How to Make White Pizza with Arugula and Sausage

A fast and easy white pizza with fresh creamy burrata cheese, peppery arugula, and Italian sausage.

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This colorful pizza is a tasty way to involve cool weather greens in a family style pizza. When your Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share box is heavy on the greens, which happens at the beginning and end of the typical temperate season, it can be overwhelming. I wrote about my Greens Paralysis here, in a recipe for Slow Cooker Spicy Mustard Greens Soup. Rest assured, new seasonal eaters, even though I've been eating from the farm share for 11 years now, I still get stuck. There are myriad ways to eat greens. Having an idea of how to use each type of green (raw or cooked) helps a lot and is part of the reason I started this website.



Arugula is such a versatile green. This Fall we've been enjoying it as the basis for hearty main dish salads, tossed with a red wine vinaigrette and topped with boiled eggs, beans, peas, goat cheese, dried fruits and nuts. I've tossed arugula into pasta dishes for color, nutrition, and to get it out of the crisper while it's still fresh. I've processed and frozen arugula as arugula pesto when I didn't think we'd have time to eat it fresh. A leafy green that's yummy both raw and cooked is useful indeed.

Regular readers know that I am often working up to a year ahead. Since I'm a seasonal eater, by the time I get the photos out of the camera and the scribbled recipe notes onto a screen we're onto a new season. In fact, the Thanksgiving recipes I'm sharing now were created (and photographed and enjoyed--hot!) last year. I enjoy sharing ways to use the farm share here, but my family likes to eat food while it's hot, and I like to kick back and enjoy our Friday Night Pizza & Movie nights with them. So what I'm fixing for dinner tonight may appear on Instagram, but won't be on the website for a while.

Easy Artichoke Arugula Pesto Burrata Pasta

A fast-to-fix vegetarian pasta dish using farm share greens, marinated artichokes, and creamy burrata cheese. Putting up pesto is one way I keep from being overwhelmed when the farm share greens are in abundance.

I forgot to take finished, plated, photos of this dish. I also had the grill going and it just slipped my mind. I debated sharing this recipe today, seeing how it's the first day of the the farm share season and I had the potential for new and returning readers arriving on the blog and did I want to start off with less than my best foot forward?

I decided that I did. Hope you understand!

The idea that you don't have to Eat All The Greens in a Week was a revelation to me when I adjusted to eating from a CSA, and putting some items up for later use is one of the ways I feed my family from our seasonal farm share year round. We're starting our 10th year enjoying the fruits of CSA farmers' labors, and recipes like this are one the tips and tricks for farm share success. For other tips, please check out this post. 

When we get a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share box filled with assorted greens I am emphatically not looking to throw them all into salads. There are only so many salads we can eat in a week. Instead, I'm looking to turn anything not expressly salad-like into a recipe ingredient, and I give myself bonus points if it becomes a long-storing ingredient. I've shared a concept recipe for incorporating farm share greens into pasta dishes here, which is a terrific quick use for a bunch of greens. If you've got a bit of time to do some prep work, though, you'll be reaping the benefits for months by putting up some of your greens as pesto.

Arugula pesto fits the long-storing ingredient category--typically we're getting arugula in the farm share side by side with a bag of salad greens and other cooking greens. It's useful to be able to put up a batch of pesto. I store mine in the freezer in half pint jars, with a splash of olive oil on top, using these terrific lids (Amazon affiliate link). I don't just want to share how I put up this stuff, though--I want to show you how I use what I put up.

This pasta dish is my second version of a fast burrata pasta meal. The first one, that I've made three times now [unheard of in my family] uses meat and winter squash so it will debut in the Fall. Oh, so worth the wait. I wanted a vegetarian and summer-friendly version, good for a quick supper, so I took the burrata pasta concept and here we are. Adding in artichokes just elevates a simple pasta dish into a snazzier one, though we are in danger of the kids becoming artichoke fans and eating all the leftovers. The same thing happened to us with take out Indian food, and now my picky eater tells me the spaghetti sauce needs more eggplant. Educated palates. Harrumph.

Burrata cheese was new to me, and my spellcheck keeps trying to change it to burrito. When I first bought it I thought it was just like fresh mozzarella and was sorely disappointed when the creamy center oozed all over my pizza dough. Once I embraced the gooey center I came to appreciate it for what it is (creamy), not for what it's not (solid). I've found burrata cheese at the fancy cheese counter of my local Kroger. It's pricey but perishable, which means whenever I see it marked half off/quick sale I pick it up. [Yes, I cruise the fancy cheese counter looking for magical markdown stickers--I'm married, I don't cruise bars anymore.] I know we'll enjoy burrata pasta dishes so it's worth the splurge--at half price at least.

For other recipes using arugula, please see my Arugula Recipes Collection. For other recipes using marinated artichokes, you're looking for the Recipes Using Veggies In Jars Collection. These are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for ideas when you're facing an unfamiliar ingredient. You can also find me sharing ideas via my Pinterest boards and my FB page. Want to know how to Use This Blog? Click here.

