Brussels Sprout Pizza

What-what? Yep, Brussels sprouts and pork - excellent combo.  I'm always thinking about flavor combinations.  When you're cooking every night - you're constantly working with what you've got on hand and possibly supplementing with an ingredient picked up on the way home... figuring out what that perfect compliment will be to what you've got in your fridge, pantry or freezer.  Tonight I had some multigrain pizza dough.  I wanted to make a night hearty, but light pizza - hellew bipolar, I know.  I was originally thinking a veggie pizza - made hearty with a robust cheese - a blue cheese - a squash or tater go really well with blue cheese, and some caramelized onion.  Squash... too wintery.  How about a sprout?  What goes well with sprout?  Cured pork... but that's too heavy.  How about a chicken sausage?  Done.  Thinly sliced red onion, a sprinkling of blue cheese, and I want the sprouts to be more like greens than dense cabbage so I'll blanch them and peel off the leaves and sprinkle them over the crust.  Interesting... wait - this is similar to a pie at Motorino (amazing pie www.motorinopizza.com.)  Inspiration comes from everywhere, even subconsciously. 



Brussels Sprouts Pizza
1 whole wheat pizza dough
bunch of Brussels sprouts, blanched peeled
1/4 red onion, finely sliced
3 chicken sausages, baked and sliced
handful grated mozza
sprinkle of crumbled blue cheese
salt
pep
oil

Za:
Preheat your oven to 500 degrees.  Blanch your sprouts in salted, boiling water.  Drain and cool, then peel off the leaves - once you get peel down a bit of the leaves, you can quarter the last of the bulb.  Stretch out your pizza dough and pop it onto a foil lined baking sheet.  Stretch it all the way to the edges and let it rest in the pan before you top and bake it off.   Dizzle the dough with oil and spread a layer of onions on the dough, salt and pep - par-bake the dough for 5 minutes. 

Pull it out and pile up the mozza, Brussels leaves, sausage, the rest of the onion and the blue.  Bake for another 5-8 minutes.    Mmmmmmm... Enjoy!  We're eating as I type!