National Cheese Pizza Day | Spicy Meat & Cheese Pizza

Ah, pizza sounds so good right now. And I’m basically teasing myself with this post. You see, I made this pizza a couple of weeks ago and shared it, along with a SodaStream soda, with my neighbor.

So, you see, I don’t have any more pizza to enjoy for National Cheese Pizza Day! Wah! I suppose I could go out and get some, but this pizza was something special.

My husband, with his green thumb, has some habaneros in our garden on the patio. These habaneros are no joke – they are so much more juicy and spicy than the kind you buy at the grocery store. We’ve made this jerky ^[4] with them, we put them in pasta sauce and sautéed with onions over tacos for an extra kick, and on pizza too, like this one.

Isn’t pizza magical? That sounds totally cheesy (pun intended, hehe), I know. But there’s something to be said about a dish that can be made a million different ways. Any combination of ingredients, savory, sweet, “healthy” and loads with the bad stuff (like this one) – there aren’t any rules involved.

I’ve made my own pizza crust before, a process that’s not as difficult as a newbie might think (so try it!), but it’s that much easier to purchase a pre-made crust from the grocery store and also, less time until I can actually shovel the pizza into my mouth. No waiting for the dough to rise, no spreading out the dough and then making the ingredients and then baking for however long. We buy the thin-crust and it only takes 8 minutes in the oven at 400*F.

Speaking of thin-crust, it’s our favorite. Less breading so it’s a small way to semi, but not really, justify eating pizza when trying to eat healthier (oh, who are we kidding?), but also it lets the ingredients shine and tends to get much more crispy than you’d probably find on a thicker crust.

Also, we’ve taken to using pasta sauce as a base instead of the jarred pizza sauce. Pizza sauce isn’t completely terrible, but the pasta sauce adds something more, trust me. When I haven’t made my own pasta sauce, my go-to is the Publix-brand Parmesan & Romano sauce.

I’m telling you, this pizza will be a HIT!

See below for the recipe, but before you do, check out these other pizzas I’ve made:

• Spicy Pizza Bianca with Meatballs ^[5]
• Wing Dinner Pizza
• Grilled Cheese Pizza ^[6]
• Creamy Green Pizza ^[7]
• Rocky Balboa Pizza ^[8] (one of my favorites!)

Print Recipe ^[9]

Spicy Meat & Cheese Pizza

Ingredients:

• 1 thin-crust pizza crust
• 1/3 cup red pasta sauce
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 a kielbasa link, sliced
• 3 Canadian bacon slices, diced
• 1/2 Tbsp olive oil, plus more for drizzling on the crust
• 1/2 medium onion, sliced
• 1 habanero, finely diced
• Pinch each of salt and pepper
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 Tbsp dried oregano

Directions:

1. Preheat oven according to pizza crust directions. Drizzle olive oil over the top of pizza crust. Set aside.
2. In a small saute pan over medium heat, cook kielbasa sausage slices. Set aside. Do the same with the Canadian bacon slices.
3. In another saute pan over medium heat, heat up the 1/2 tablespoon olive oil. Add onion, habanero, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes, sautéing until translucent. Set aside.
4. To assemble, simply spread the pasta sauce over the crust, leaving a one inch border. Top with mozzarella cheese, meats, and grilled onions and habanero pepper. Sprinkle oregano over the top.
5. Bake at the temperature and time indicated on the crust package.

 Tomorrow: National Coffee Ice Cream Day