Baked Artichoke and Arugula Dip

This recipe combines farm share arugula with artichoke hearts and loads of cheese in a baked vegetable appetizer.

I've been sharing a lot of game day appropriate appetizers lately since it's 'tis the season and all, but I've been feeling a bit . . . well, guilty . . . since I've been using a fair amount of meat in them.  I'm glad to share a meat free [and vegetarian if you select a vegan Worcestershire sauce] hot appetizer to join in the line up. 

This is a tasty way to eat up arugula from the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share, your garden, your folks' community garden plot, or the farmer's market. Usually when we get a big bag of arugula we're also getting a bag of salad mix, a cabbage, bok choy and perhaps another leafy green. I've talked about Greens Paralysis before, and it really comes down to this: if I can use arugula as a recipe component, not as a loose leafy green, I am more likely to use it up. If I wait for the perfect opportunity to add a handful of fresh arugula to a recipe . . . I end up tossing slimy forgotten leaves into the compost bin.

One easy way to get arugula processed into something yummy is Arugula Asiago Pesto (recipe here--scroll down to the bottom). This freezes well and I use it like I use basil pesto (large volume 'empty the garden before frost' recipe here), though not the same as I use Fresh Tomato Pesto (recipe here).

I came up with this appetizer because I had a late season bag of arugula and a desire for a hot appetizer. Using my food processor to combine everything made quick work of the vegetable preparation, and this was a warm and cheesy way to enjoy an early evening adult beverage.

I haven't tried it, but warming this dip in a little slow cooker should work fine, similar to my Slow Cooker Salmon Artichoke Dip. I'm just happy to turn the oven on while there is frost inside my window!

For other recipes using arugula, please see my Arugula Recipes Collection, part of my Visual Recipe Index. For other Awesome Veggie Apps and Snacks, please see my Pinterest board of the same name (linked).

Roasted Beet & Arugula Pizza

Roasted beets nestled between shreds of fresh mozzarella and gorgonzola on a béchamel sauce bed, then topped with spicy pepperoni or salty ham. Once baked, scatter fresh arugula across and serve.

It's been a while since I've shared a pizza recipe. I've been creating pizzas nearly every weekend, because my housemates have, ahem,  Expectations, but I'm not always taking photos and jotting down recipe notes. This recent pizza, using beets and arugula from our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share, looked interesting enough to snap a few photos.

Have you ever been to a book signing?  I sorta went to one recently. In fact, I accompanied my spouse to the signing of an author he enjoys--John Scalzi.  The signing was at an independent bookstore and I happily curled up in the cookbook section--after reading all about becoming Amish in a survivalist magazine!  I'm always up for a trip to the bookstore--I can entertain myself for hours and I always learn something new. While reading I had half an ear listening to the author's presentation, and this guy is good. He read some excerpts from  . . . [something, I dunno, it could have been his newest book or could have been his collected works--like I said I was listening with half an ear] and in between excerpts he'd give a general overview of how the signing would proceed for the ever-growing audience "tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em, tell 'em, tell 'em what you told 'em" style. His reading style was expressive, confident, and relaxed. During the Q&A he was both thoughtful and funny. Even though my spouse had a Kindle copy of the newest book, he picked up a copy to donate to our library.

While I was enjoying this presentation-by-an-author-I'd-never-read**, I was also flipping through cookbooks and gathering inspiration. One pizza cookbook (from a restaurant in NYC with a celebrity chef and a catchy title that I cannot find on Amazon) had a section on basic pizza sauces to have on hand. The list included tomato, pesto, and béchamel. 

Béchamel . . . hmm. I'd just been reading about sauces in Melt: The Art of Macaroni and Cheese (Amazon affiliate link) since I've had a terrific hankering for mac and cheese this Fall.  It is just butter, flour, and warm milk--I can make that.  Heck, I've been making it and calling it a Basic White Sauce, out of my 1950 Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook (like I did in my Creamed Swiss Chard with Back Bacon here)! I thought to myself 'Self, why have I never put a basic white sauce on a pizza before?'. After I read that béchamel sauce keeps for a few days, I figured I could play around with it and here we are.

I've updated my Visual Recipe Index--for more recipes using beets, look here. For more recipes using arugula, look here.

Arugula Pesto Focaccia with Artichokes, Feta, Goat Cheese and Green Olives (Pizza Night!)

Foh-KAH-chee-ah.  Foke-ah-CHEE-ah.  No matter how my spouse chooses to pronounce it, you need to try this.  Now. It's that good.  And if you've got arugula going to town in the garden?  More better.

