Spinach Artichoke Pizza with Sausage and Burrata

We’re taking a break from the slow onslaught of travel recap to bring you another pizza! It’s been unnecessarily hot lately. Temperatures in the 90s and 100s are not my friend. It’s been the busiest summer in a long time [only one free weekend!] so the cooking going on around here is few and far between.

Every time I head out to the grill there are a million spiders and their sticky webs to knock down. They are relentless this year. Every morning when I take Roma out, I have to arm myself with a broom. If I don’t, there is a 97% chance I’ll walk straight into a web. I can only imagine that sight. I’m in my pajamas and rain boots, wielding a broom in one hand and holding a leash in the other. My neighbors must love me.

I’m kind of a sausage/pesto/ricotta fiend when it comes to pizza, but I wanted something different. A little less oil based. I guess I just swapped marinated artichoke hearts for the oil. It created a spinach artichoke dip type of base. Instead of cream cheese, I used the whole milk ricotta. It’s not nearly as rich that way. The sausage was a spicy italian so it went well with the creaminess of the ricotta. I was just going to leave it at that. It would have been plenty delicious that way. But then I saw a container for truffled burrata. Damn you New Seasons. Two of my favorite things in one container. I decided to just tear pieces of that all over the pizza. So much for not being too rich.

It was so, so good flavor wise, though, if a bit heavy for the thin crust. Minimal ingredients are generally best for pizzas like this, but I couldn’t say no.

Ingredients

• 1 ball of pizza dough
• 5oz fresh spinach
• 14oz can of artichoke hearts, drained and chopped if you want smaller pieces
• 2/3 cup whole milk ricotta
• 1/2lb ground spicy Italian sausage
• fresh mozzarella, optional
• fresh cracked pepper

Preparation

Preheat your grill to a medium heat. Roll out the dough. Let it rest. In a bowl, mix together the spinach, artichoke hearts, and ricotta. Brown the Italian sausage. Drain, if necessary, and set aside.

Lay your pizza dough down on the hot grill. Shut the lid. Let it cook for 2-3 minutes until it gets the grill lines on it. It should lift easily off the grill. Remove the crust from the grill, grilled side up onto a sheet pan.

Put a thin layer of the spinach artichoke and ricotta all over the crust. Top with the crumbled sausage. Add the mozzarella, if using. Place the pizza back on the grill for another 2-3 minutes. The cheese will melt and the bottom will cook.

Remove from the grill and allow to rest for a minute before cutting. Cover in fresh cracked pepper. Serve.