Pizza Pie

This is a recipe I've not tried before. It's from the Silver Palate Cookbook. It features your typical pizza ingredients - sausages, mushrooms, and tomato sauce - baked together under a pizza crust. It's very simple, and you can definitely adjust the ingredients to what you like. We almost thought of it as a pizza lasagna.

Pizza Pot Pie (adapted from the Silver Palate)

1 lb sweet Italian sausage, in 1 inch pieces

1 lb hot Italian sausage, in 1 inch pieces

1 small onion, chopped

1/2 cup slices portabella mushrooms

1 can tomato sauce

1 cup ricotta cheese

1/4 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

1/4 cup fresh flat leaf parsley

1 tbsp dried oregano

2 eggs

Fresh ground pepper, to taste

2 cups grated mozzarella cheese

Pizza Dough (I used the refrigerated can type)

Preheat oven to 350.

In a heavy skillet saute the sausages, mushrooms and onion until brown. Drain well and transfer to a bowl. Stir the tomato sauce into the sausages and reserve.

Mix the ricotta, Parmigiano, parsley, oregano, 1 egg and pepper.

In an ovenproof dish, (about 9x13) spread half of the sausage mixture. Dot this with half of the ricotta mixture and sprinkle 1 cup of the mozzarella evenly over the entire surface. Repeat.

Roll out the pizza dough until the dough is about 1 inch larger than the baking dish all the way around. Transfer to the top of the pizza and tuck in the excess all around. Beat the remaining egg with 1 tbsp water and brush some of it on top of the crust.

Bake for 35-45 minutes until golden brown. Let the pizza stand for 30 minutes befor cutting.