Gai Lan and Chinese Sausage Pizza

+ everything you need to know for the best pizza night!

I’ve been looking forward to the weekends a little more than normal recently. As some one who works from home cooking, my weekends have felt blurry for the last couple of years. I end up “working” most weekends because I feel inspired to recipe test some ideas for Sunday dinner, might get called to work a book event in the city or travel for short bursts of book tour, or I finally get through a writers’ block on Saturday night. Creativity and productivity is inconsistent and you can’t force it, but I’ve been trying to protect my weekends more and more. That means less social media, more cooking and hosting with friends.

The weather the last few weekends have been *chef’s kiss* so we’ve been filling our days with long sunny hikes, lunches al fresco, and getting our hands in the garden. It feels good and I think I’m a hint tanner for it.

One of our favorite meals to make when friends come over is pizza. We’ve been making a big deal out of pizza night for years. It started a decade ago (wow I sound old) when Reuben suddenly got really passionate about making homemade pizza. That man got really into the details about flours, hydration ratios, shaping techniques, and I benefited by feasting on pizza. When we lived in our Inner Richmond apartment, he hacked our rental-grade range into a make shift pizza oven by placing a pizza stone inside and layers of baking sheets on the upper decks and cranking the temperature as far as it could go beyond the dial. I was always nervous about this but it worked.

While Reuben handled the dough and baking, I always had a lot of fun generating topping ideas. We started with classic margaritas and pepperoni pizzas, but one of our earliest creations was a gai lan and Chinese sausage pizza. The greens of the gai lan get a little crispy in the oven and the fat of the Chinese sausage renders and gives each bite a touch of salty sweetness. Reuben once accidentally topped it with minced ginger I had prepped for another recipe instead of garlic and the result was actually amazing! In the past we’ve topped pizza with leftover roast duck from the chop shop down the street from our apartment and thai red curry (this reminds me that I should make this again) and we even make dessert pizzas with the last of our dough balls. I know that there are many pizza purists out there, but I think you can can get creative with your toppings and if your heart is telling you to make a Chinese-ish pizza, do it. It’s your pizza.

Everything You Need to Know!

If you’re ready to start making pizza night a big deal in your house, here’s everything you need to know to make it a great one!

This is a NY-style Dough // Think thin and crispy with a chewy crust. We make different doughs for different styles of pizza, but this is probably our most used dough. It handles like a dream, stretches super thin without breaking, and tastes great. We also have an Ooni oven but I wouldn’t recommend this dough for the Ooni.

Hydration // the recipe as written makes a 65% hydration dough, which I find is easier to handle especially for people who are not used to working with a more wet dough. 243g water divided by 375g water = 65%. Reuben likes to go up to a 70% hydration dough (263g water) which gives you an even bubblier and chewy crust, but you can decide where in the hydration range feels best for you!

Less Yeast // low yeast and longer fermentation time will always produce a better tasting bread in my opinion. I implemented this even in my Milk Bread recipe, which only uses 1 tsp of yeast. While many people think it needs a whole packet (which is 2 1/4 tsp) of yeast to get a proper rise, they are just being impatient. The same principle applies here for pizza.

Plan ahead // I make this dough ideally 2 days in advance to allow it enough time to cold proof/ferment in the fridge. 1 day is fine if you’re in a time pinch and 3 days is the longest I would leave it in the fridge for if you forget about it. The dough will have great flavor, stretch nicely, and have great air bubbles.

A baking stone or steel is recommended // If you don’t have one you can still bake this pizza on a rimless baking sheet with some parchment underneath. But a baking stone or steel will give the underside of your pizza a crisp finish. If you’re going to use one, you need to preheat it for at least 1 hour. Sometimes Reuben will turn the broiler on for a few minutes right before launching the pizza so the surface of the steel/stone can get really hot. A temperature gun is handy here to see what it is registering at. You want at least 525F and the hotter the better.

Be quick with the toppings // I like to make my pizzas with parchment paper underneath and this was a point of contention between Reuben and I for a while. He would make pizzas without one because “that’s how it’s done” but if you’re not fast enough with toppings or if you don’t put cornmeal underneath (I dislike cornmeal under my pizza) the dough will stick to your peel and create a disaster when you go to launch it into the oven. I’ve lived through many of these pizza disasters and even if parchment is not how it’s done, I’m still going to use it because I don’t want my pizza baked onto the door of my oven.

Make it fun // you don’t have to make this gai lan and chinese sausage pizza. Maybe save it for another night. But make sure to have fun and be creative. Look around in your fridge or browse the farmers market and think about all the pizza possibilities!

Oh and use a scale!

Have a great weekend, friends!!! And stay tuned for an exciting newsletter on Sunday where I’m giving away a Le Creuset Dutch Oven (+ more goodies) I picked up from the Le Creuset Factory to Table Sale to a very lucky paid subscriber!

Gai Lan and Chinese Sausage Pizza

Makes 2 pizzas