Sausage, Pesto & Peperonata Flatbread Recipe
In this recipe, sweet and sour peperonata, pesto and sausage are combined to create an elevated take on flatbread. You don't have to make your flatbread dough from scratch in order to get the most out of this recipe - there are plenty of suitable store-bought options available.
Ingredients
Pesto
- 5 cups basil 5 packed cups, fresh
- 3/4 cup parmesan cheese finely grated
- 1/2 cup pine nuts
- 3 garlic cloves peeled and smashed
- 3/4 cup olive oil
- 1 tsp salt plus more, to taste
- 1 tbsp lemon juice from 1/2 of a small lemon (optional)
Peperonata
- 3 bell peppers about 3 cups, mix of colors of choice, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/2 white onion medium in size, sliced thin
- 4 garlic cloves peeled, smashed and sliced very thin
- 5 sprigs fresh thyme
- 2 1/2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- salt to taste
Flatbread Assembly
- 1 flatbread homemade or a mix like Bob's Redmill or an already prepared flatbread of choice (naan would work great too)
- 1 lb cooked ground sausage
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese grated
- basil or parsley chopped (optional)
Instructions
Pesto
- Heat your oven to 325F and spread your pine nuts on a parchment lined baking sheet. Toast for 6 minutes. Add pine nuts and all pesto recipe ingredients, except the oil, (including lemon, if using - this will add a touch of brightness) to a food processor or high powered blender. Blend or process on high while slowly streaming in the oil until the pesto is smooth. Add more salt as needed. Set pesto aside until you're ready to assemble the flatbread.
Peperonata
- Heat oil in a large pot or dutch oven over medium heat. Add in peppers, onion, garlic and thyme and cook for 6 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium-low to cook the mixture slowly until peppers and onions soften, about 25 minutes.
- Discard thyme sprigs, stir in red wine vinegar and season with salt to taste. Set aside.
Flatbread Assembly
- Heat oven to 400F. If using a homemade or store bought dough, roll it out onto a parchment-lined baking sheet to your desired thickness. Top with a few spoon fulls of pesto (evenly dispersed), cooked ground sausage and half of the grated parmesan. Bake for 20 minutes. If using an already baked flatbread or other bread like naan, repeat steps with pesto, sausage and parmesan and bake for only 10 minutes.
- Remove flatbread from the oven and increase oven heat to 425F. Top flatbread with peperonata and remaining grated parmesan. Bake for another 6-8 minutes.
- Carefully remove the flatbread from the oven, drizzle with more pesto and garnish with chopped basil or parsley.
- Slice flatbread as desired and serve.
