Gluten Free and Dairy Free Pizza: Sausage, Onion, and Mushroom // Tonno

by ehwhite93

The other day, I did something near impossible. I created a pizza. This pizza did not have wheat or gluten. This pizza did not have dairy. And it tasted GOOD. My sisters, sister’s friend Jess,cousin, and mom can all attest to that. Although I must admit, I felt a bit lazy (I’d like to experiment with making my own crust), I was really happy with the Nature’s Hilights gluten free dough, especially since it held up well to the plethora of toppings.

Everyone loves pizza. And having come home on Christmas break to New Jersey, which I’d like to consider one of the pizza capitals of the world, and not being able to enjoy a nice cheesy slice, I had to cope somehow, right? Of course, I had to make it interesting. Thinking about what was lying around my house, I decided to create a Pizza Tonno, inspired by a pizza I had at Vapiano’s, a popular Italian restaurant chain in Europe over the summer, and a sausage, mushroom, and onion pizza (SMO), a combination that was introduced to me back in high school and which I continue to enjoy.

Ingredients:

• 1 package Nature’s Hilights Brown Rice (gluten free) Pizza Crust (contains 2 crusts)
• A few tablespoons preferred tomato sauce (I used Trader Joe’s Tomato Basil Marinara)
• Approx. 1 cup shredded cheese (I used Trader Joe’s Goat’s Milk Gouda)
• Pizza Tonno: .5 red onion, 1 can of tuna, 2 cloves garlic, basil, oregano, red pepper chili flakes, black pepper
• SMO Pizza: 1.5 Trader Joe’s sun-dried tomato chicken sausage, .5 large yellow onion, 5-7 baby bella mushrooms, basil, oregano, crushed red pepper, black pepper

Prep/cook time: Approx 30 mins

Serves: 3-4, (depending on your hunger and how you want to serve it…we ate it as appetizers but I’m sure I could eat a whole pie by myself)

Instructions:

First, follow the pizza crust directions. In a nutshell, you have to let the crusts thaw, drizzle some olive oil on them and then defrost them in the oven at 500 degrees Fahrenheit for about 5 minutes.

Next, shred the cheese. Obviously, if you don’t have any problems with dairy, go for a classic mozzarella or another creamy, mild cheese. I love the Trader Joe’s Goat Gouda. I am a cheese lover. And since I stopped having dairy, goat cheese (which I used to think kind of icky), has become a staple in my diet. I really miss Trader Joe’s when I’m in Canada and their goat cheeses kick ass.

After you stop reading about my love affair with cheese/goat cheese, spread a thin layer of tomato sauce on each crust. Since we’re using a lot of toppings and the crusts are thin, I recommend not going to sauce-heavy. Then sprinkle a good-but-not-to-much layer of the cheese on the sauce. Save a bit of the cheese for after the toppings go on. At this point, both crusts have been preheated, and sauce and cheese have both been applied.

Now, move onto the preparation for the SMO pizza. Slice the onions and mushrooms, and sausages thinly, and sauté them in a pan with olive oil, dried basil, oregano, salt, and pepper (chili flakes too if you like spice like I do). This is a really important step since the veggies and sausages need this extra cooking in order to come out of the oven perfectly. After about 5 minutes on the stove, you can put this mixture right on top of the pizza crust. Then, sprinkle the remaining cheese over this pizza, which is now ready.

For the Pizza Tonno, chop the garlic and slice the red onion, and once again, sauté them in a pan with some olive oil. You can also add basil, oregano, and I really like this one to be spicy, so plenty of chili flakes. After a few minutes in the frying pan, you can spread this over the other pizza. You can also put the tuna (which I recommend putting in a bowl and mashing a bit first) right onto the pizza. Since the tuna gets a bit dry, you might want to sprinkle a bit more olive oil on top.

Both pizzas are now ready to go in the oven. Bake them at 425 degrees F for between 8-10 minutes. If you want them to be crispier and the cheese to brown, 1-2 minutes on broil never hurt!