Autumn Sausage and Sweet Potato Pizza – the warmest, heartiest, yummiest, most autumny-est pizza without red sauce you may ever eat – topped with nothing but the best flavors of fall!
Let’s be serious for a quick second.
When it comes to pizza, I’m generally a creature of habit.
Pepperoni & extra cheese deep dish. Ham & pineapple hand-tossed. Bacon thin crust.
Buffalo chicken pizza rolls. You get the idea. It’s sort of ridiculous. I have an online pizza profile from a local delivery joint that shows my last five orders and…they’re almost identical to one another.
Don’t get me wrong: as an eternal foodie, I really do like to try new things, even when it comes to pizza. Case in point, this deliciously savory Autumn Sausage and Sweet Potato Pizza I’ve created, my homage to my favorite season…in pizza form.
Ricotta-Parmentino cheese “sauce”, roasted mushrooms and sweet potato, spicy sausage, red wine-caramelized onions, sage, and a maple drizzle. Oh my goodness.
Hear me out, pizza puritans. I promise you, this is a recipe for success.
A year ago, I never would have thought to put these ingredients on a pizza together. Ten years ago, I would have turned my nose up at the very idea of it.
Pizza has always been about simplicity to me. Bread, sauce, cheese, meats…sometimes veggies. Done.
It’s a food meant for birthday parties, movie dates with your kids, and late nights in with friends. It’s great cold the next day, straight from the fridge, and just as good crisped up in the toaster oven.
I would argue that pizza should be in its own food group.
In the past three years or so, having been an avid Pinterest lurker until my foray into putting my own kitchen fodder on the internet pin board, I’ve seen a major shift in creativity when it comes to pizza.
It surely started long before I noticed, but the one fact that holds true is, no matter how you top it, pizza is still a simple food.
But, that doesn’t mean it can’t be spectacular.
And when it’s paired with the right wine? It’s a downright heroic meal.
October in National Pizza Month, and for #SundaySupper this week, we’ve teamed up with Gallo Family Vineyards again to blow your minds with delicious and diverse pizza recipes. Not only that, we’re here to help you decide which wine will make that next slice taste extraordinary.
To quote one of my all-time favorite chefs, and personal idol, Julia Child,
“I enjoy cooking with wine, sometimes I even put it in the food.”
I, too, love to cook with wine, and my decision to include red wine-caramelized onions in this great recipe was actually a last-minute one.
I like to blast some good nostalgic music to stir my motivation while I cook and bake, and I often pour myself a glass of wine to sip from throughout the afternoon, as my day in the kitchen is generally winding down.
A lot of the recipes you see on my blog are created in batches, meaning on my days off from work, I will whip up anywhere from three to six different recipes and photograph them.
This makes for very long days, but really rewarding ones for me, Mr. Crumby, my friends, and my co-workers, who often enjoy the fruits of my labor.
(That’s a lot of food coming to life in one day, just sayin’. But it makes me happy to see the excitement in their faces, and there’s nothing so rewarding as seeing the delight in their eyes when they take their first bite.)
The day I made this pizza was one of those days, and I was so all over the place that my glass of wine sat neglected most of the afternoon, until I started roasting and caramelizing the toppings.
My first thought was to use apple cider in the onions, but I thought it may end up too sweet. Then, I remember the apple ginger hard cider in the fridge, but was wary of the carbonation.
I glanced around the kitchen, my onions slowly sautéing in butter but quickly reaching a point of no return, when I spotted my barely sipped Merlot.
The rest was history, and the smell?
Beyond glorious. Pungent, warm, and beautifully sweet and acidic at the same time, I couldn’t resist eating a few right out of the skillet. I don’t know that I’ll ever caramelize onions any differently from now on.
Of course, Merlot isn’t required. If you’re looking to add a bit of sweet apple flavor to top off this pizza (which I almost did,) Then a nice Sauvignon Blanc would be my suggestion. As far as pairing slice with glass, either one of those wines will be a dynamic match.
I speak from experience…I ate it with both.
“As you get older, you shouldn’t waste time drinking bad wine.”
Here, here, Julia. Cheers – to fall and all the pizza!
More amazing pizza recipes to try!
