Pizza Sliders

Circle B Kitchen

If you can only find Italian sausage in link form, just slice through the casing and squeeze the sausage into a bowl before mixing with the pepperoni. You can, of course, use any slider bun for these, but the pizza dough makes these really special.

12 pizza dough buns (see recipe below)

Marinara sauce (homemade or store-bought)

1 ½ lbs spicy Italian sausage

Several slices pepperoni, chopped

Mozzarella cheese (fresh mozzarella or grated)

12 leaves of fresh basil

Mix the chopped pepperoni and Italian sausage together. Form into patties about 1 ½ inches in diameter. Cook the sausages on a large griddle or skillet sprayed with nonstick cooking spray for about 6 minutes. Turn the sausages and then top with the mozzarella cheese, covering with a lid to help melt the cheese. Alternately, after they are cooked, you can place them in the microwave for a few seconds to melt the cheese.

While the patties are cooking, slice the buns in half and spread some of the marinara sauce on each half. Place the sausage pattie on the bottom half, top with a basil leaf and then the top half of the bun. Serve immediately.

Pizza Dough Slider Buns

1 lb of pizza dough (store-bought or homemade)

Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees

Spray a muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray

Slice the dough into small-ish pieces and form into balls about 1 3/4 inches in diameter. Roll the balls in olive oil to completely coat and then place in the muffin tins, cover with a towel and let them rise for about ½ hour.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until lightly golden brown and puffy. Remove from the pan and let cool before slicing.