Fennel Pizza with Chicken Sausage and Roasted Broccoli

Italian-flavored chicken sausage and roasted broccoli on a fennel pizza dough

I have fennel seeds drying on a baker's rack/computer stand in my dining room, and I owe it all to Alyssa of Everyday Maven.  She showed me how to crush fennel seeds to add Italian sausage flavor, and it looked so easy I knew my daughter could do it picked up a bag of fennel seeds during my next Penzey's run.  I handed the mortar and pestle to my girl and the result was delicious.  

Then I bought a couple of fennel plants, and (in addition to feeding the Black Swallowtail caterpillars, can you see 4 in the photo above, and one wee Oliver?) I saved the seeds which are now drying on the baker's rack.

Did I use the fennel bulbs?  Um, no.  When I was ready to harvest the fennel and add it to spaghetti sauce there were 6 caterpillars simultaneously munching away, and I couldn't be that cruel.  I can harvest strawberries--leaving the poor varmints chipmunks to find something else to eat, but to deprive the world of 6 butterflies?  Not my style.  The fennel bulbs are now buried under snow and some of the descendants of those caterpillars are overwintering in cocoons nearby.  Perhaps there will be more fennel next year--enough to share.

I've been sticking these fennel seeds in soups, in ground meat, in bread . . . and now pizza dough.  This was a very versatile spice purchase.  Thanks, Alyssa!

I chose the 3 cheese chicken sausage for this pizza because it looked interesting after the magical markdown sticker caught my eye.  Chicken sausage and broccoli seemed like a good fit for fennel dough so I ran with it.  I've also made a grape and goat cheese fennel focaccia if you like fennel flavor but don't care for meat.  Please refer to my Pizza Primer for general information on making pizza at home, photo collages of step by step directions, and topping montages.  Yes, I said topping montages.

Fennel Pizza with Chicken Sausage and Roasted Broccoli

The recipe for the fennel dough comes straight from my personal pizza bible, The Best Pizza Is Made at Home  (Amazon affiliate link)

1 teaspoon active dry yeast
⅔ cup warm water
2 cups (8 ½ ounces) bread flour
¼ teaspoon salt (I used kosher)
1 Tablespoon fennel seed (whole)
¼ teaspoon coarsely ground pepper (I eyeballed this, several grinds from my grinder)
1 Tablespoon olive oil, plus more for brushing on the dough
1 cup sliced cooked sausage (2 links)
1 ½ cups roasted broccoli
1 ½ cups shredded cheese (I used a 4 cheese mix)

In the bowl of a stand mixer, soften the yeast in the water.  Add flour and seasonings, stir with paddle to combine.  Add olive oil.  Continue mixing with paddle until a sticky ball is formed which pulls away from the sides of the bowl.  I stop and scrape down the bowl after about 5 minutes which aides in the dough ball formation.  Turn dough into an oiled bowl and set aside at room temp for up to 2 hrs, or refrigerate for up to 4 days, or freeze for several months.

When you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.  If you've got a pizza stone, write some poetry about it and preheat that as well.  If you don't, last minute Christmas present to yourself? Use a cookie sheet instead.
On an oiled piece of parchment, stretch the dough out into a pretty, pleasing shape.  Brush with olive oil.  Scatter slices of sausage and bits of broccoli across the dough.  Top with cheese.  Bake for 5 to 8 minutes, then shimmy off the parchment and bake directly on the stone or cookie sheet for another 3 to 5 minutes until the cheese is browned and bubbly.  Cool on a rack, then slice (Amazon affiliate link to my favorite slicer) and serve.

Sunset photo op--and you can tell from the feel of the light

This pizza is shared with the From the Farm Blog Hop, the Clever Chicks Blog Hop,  Food on Friday (twice)