Grandma's Sausage Bread

Hey there! It's been a couple of weeks since I've been here. Things got a little...hectic? Crazy? Wacko? Hopeless? Nuts? Around here. Let's just say it involved kidney stones, an eye injury, two respiratory infections, and a husband that had to work away from home for a couple of days...can you say STRESS??? Oh, and there was an ambulance ride mixed in there somewhere.

But...fingers are crossed because stones are passed, eye is unpatched, and lungs are slowly healing, so let's keep heading to HEALTHY days ahead of us, shall we?

Now, on to my Grandma's Sausage Bread. This is a traditional dish every Christmas Eve. And I had decided to make it when I had my Girl's Weekend Away (which seems like a lifetime ago.)

It's so simple. So easy. So tasty. So awesome!!! It's a real comfort food in my house.

All you need is Italian Sausage. Shredded Mozzarella Cheese. Onions. And Pizza Dough. Get the real kind of Pizza Dough. Not the kind that comes in a cardboard can with a little puffy white man on it. Most Supermarkets sell real Pizza Dough. There are Pizza Places that will sell you their dough too.

First thing you want to do is cook your Sausage. This has been done many ways over the years in my family. My mother would bake the Sausage, then when cooled, she would slice them thin. Sometimes she would get the skinny Sausage, bake them, then leave them whole or sliced a couple of inches thick.

Me? My new thing is to take the Sausage out of the casing and brown it up in a pan until it's nice and crumbly.



The hardest part? It's stretching that Pizza Dough. There's a knack to it. There's a reason why they toss the dough as opposed to rolling it out. Pizza Dough doesn't roll out very well. It just keeps shrinking. You need to sssstttrrreeeettcchh the dough. Make the weight of the dough do the work for you.

I hold the dough by one end and keep turning it, letting it hang down and stretch. Kind of like as if it was "dripping".

Pre-heat your oven at a high heat...like 450. When the dough is stretched, place it on a baking sheet. I LOVE to use a STONE baking sheet. The stone gets the dough PERFECT!! It gives it a great crust!

On one half of the dough, sprinkle the Sausage.


Then some onions that are sliced or diced...however way you like it.


Then some cheese.


Then carefully fold the dough over the meat/cheese to meet the other side. Then pinch the sides shut. Seal that dough with all that goodness inside it.


Then bake until the dough is nice and brown.


And slice and eat.


Mmmmmm!!! This is a great appetizer. A great party food. A great Brunch Dish. A great Dinner. It works in so many ways. And the best part? You can make it in advance!!

Just let it cool completely, then wrap in foil and refrigerate. When you want to serve it, just take it out of the fridge and pop it in the oven to heat up! You don't even have to take the foil off!!