The recipe
Ingredients
- 250 g proofed pizza dough, ready to bake
- 80 g fresh raw salsiccia, casing removed
- 60 g crushed tomatoes
- 65 g mozzarella, well drained
- 1 tsp olive oil
- ⅛ tsp fennel seeds, only if the sausage is not already seasoned with fennel
- 3 to 5 basil leaves
- Salt if needed
- A little flour or fine semolina for shaping
Method
- Preheat to 250°C with conventional top and bottom heat. Heat a suitable stone or steel according to its instructions. Keep the dough covered until supple.
- Divide sausage meat into pieces about 1 cm across. Fry in the oil over medium heat, turning, for roughly 6 to 8 minutes until thoroughly cooked. Reach at least 70°C for 2 minutes in the centres of the largest pieces too; cook longer if necessary.
- If using, add crushed fennel seeds during the final minute. Lift sausage onto a clean plate, leaving fat behind, and cool briefly. Clean hands and utensils after contact with raw sausage.
- Season tomatoes lightly and cut up mozzarella. Open dough to 28 to 30 cm and check that it slides on a lightly dusted peel. Distribute tomato, cheese and cooked sausage.
- Bake for approximately 8 to 12 minutes, checking from minute six. Make sure the base is cooked through.
- Finish with basil, slice and serve immediately.
Cook the sausage thoroughly before topping
Weigh 80 g fresh raw salsiccia with its casing removed. Divide the meat into small pieces approximately one centimetre across. Add them to a frying pan with a teaspoon of olive oil and cook over medium heat, turning regularly. Allow roughly six to eight minutes, depending on the pan and piece size. Surface browning is not sufficient to judge doneness. The centres of the largest pieces must also reach at least 70°C for two minutes; a suitable thin probe thermometer helps check this.
Lift the fully cooked pieces out with a spoon, leaving excess fat in the pan. Place them on a clean plate and let them cool briefly while preparing the remaining topping. Keep raw sausage meat refrigerated until needed. Wash your hands and the utensils used after contact with it before touching dough or prepared ingredients. In this method, only thoroughly cooked sausage goes onto the pizza.
Measure fennel carefully and keep the topping light
Check the ingredients or seasoning of your salsiccia. If it already contains fennel, omit the extra amount. Otherwise, lightly crush an eighth of a teaspoon of fennel seeds in a mortar and add them during the final minute of frying. This keeps the flavour measured. The recipe does not use a fresh fennel bulb. For the base, use 60 g crushed tomatoes and 65 g well-drained mozzarella.
Taste the cooked sausage before cautiously adding salt to the tomatoes. Distribute the sausage pieces individually between the cheese instead of piling them in the middle. The stated time assumes a fully proofed dough ball; dough preparation and preheating are additional. In the oven, check both the rim and the underside. The sausage should heat through and lightly brown further without drying out. Add a few basil leaves at the end. For extra heat, offer chilli flakes on individual slices at the table.