Summer Veggie & Sausage Pizza

I am in love with this recipe for Summer Veggie and Sausage Pizza with Kale Pesto! Chris and I devoured our slices last night with a glass of Pinot Noir. Oh my!!! We liked it so much, we will be featuring this recipe in the upcoming Wine in the Vineyard classes.

Our whole family looks forward to hosting Wine in the Vineyard annually. This one-of-a-kind event starts in Eckert’s classroom followed by a wagon ride to the vineyard adjacent to our home. Guests will adore sitting outdoors with an excellent view of the farm and vineyard while enjoying wine and food pairings. Our kids are super pumped about serving food that night and they will look so adorable in Eckert’s aprons!

This week I have been pondering recipes for Wine in the Vineyard and I really wanted to find a unique way to serve our farm grown veggies. In June, we harvest onions, garlic, kale, turnips and beets. And while I couldn’t get all of those in this recipe, I think I did a pretty good job of incorporating many farm fresh flavors! I also had a notion to include our house made polish sausage to compliment the veggies.

Chris grilled the onions for me while I browned the sausage and whirled together the kale pesto. This was my first attempt at kale pesto and it is divine. My mind is wandering about pesto kale on chicken, potatoes and noodles….

After the onions were cool, we sliced and topped the pizza with onion slices, raw corn, sausage and thin slices of Havarti and popped it in the oven.

Our family has been enjoying Eckert’s gluten free pizza crust so that is what I used here. Your favorite crust could easily be substituted. And if you would rather not turn on the oven, you can also grill this pizza directly on the grates.  Either way you spin it, your yummy and unique pizza will undoubtedly impress the adventurous pizza lover!

Eat well this (almost) summer, Angie

Click here to make reservations for our special Wine in the Vineyards class

Ingredients

Kale Pesto
2 cups kale leaves, ribs removed and leaves chopped
1 tsp. Kosher salt
¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup toasted almond slivers
2 garlic cloves
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
4 links Eckert’s fresh polish sausage (about 1 lb)
2 ears of corn, kernels sliced from the cob
3 spring onions with green tops
1-2 Tbs. olive oil
10 oz deli Havarti cheese, sliced thin
2 Eckert’s 12” Gluten Free Frozen Pizza Crust (or sub your favorite crust)

Instructions

Preheat grill to high heat and oven to 400 degrees. Remove sausage from the casings. In a small non-stick skillet, brown sausage until all pink is gone. Pulse kale and salt in a food processor until finely chopped (it will resemble pesto). Add oil to processor and pulse 4-5 times. Add almonds, garlic and Parmesan and pulse until well combined. Cut onions in half lengthwise, rub with olive oil and grill over high heat  for 5-8 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes before carefully slicing onion tops and bulbs. Spread crusts evenly with kale pesto. Distribute grilled onion pieces, corn and browned sausage evenly on top of pesto. Top with Havarti slices. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Serve hot or at room temperature.