Winter's last hurrah

We are having another stormy day. I hope this round of rain is our last. I know we need the snowpack and everything -- it's supposedly only at 80% of normal. But I need some SUNSHINE! Anyway, everything is looking green and lovely, so I suppose I shouldn't complain too much.

In the meantime, we have a little more time to eat nice warm, earthy foods. Here's some awesome pizza.

Pizza with sausage and caramelized onions

To start with, heat your oven to 375 degrees.

Crust
1 c very warm water
1 tbsp active dry yeast
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp olive oil
1 1/4 c all purpose flour
1 1/4 c whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt

Stir together water, yeast and sugar. Allow to grow briefly. Add olive oil and white flour. Stir. Allow to bubble. Stir in whole wheat flour and salt to make a soft dough. Flour hands and pat into jellyroll-sized stoneware pan or on a large pizza stone. Prick at 1-2" intervals with a fork. Allow to rise while you make the filling.

Watch Out For Mama Hint -- when I make crust, I double it and freeze half the dough.

Filling/Topping
1 onion, diced
1 tbsp olive oil (optional -- you may or may not need it)
4 spicy Italian sausages (I used turkey Italian sausage)

2 chubby sprigs rosemary, leaves stripped from stems and chopped
8 oz mozzarella cheese
sliced olives (I hope you have some good ones; I just had regular ol' stick-em-on-your-fingers canned olives but they were still good!)

Over medium heat in a large skillet, brown the sausages whole. You don't have to cook them all the way at this point. Set aside.

Add olive oil to skillet if the sausages have not left enough fat. The turkey sausages didn't leave much. Cook onions until they are caramelized -- sweet, light brown and sooooo fragrant! Slice sausages and add to onions. Stir together until sausage slices are cooked through.

Spread the onion-sausage mixture over your pizza crust. Sprinkle with rosemary and olives. Top with cheese. Bake 20-30 minutes.

I actually did this with a tomato sauce but if I were doing it again I'd skip it. The onions have enough moisture and flavor that tomato is really a distraction.

Enjoy ... I'm really hungry now! Going out for Thai for lunch, yummy!