Grilled Pizza with Hot Sausage, Grilled Peppers and Onions and Oregano Ricotta

I wanted to use up some of the ricotta from my last dish, and I needed some ideas. Thankfully the ladies on the CT Tribe message board helped me out! This was recommended to me by Jess, via the Food Network.

I do have to say, this is a dish originally done by Bobby Flay. And I hate Bobby Flay. I mean I really hate Bobby Flay. If there was a chef I would not want to be like, it would be Bobby Flay.

But this is good anyway, so let's forget it was made by him, 'kay?

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 pound Italian hot sausage

1 large red onion, cut into 1/4-inch thick slices

2 large yellow pepper, cored, seeded and quartered

2 large red pepper, cored, seeded and quartered

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

1 recipe favorite pizza dough, rolled into 4 (6-inch) rounds

1/2 pound grated fontina cheese

1 cup sheep's milk ricotta

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano

Basil Vinaigrette

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat a grill.

Grill the sausage on both sides until golden brown and cooked through, about 10 minutes per side. Brush onions and peppers with the oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill the onions and peppers until soft, about 3 to 4 minutes per side. Remove the sausage from the grill and slice into 1/4-inch thick slices. Remove the onions, separate into rings, and roughly chop. Remove the peppers and slice into 1/8-inch thick slices.

Heat grill to high. Brush dough with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and grill for 2 to 3 minutes or until golden brown. Turn over and grill for 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from the grill and place on a flat surface.

Divide the fontina cheese among the 4 pizza rounds. Divide the sausage, onions and peppers over the cheese. Place the pizza on the grill, close the cover and grill until the cheese has melted, about 3 to 4 minutes. To finish in the oven, preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Place the pizza on sheet pans and bake until the cheese has melted, about 5 to 10 minutes.

Mix together the ricotta, extra-virgin olive oil, and oregano in a small bowl and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Remove the pizzas from the oven and drizzle with Basil Vinaigrette. Top with dollops of the ricotta cheese mixture and let rest for 5 minutes. Slice and serve.

COMMENTS:

We made a lot of edits to this one. First, as you all know, we do not have a grill. So we had to do everything with the stove/oven, but that really didn't take that much variation.

Secondly, we didn't do the 4 individual pizzas--we just did one big one. We found out early on that we could have done with way fewer red/yellow peppers as a result (as you can probably tell by the picture...). But we loaded 'em on anyway.

As usual, we skipped the onions. And I have no idea what fontina cheese is, so I bought Price Chopper Pizza Blend shredded cheese. Easy enough! And tasty. I also used a Boboli instead of making my own pizza dough.

Bobby Blah has his own recipe for basil vinagrette that he used...me, I bought the "Basil Vinagrette" salad dressing pack, mixed with oil and vinegar...beautiful and easy.

All in all, this was really good. Craig was skeptical at first because there was no pizza sauce on his pizza. But the sausage plus all the cheeses makes a really good mix, and the vinagrette isn't overpowering at all. YUM!