Stuffed Thin Crust Pizza

This pizza is the first a series of five pizza recipes in five weeks, set to coincide with the NFL playoffs. When I sat down to plan out this series, I decided I wanted to start with a thin crust pizza for the first week and work my way though pizzas with thicker and thicker crusts.

This is by far the favorite thin crust pizza in our house. Several years ago, we tried a pizza similar to this at Domino's, but they only had it for a limited time and have never brought it back. My wife loved it and asked me to try to make it for her. I have been making this pizza for about five years now, and we still love it.

The secret to this pizza is a pizza stone. This pizza can be made on a pizza pan and still come out good, but the stone just takes it to that next level. I let the stone heat in the oven for at least 45 minutes so the stone is nice and hot. My oven goes to 500 degrees F, so that is what I use for making this pizza. If I could get it hotter I would.

One other tip, make sure you prick the dough with a fork before adding the sauce. This allows steam generated in the cheese layer to escape and eliminates large bubbles in the pizza.

Stuffed Thin Crust Pizzas

1 recipe Basic Pizza Crust
12 oz cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1 1/3 cups pizza sauce, canned or homemade
16 oz Italian sausage, browned and cooled
12 oz mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. If using a pizza stone, place it in the lower third of the oven and let it heat at least 45 minutes. Prepare pizza crust according to recipe. In small bowl, stir together cream cheese, parsley, basil, and oregano. Set aside.

Divide dough into 4 equal pieces. Roll first piece of dough out to a 14 inch circle. Transfer to a pizza pan or peel. Prick dough all over with fork, then spread half of the cream cheese mixture over crust to within 1/2 inch of the edge.

Roll out second piece of dough to 14 inch circle and place over top of cream cheese mixture. Prick well with fork. Spread half the pizza sauce over the crust, getting it to 1/2 inch of the edge.

Top sauce with 1/2 of the sausage, then sprinkle 1/2 of the mozzarella evenly over the top of the whole pizza. Bake at 500 degrees F for 10-12 minutes, or until crust is evenly browned and cheese is melted and bubbly. Remove from oven, cut, and serve immediately. Repeat with remaining ingredients.