If you love this recipe, please consider leaving a 5 STAR RATING! If you really love it, leave us a comment and let us know – we appreciate all forms of feedback!
LET’S CONNECT!
Join in on the fun in our Facebook group! Feel free to share YOUR favorite recipes, ask questions, help out your fellow home cooks, and see what’s new with The Crumby Kitchen (so that you never miss a new recipe)! If you’d like to check it out, you can request to join HERE.
Also, don’t forget to follow us on Instagram and tag #crumbykitchen so we can see all the wonderful recipes YOU recreate from this site!
You can also enjoy exclusive content before anyone else by subscribing to our weekly newsletter – and you’ll never miss a delicious recipe again!
Autumn Sausage and Sweet Potato Pizza
Ingredients
- 1 pound pizza dough
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 1 large sweet potato peeled and cubed
- 1 cup mushrooms cleaned & drained
- 2 Italian sausage links
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 small onion thinly sliced
- ½ cup red wine Merlot or Cabernet
- Pine nuts optional
White Cheese Sauce
- ½ cup ricotta cheese
- 2 ounces Parmesan cheese
- 1 teaspoon garlic diced
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- Italian seasoning to taste
- Kosher salt to taste
- Black pepper to taste
- 2 cups mozzarella cheese
Maple Cinnamon Drizzle
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons maple syrup
- Pinch cinnamon
- Kosher salt to taste
- Black pepper to taste
Fried Sage
- 1 bunch fresh sage leaves
- ¼ cup olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Roll and stretch your dough out to a 16-inch round and set on baking sheet, pizza pan, or stone.
- Poke the center of the dough with the tines of a fork, leaving a 1-inch rim untouched. Bake for 3-5 minutes, pressing down any puffed dough after removing it from the oven. Set aside.
- Scatter sweet potato cubes and mushrooms on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, then roast in 425 degree oven for 18-22 minutes.
- While that’s roasting, cook the sausage. Set a saute pan on the stove over medium heat. Remove the sausages from their casings and break the meat apart in the pan. Cook fully, then remove to a paper-towel lined plate to drain, reserving about 1 teaspoon of grease in the pan.
- Add butter to grease and melt together, then add onions to pan. Allow to caramelize for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Pour in wine about 1-1.5 ounces at a time, allowing it to cook into the onions a bit before adding more. Cook down until there is no liquid left, then remove from heat.
White Cheese Sauce
- Combine ricotta, Parmesan, garlic, 1 teaspoon olive oil, Italian season, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl. Mix until well blended, then spread on top of par-baked crust.
- Scatter cooked sausage on top of cheese sauce, then wine-caramelized onions. Sprinkle on 1 cup of Mozzarella, the add roasted sweet potatoes and mushrooms, and remaining Mozzarella.
- Bake at 425 degrees for 18-20 minutes, until crust is golden brown and cheese is bubbly.
Maple Cinnamon Drizzle
- Combine 2 Tablespoons olive oil, maple syrup, cinnamon, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Stir together well.
Fried Sage
- In a small, clean saute pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Fry sage leaves in oil for 1 minute on each side, removing to a paper towel to dry.
- When pizza is out of the oven, top with crispy sage leaves, pine nuts, and Maple Cinnamon Drizzle. Slice to desired size, serve, and enjoy!
Marion@LifeTastesGood says
Absolutely am drooling over this pizza! Love the toppings and those onions!! Yummmm!!
DB, Foodie Stuntman | Crazy Foodie Stunts says
Yep, I’ve read many stories like the one you describe above where inspiration occurs by chance. Me and you are also alike in that if you look at my online order history at the local pizza delivery joint, the last 5 are almost identical.
Shelby says
This pizza is right iup my alley. I am all for sweet and savory/spicy. Your photo is gorgeous and I cannot wait to try this one out!
Emma @ Supper in the Suburbs says
I’m also a creature of habit… if we are being naughty and ordering a Dominoes I go half and half every time. Left half is mighty meaty, the right half veggie supreme. That makes it half healthy right? I try to think out of the box though if we go to a proper pizza place…I’m still not entirely convinced by pizzas without tomato sauce but I’d be willing to give this a try ๐ thanks for sharing!
Sadye says
It’s going to be end of mine day, but before finish I am reading this wonderful
piece of writing to increase my knowledge.