French Baguette Pizzas

I love pizza. It doesn't matter what time of day it is or how many times I've had it recently- I could go on eating pizza forever... I credit it to my being 1/8 Italian... because that's the most logical explanation of course.

This pizza recipe is awesome because a french baguette is used for the pizza bread. Whaa?!! Just try making this recipe without breaking off a piece of the bread for yourself. Besides being a new twist on the norm, using a french baguette is also cheaper than buying pre- made dough- I like.

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil, plus extra for brushing the bread and for drizzling
• 1 pound Italian pork sausage (spicy or sweet)
• 1 baguette (about 20 inches long), halved lengthwise
• 2 garlic cloves, smashed
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 2 roasted bell peppers (I used 2 non- roasted and sliced them up)
• 8 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced (I used about 6 oz.)
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat- leaf parsley
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the broiler.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet or brush a grill pan lightly with the oil. Cook the sausage, turning often, for 8- 10 minutes, until light brown and cooked through. Transfer the sausage to a cutting board to rest for about 5 minutes, then thinly slice the sausage on the diagonal (I didn't use links so I just cooked it up like I would do ground beef).

Brush the cut side of the baguette lightly with olive oil...

And rub the bread liberally with the smashed garlic cloves, discarding what remains of the cloves.

Place the baguette, oiled side up, under the broiler for about 1 minute, until it's lightly toasted.

Reduce the oven temperature to 400 degrees F.

Place the baguette halves, toasted side up, on a rimmed baking sheet.

Spread the tomato sauce evenly on the baguette...

And top with the sausage slices,

Peppers, and mozzarella, distributing the ingredients evenly. Sprinkle the pizzas with parsley, season to taste with salt and pepper, and bake them for 13- 15 minutes, until cheese is light brown and bubbly.

Drizzle the pizzas with olive oil, cut each baguette half into several manageable- size pieces (I did this earlier in the game), and serve warm.

What's great about this recipe is that you can change up the toppings to whatever you'd like. I'm not a huge fan of sausage so next time I'll probably do rotisserie chicken, goat cheese, and basil... mmmm... may be trying that sooner rather than later.

Enjoy!

Recipe from Sara Foster's Casual Cooking