Recipe of the Week:"Sporky" Pizza

[Bear Bibeault]

Bear's "Sporkie" Pizza

Anyone familiar with the Bertuccis pizza chain will probably recognize their name, "Sporkie", for a pizza with sweet Italian sausage and ricotta cheese. This is my take on making this at home as there are no Bertuccis anywhere near Texas.

It all starts with a good pizza crust:

Bear's Bread Machine Pizza Dough

16.75 oz bread flour
1 T dry milk
2 T sugar
5/8 t kosher salt
1 T olive oil
12 oz water
1 t instant yeast

1. Use "pizza dough" setting on bread machine, or use your usual means for mixing dough (stand mixer with dough hook, or by hand for those wanting to develop upper body strength).

2. Knead on floured surface until elastic. It will start off very sticky!

3. Divide dough into quarters, and stretch out into four rectangle, two each on two half sheet pans. (If you have the skills to "toss" pizza dough, more power to you!)

4. Let rise in warm place for one half to three-quarters of an hour.

5. Preheat oven to 450ºF.

6. Add toppings of choice (See below for "Sporkie").

7. Bake for 15 minutes or until looking good!

"Sporky" Topping

pizza sauce ¹
mozzarella cheese, grated
ricotta cheese
pre-cooked Italian sweet sausage

1. Spread sauce over pizzas. Top with grated cheese.

2. Add dollops of ricotta cheese, and bite-sized pieces of sausage.


¹ I've tried a bunch of pizza sauce recipes, but have not yet found one that passes muster (they've all tasted too much like spaghetti sauce or just tasted plain weird), so I still use jarred. If you have a good recipe for pizza sauce that doesn't taste like spaghetti sauce, I'm all ears.

[Henry Wong]

Oh wow. I can't believe, after so many years, I never thought of using a Silpat for pizza. It has always been aluminum foil with non-stick spray. Now I feel silly ...

On the other hand, how well does it work? ... meaning does it manage overflowing cheese very well?

Henry

[Bear Bibeault]

Henry Wong wrote:
Oh wow. I can't believe, after so many years, I never thought of using a Silpat for pizza. It has always been aluminum foil with non-stick spray. Now I feel silly ...

Just be careful not to cut the pizzas on the Silpat. (Yes, the voice of experience speaks. ) Move the pizzas to a cutting board to slice.

On the other hand, how well does it work? ... meaning does it manage overflowing cheese very well?

Like a champ! Comes right off.