Nothing beats home made pizza! This recipe shows you just how easy, and fun, it is making your own pizza, while using bear sausage to give it a “wild” spin. Though we use bear meat in this recipe, we highly encourage you to try all kinds of different wild game meats and ingredients! Recipe and Directions below!
Black Bear Pizza
Prep Time: 20min
Cooking Time: 5-7min Ingredients
• Bear Sausage (removed from casing)
• Shallot (sliced) (or small Red Onion)
• Cremini Mushrooms (Sliced and lightly sautéed)
• Tomato (sliced) • Italian Seasoning (if sausage’s are not already seasoned)
• Buffalo Mozzarella Cheese (or low moisture mozzarella)
• Fresh Parmesan Cheese (grated)
• Pre-made pizza dough (2 days old)
• Flour
• Fine Cornmeal
• Salt & Pepper
• Sauce: 1 Can Crushed Tomatoes (chunky style, slightly drained if possible),
•1 Garlic Clove (diced),
•Olive Oil,
•Salt and Pepper.
Directions
1. Pre-Heat Pizza Oven to 600-700°.
2. Make Sauce: mix all sauce ingredients together and let sit in fridge.
3. Working with 2 day old pre-made pizza dough, that has been brought up to room temp for at least 2hrs, start working the dough into a circle on a floured work surface. After first stretch let the dough rest at least 10min, covered with some plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry out. You will need to work the dough at least one more time, maybe even 2 or 3 more times depending on the age and temp of the dough, just let it rest 10min between stretching’s. For thin crust pizza like this, you want to get the dough as thin as possible without breaking through, while keeping the outer edges a little thicker to create a crust.
4. While dough is resting, cook the bear sausage. First remove the sausage meat from the casing and place in a hot cast iron pan with oil, brown sausage over med-high heat, season with S&P and Italian seasoning while cooking. Then set aside.
5. Optional: Sauté Mushrooms in pan with S&P and Oil.
6. When ready to top the pizza, place stretched dough on a pizza peel. I personally like bamboo or wooden over metal. Make sure to dust the peel with fine cornmeal, or flour, before placing the dough on the peel. The cornmeal will help it slide off the peel easier and give your crust a little extra crunch. Season the dough with some salt, followed by some pizza sauce, and then the toppings of your choice.
7. Place pizza in pre-heated pizza oven. Watching the pizza closely and turning while cooking for even browning, this should take somewhere between 5-7min for thin crust pizza, longer for thicker crust. Once done remove pizza and add a fresh grating of parmesan cheese before serving.
Recipe by Michael E. Higgins