I'd noticed that every time I was out of town on a Friday night (for sled hockey tournaments) my spouse would order a focaccia pizza.  The leftovers I'd have after my return were pretty tasty, so I was eager to try it out myself.  I consulted my personal pizza resource, The Best Pizza Is Made at Home , for inspiration on the crust as well as baking directions.  I had some arugula pesto, made using the recipe out of Farmer John's Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables, so I decided to try that.  If you don't have asiago cheese, try Bryn's easy arugula pesto recipe instead, or the arugula pesto of your choice.
I was comfortable jumping into a flavored dough but needed to try the method on a barely-topped bread first, just to make sure I set myself up for success.  The last spectacular pizza failure, seen on my Facebook page, of my deep dish spinach pie on eggnog crust is still too fresh in my mind.  Such a great idea in theory, so bad in execution . . . ah well.  That's why I call it recipe development.  If at first you don't succeed . . .

Making focaccia this way calls for a 12 inch round deep dish pizza pan.  I don't have one.  Since I never know what size kitchen we'll be living in at our next house, I try not to collect single-purpose items (hello, asparagus steamer, I'm talking 'bout you!).  I do have a 12 inch cast iron skillet though.  That's what I used for this focaccia, and I recommend using one if you also have one.  The resulting bread was thicker than my usual pizza crust, crisp on the bottom like my cornbread, delightfully chewy on the inside, and topped with a flavorful combination suggested by my spouse from items we had on hand in the fridge/freezer.  The toppings added to the flavor of the base, but didn't overpower it.  I've said in my Pizza Primer that less is more, and it sure is true here.  You really don't want to glop on heavy toppings or sauces here.  At least, not the first time you make it.

Who knows what I'll do next time, though clever blog readers may think I've already done it with this Salmon, Goat Cheese, and Arugula Pesto pizza--though that is baked and topped differently, and even a bit different ratio of flours for the dough.  All good, though, and yes you are quite bright!

Salmon and Goat Cheese on Arugula Pesto Pizza (Pizza Night!)

While I think I'm doing OK on putting farm fresh veggies from my CSA farm share on a pizza, I need to work on my fish-on-pizza skills.  Tonight's pizza was inspired by the leftover 4 ounces of baked salmon filet in the fridge.  Why such a strange amount?  My spouse wanted to eat this dip, and I had a massive piece of salmon and wanted to play with a strange but good maple teriyaki salmon sushi that will appear in a few weeks.
I have been seeing drool-worthy photos of salads on so many of the food blogs I follow, so when I grabbed the bag of arugula pesto cubes out of the freezer I was thinking of Spring, of a dark green peppery arugula salad under my flakes of salmon.  I've seen salads with bacon and bourbon, salads with chickpeas and salmon, and salads with salmon, cucumber, and mushroom. There are a lot of talented food bloggers out there who take amazing photos of salads that are making me drool!

If I were making an arugula salad topped with salmon, creamy goat cheese and cracked pepper would pair very nicely with it.  Red onion would also, but while I had that idea pre-baking frenzy, I didn't write it down.

Often I make up to 3 different pizzas on Friday nights, then post the 'behind the scenes' photos on my FB page, and if I don't write the ideas for each one down before I start cooking, I end up forgetting bits and pieces in the hustle.

So here's a pizza for you to play with--starting with an arugula pesto crust, topped with more arugula pesto, goat cheese and my favorite shredded blend, briefly baked, topped with salmon flakes and then returned to the oven to heat through.  Try it yourself and tell me how you'd tweak it!

Not-So-Simple Cheese Pizza (Fresh Tomato Pesto Sauce on Spinach Crust) Pizza Night!

"It's very greeeeeeeeeen."

So says my daughter when she spied this pizza coming out of the oven.  If the people you feed don't like green in general, try this pizza.  It's the first way I got my kids to eat spinach, and remains a tasty option when I get spinach in the farm share.  Especially when it's cold and my body craves warm things, not cold green smoothies.  Seasonal eating at its best.

This pizza uses the spinach crust from my Deployment Pizza, adds a (put up, from my freezer) fresh tomato pesto from Heather at In Her Chucks, and tops it off with a creamy Philly-Italian shred blend.  Tonight's tomato pesto sauce uses red farm share tomatoes, arugula pesto, and cashews.  It's delicious--as are all the permutations of fresh tomatoes, green herbs, and salted nuts that I've tried so far.  I cannot wait until summer when each week I plan to whip up a new fresh tomato pesto for the pizza.  For now, however, I'm delighted I discovered Heather's recipe in time to put up several batches of sauce for pizza.

Artichoke, Arugula Pesto, and Fontina pizza (Pizza Night!)

My dog apologizes for the poor quality of this photo.  No he doesn't, but it's his fault anyway.

I love artichokes on pizza.  Someday I'll put up my 'when my spouse is deployed and I make a pizza exactly the way I want it' pizza, but until then, this will suffice.  It hits almost all the notes I like in a pizza, and most everything for it is a pantry/freezer staple.  Including the arugula pesto!  I love how easy it is to grow arugula (rocket), but after a while I get sick of fresh arugula.  Thank goodness for Farmer John's Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables, where I picked up the arugula pesto recipe below.  If you don't have arugula pesto, any old pesto will do. Don't stress-it's Friday!