Dinner Last Night: Windy City Pie

Do you ever just crave a delicious slice of Chicago style pizza? What if I told you it was possible to have one (or two) and not feel so guilty? Yep, this is a certified clean eating recipe! Go ahead, jump for joy!

The first time I tried this recipe Chris went crazy for it and now, two months and four attempts later, we have near perfected it and most definitely added it to our favorites! Of course it only seemed appropriate to share it with you. So go ahead, plan a Friday night in, whip up this pizza, grab a glass of wine and a movie. You will thank me later!

And just a note, a springform pan works best with this recipe (like this one).

Windy City Pie
adapted from Clean Eating

2 links lean, all-natural, spicy chicken or turkey sausage
2 T olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, sliced thin
1 each small red and green sweet bell pepper, sliced thin
1 1/2 cups button mushrooms, roughly chopped
1/8 t each sea salt and fresh ground black pepper
1 frozen, prepared whole wheat pizza crust
6 oz low-fat mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 cup of your favorite all-natural, low-sodium pizza sauce

Preheat oven at 450 degrees.
Cut a slit along the length of the sausage, remove and discard the casing, place sausage meat into a small bowl and refrigerate until needed.
In a medium saute pan, heat 1 T oil over medium-high heat. Add onion and saute for 2 minutes, until tender. Add bell pepper and mushrooms and cook for an additional 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and transfer vegetable mixture to a bowl and set aside.
Return pan to burner over medium-high heat. Add sausage and cook, breaking up meat with wooden spoon until meat is firm, opaque and fully cooked, about 4 minutes. Pour sausage meat into a paper-towel lined bowl to drain excess fat. Mix vegetables and meat together in a bowl.
Brush inside of pizza pan with 1T remaining oil. Roll out dough to about 14 inches in diameter. Place rolled dough directly into pan. (diameter of dough should be wider than the bottom of the pan). Press dough into the bottom and sides of the pan gently, carefully stretching the dough about 1 1/2 inches up the sides of the pan.
Sprinkle half of the mozzarella over the bottom of the crust. Pour vegetable and meat mixture over mozzarella. Pour pizza sauce evenly over the top and sprinkle with remaining mozzarella.
Place pan into oven and bake about 20 minutes or until crust is golden brown, cheese is bubbling and filling is hot throughout.
Remove from oven and let rest 5 minutes to let filling set. Cut into 8 slices and serve with pie server.
Serve immediately.