Sausage Pizza Roll
The first year I started cooking professionally, my work did a function that served a special sausage pizza roll for the attendees’ lunch. The lady who made it (Pat!), called it a focaccia. Even though she knew it wasn’t an actual focaccia, it’s just what she was known to call it from an early age. Don’t we all have these notions? This focaccia was simply a pizza dough topped with fried loose sausage, onions and peppers. It had a little sauce and cheese too, but the sausage filling was the star.
It was brilliant! I remember the people in the function gobbled every crumb, because there was absolutely none left. It wasn’t days before I tried making my own, and I loved how easy it was. It also looked cool! Here was this tunnel of bread with a zesty swirl of sausage running through it. Like the one from the function, mine did not last either.
This recipe uses six sausages, a total of 24 ounces. Taking them out of the casing is very easy, so don’t let this task scare you from trying this.
Besides, you can buy fully seasoned, loose sausage meat in most grocery stores. I usually use a spicy Italian, but you use any flavor you’d like. As for toppings, I usually use onions and peppers because it’s the original way I saw Pat make it, but I have also used mushrooms, olives, anchovies and other cheeses. You could even skip the whole sausage theme and just fill it with regular pizza stuff. If you go this route though, follow the idea of keeping the sauce and cheese light—this roll does not work well if it is too loaded.
If you flat out refuse to make pizza dough, go out and buy some. Just remember to pat out your dough thin enough to allow room for more rising. For this amount of sausage filling, the amount of dough this recipe yields is just right. It’s not too thick so the roll isn’t just bread, yet there is enough to hold everything together nicely. When topping the quasi pizza with the sausage filling, make sure it is cooled completely. Topping it hot and trying to roll it will make the dough gooey and holes will form in your roll. Then when you bake it, the filling oozes out and it becomes dry wherever it ripped—eeewwww!!
Brush the olive oil on it, it makes a huge difference. The texture of the dough becomes slightly crispy with a flavor like it was made with love! It also helps with the coloring—without the oil it turns out somewhat more pale.
Whether you’re bogged down with ideas of what to make for dinner or just always ready to try something new, give this one a shot. If you’re a pizza fanatic and wanting to taste something that doesn’t stray too far outside the box, ditto! I know that when you make this tempting roll of sausagy goodness, it’ll be an eating experience you will never forget.
Ingredients
- 1 cup warm water
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 - 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 24 ounces loose sausage meat, any flavor
- 1 cup onions, sliced
- 1 cup green peppers, sliced
- 4 tablespoons pizza sauce
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, combine water, sugar and yeast. Allow to sit 10 minutes until foamy.
- Stir down foam and add salt, olive oil and 2 cups of flour. Stir to form a soft dough and knead 8-10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Knead in more flour if necessary to avoid sticking.
- Place dough in oiled bowl and allow to rise 1 1/2 - 2 hours or until doubled in bulk.
- For filling, fry sausage meat in a skillet until thoroughly cooked. Drain well and return to skillet. Add onions and peppers and cook a further 10 minutes. Remove from heat and cool completely.
- Punch down dough to form a rectangle that is 12 inches in height by 14 inches in width. Flour counter if dough is sticking. Allow to rest for 10 minutes.
- Top dough with pizza sauce, cheese and cooled sausage filling. Roll like jelly roll and tuck ends under. Place on a baking sheet that has been oiled and sprinkled with cornmeal. Brush with 1 tablespoon olive oil.
- Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 35-40 minutes until lightly golden.
- Rest 10 minutes before slicing.
Watch a video demo for this recipe!
Hi Paul! I am so happy to see that you posted this “Sausage Pizza Roll”!! Your instructions and video were perfect. Our family called it “focaccia” as well, but it was made only with homemade Italian sausage, a little tomato sauce, grated Italian Romano cheese, parsley & a little basil, no peppers or onions. Since my now grown children are not into all the seven fishes of Christmas Eve, I now make my late mother’s focaccia, which everyone enjoys. Of course today is the 23rd of Dec., and I have misplaced her recipe!! I remember most of it, but needed a reminder of the size and cooking temps. One of the things she did for a little extra flavor and golden color, rather than using the olive oil, was to save the drained sausage oil to brush the top of the focaccia before baking. So good and not at all greasy. I do like the idea of the added onions and peppers. I may make a second one with that in mind. Thank you so much and Merry Christmas!!
Hi! Thanks for this nice message! I love the idea of using sausage fat for browning the crust…I can’t wait to try it and I am also going to tell Pat (the lady who taught me how to make this) about it also. All the best and Merry Christmas to you too!
Beautiful!
Thank you 🙂