Sausage Pizza Egg Rolls

I have an awesome party dish for you guys today. One of my co-workers posted on The Feed a recipe for homemade pizza rolls -- like those frozen pizza rolls from Totino's. You may not know this about me, but Totino's pizza rolls were my post-bar staple during my early 20s. My friend and I would come home from the bar; head to her place, which was right next door to mine; and throw a batch of pizza rolls in the oven. (This even came up during her bridesmaid speech at our rehearsal dinner.) Of course, I never would have made homemade ones then (2 a.m. is not a great time for such projects), but the idea certainly intrigues me now.

Guest Post: Pizza Dough Recipe From Italy

From Shannon of Tri to Cook...

When Megan asked for a guest post while she and her husband are off on their honeymoon in Italy, I knew exactly what I wanted to make.  There's a pizza dough recipe from my boyfriend's trip to Italy that I've been meaning to make ever since he told me about it.  I mean, if he liked it enough to ask for the recipe, it's gotta be good, right?

There's just one catch.  It was in Italian.  Luckily I've got some amazing friends who were able to translate it for me (thanks Michelle and Luca!).  The original recipe called for 1kg of flour...  which I'm pretty certain would make 3-4 pizzas, so I scaled it down.  I also kept the toppings simple- just as I had them when I was in Italy, hand crushed tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella and torn basil.  Buon appetito!

Pizza Dough

roughly translated/adopted from Dany House Hostel

yield: 1 pizza (serves 2-3)


250kg Italian-style 00 flour

1/2t sea salt

pinch sugar

6g beer/brewers yeast (I used an English Ale yeast from our local brew shop)

lukewarm water (6-8oz)


Add flour to a bowl and make a well in the middle.  Add salt, sugar and yeast to the well in the flour.  Start adding water to the flour, about 1/2c at first and stir well.  Add water, ~2T at a time, until the dough starts to come together (there shouldn't be any loose flour nor should the dough seem too wet).

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until the dough is homogenous, soft and not sticky.  Transfer to a bowl that has been sprayed with nonstick spray and cover with a towel.  Keep in a warm place for 1-1.5hrs (mine had doubled).

Preheat oven to 350deg.

Transfer dough to a baking sheet greased with olive oil.  Depending on your preference, either press the dough out to fit your pan (a rectangular cookie sheet, resulting in a thin crust), or very lightly until it's an even layer of dough (for a thicker, doughier crust).  The dough is pretty fragile, so work carefully.  Any holes that form can be pinched back together.

Season to your liking and add your favorite toppings.  This time I went with some hand-crushed heirloom tomatoes and sliced buffalo mozzarella.  Bake for 20-25min, until browned and crispy.  I also added some torn basil once the pizza came out of the oven.  Slice and serve!

Congrats Megan and Jeff!!  May you have many years filled with love, happiness and pizza :)

Guest Post: Breakfast Pizza With Artichokes

From Olga of Mango & Tomato...

I've known Megan for over 2 years thanks to our passion for food. We met virtually because of our blogs but luckily got to meet in person and share an amazing meal at Toro during my trip to Boston. When Megan asked me to do a guest post while she's honeymooning in Italy, she suggested I keep to an Italian theme and possibly include a recipe with artichokes.

What's more Italian than pizza? Fortunately, I have a recipe for breakfast pizza that has artichokes on it! I hope you make this for your loved ones.

Here's what I did:

I preheated the oven to 525.

I then took a half of Boboli original Italian pizza crust and cut it into two pieces.

Each piece got a bit of roasted garlic tomato sauce, Monterey cheese, fresh arugula, and a border of artichoke hearts.

I then plopped an egg inside of the artichoke boarder, seasoned it with salt and pepper, added more cheese, and the pizza was ready to be baked.

I baked this breakfast pizza on top of parchment paper in a 525 degree oven for 15 minutes. I kept on waiting for the white of the egg to set.

Look what happened!!! The parchment turned completely black (luckily it did not catch on fire), the egg white finally set, but alas the egg yolk was no longer runny.

What did I do wrong? Well, I obviously had my oven set to too high of the temperature. I think something around 400 would have worked much, much better.

Although this wasn't the result I was hoping for (the egg yolk was cooked through), the rest of the pizza (and the idea itself) was rather successful. I think I shall try this technique again.

Congratulations to Megan and Jeff: wishing you many happy years together.

A First Attempt At Grilled Pizza

I have been wanting to make grilled pizza all summer, and we finally gave it a shot last Friday. I had read a few recipes and even watched a video in preparation. I knew we'd have to work quickly, so I got all of our toppings ready ahead of time. The plan was to grill the dough on one side and then the other, then pull it off to top it, and finally pop it back on the grill just to warm the toppings and melt the cheese. Even though I turned the heat way down when we returned the pizza to the grill, the bottom still got a little too charred. Next time I think I would turn the grill off and place the pizza on foil to add a little insulation between it and the grill. While our pizza wasn't perfect, it was a very tasty first attempt.

Here's what we did: Jeff went out to heat the grill (all burners on high). And I stayed inside to prep all of our toppings. There was grilled chicken, mozzarella cheese, red onion, and pesto for him and spinach, kalamata olives, orange cherry tomatoes, red onion, and feta for me.

I divided the dough in half, stretched each half, and placed the halves on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. I crushed a couple of garlic cloves, put them in a small bowl, and poured some olive oil on top. Then I brushed the dough with the garlicky olive oil.

We put the dough on the blazing-hot grill (cleaned well and oiled). We were supposed to put it olive oil side down, but we messed up and left it olive oil side up. Luckily, the bottom still charred nicely and didn't stick.

Once we saw those nice char marks underneath, we flipped the dough and let the other side char. (Had we placed the dough on the oiled side originally, we would have brushed oil on the side that was facing up, so when we flipped the dough, there would be oil on that side too.)

Once we got nice char marks on the second side, we slid the crusts back onto the sheet pan and brought them inside to top them. We also turned the grill way down.

Jeff spread pesto all over his crust and then arranged his other toppings over it.

I didn't use any sort of sauce and just let the garlicky olive oil provide the base for my toppings, which I scattered on top.

We slid the pizzas back on the grill, covered them with foil to help the mozzarella melt, and closed the lid. When we went back out to check on them, my nose immediately informed me that they were overdone. We got them off the grill right away. Luckily, there was just a little charring on the bottom and the pizzas were still almost fully edible.

We cut them up and feasted on our creations. The crust was really crisp but also a little chewy, and the toppings had warmed just enough. Besides a little too much blackening, I was happy with the pizzas, and I'm excited to give grilled pizza another try, this time being much more cautious when we put the pizzas on the grill that final time.

Have you ever made grilled pizza?