat
- small handful seedless grapes (red or green, your choice)
- ½ small red onion
Mix the flour and salt in a bowl, then add the yeast to the warm water and let it wake up for a few minutes (you should see bubbles form). Pour the water and yeast into the flour along with the olive oil, give it a rough stir, and let it rest for about 10 minutes — time for a quick tidy-up or a sip of something.
Turn the dough out onto a clean surface and knead it until smooth and springy. Pop it back into a bowl, cover (a shower cap does a surprisingly good job), and let it rise somewhere warm for 30–60 minutes. Once puffed, roll it out into whatever shape makes sense to you (rustic chic, not geometry lesson) then rest it another 10 minutes while you preheat the oven to 220°C.
Top with mozzarella first (a solid foundation move), then scatter on sage leaves, sausage nubbins, grapes, and slivers of onion. Slide into the hot oven and bake for around 15 minutes, until everything’s golden, bubbling, and smells like you’ve absolutely nailed it.