While I was experimenting with sourdough pizza crust, I happened to also have meal-prepped a giant vat of bolognese(meat sauce), just to have throughout the week for potential dinners. Originally, this was going to be a bolognese pasta post, but I forgot to photograph that, and decided instead, let’s use the bolognese on the pizza crust in lieu of a tomato sauce. What’s hilarious here was how well that worked – bolognese is a tomato sauce with meat in it anyways, so it just made for a heartier pizza. I literally saw no wrong here. The sauce itself is pretty standard, with mirepoix(carrots, onion, celery), pancetta, ground beef, tomato product, and some spices. I also added some anchovy filets for that extra punch of umami and salt – it really is such a fun ingredient to use in tomato-based sauces since the acidity in tomatoes balances out with the fishiness, so you just end up with this punchy savory flavor that is actually quite pleasant. While my original plan with the pizza crust was to go with a more zucchini-burrata pizza situation, I was actually pleasantly surprised with the combination of the bolognese with the crust, because it was like a lasagna pizza! What I love about this recipe is that you have a recipe now for a bolognese sauce(which you can also use for pasta too), and a sourdough pizza dough crust, that is fairly versatile, and will at least be my go-to for any future pizza nights!

So just a reminder, but this pizza crust is made with active sourdough starter. Make sure that you fed the starter for at least 5 days and that it is bubbling and frothy prior to using it in your dough. Otherwise, you will end up with gummy, dense, and flat dough that will taste like a rubber band. Sourdough based anything will usually take a lot longer to leaven, but it is gut healthy, and I just love the underlying tang in the crust itself. For cooking this dough, I bake my pizza more Detroit style, as I use a cast iron to bake my crust in. Mostly because I do not own a pizza stone(my sister does however, so I usually would mooch off of her for pizza nights because of that), but I found that baking the dough in a cast iron still gets a nice crisp on the edges. For my cheese of choice, I went with shredded mozzarella, just because it is a pleasant, neutral cheese, and it creates by far the best cheese pull. You can also mix into that a bit of parmesan if you’d like, just to give a bit more saltiness, but the mozzarella is really all you need for a tasty foil to the hearty, stewed bolognese. While this was a recipe created by using up leftover meal prep, it was a pleasantly tasty take on a typical pizza, or a fun way to repurpose pasta sauce that you might have lying around!

For the sourdough pizza dough:
2 cups bread flour
2oz active sourdough starter
1 cup warm water
1oz olive oil
a pinch of salt

In a bowl, mix everything together until a dough forms. Knead the dough until smooth and elastic and allow it to rest at room temperature for 1 hour. Then refrigerate the dough, covered, for at least another 6 hours. Then divide the dough into 2 pieces. Keep the pieces covered and refrigerated until time to use.

For the bolognese:
2oz pancetta, diced
2oz ground beef
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, peeled and diced
1 bay leaf
1 carrot, peeled and diced
3 celery stalks, diced
4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced finely
1 tsp smoked paprika
a pinch of salt
1 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp thyme
1 tbsp dried chili flakes
2 anchovy filets
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 cup crushed tomatoes

In a pot, slowly cook the pancetta and ground beef with olive oil until the fat fully renders out of the pancetta and the ground beef takes on a brown color. Remove the meat and add in the onion, bay leaf, carrot, and celery. Sweat out the vegetables before removing the bay leaf. Add in the garlic, paprika, salt, oregano, thyme, chili flakes, and anchovy and stir everything together on medium-high heat for another 2-3 minutes. Add in first the tomato paste, then the crushed tomatoes. Using an immersion blender, puree everything until smooth. Then add in the ground beef and pancetta. Stir everything on low heat, then allow everything to cook down by half.

For the pizzas:
Extra virgin olive oil
8oz mozzarella cheese

Roll out one of the dough pieces to 12 inches in diameter. Place the dough onto a large cast iron, pressing the middle portion of the dough to flatten it and allow the edges to be slightly thicker, and drizzle on olive oil. Spread about 6oz of the bolognese into the flatter portions of the dough and top that with half of the cheese. Bake the pizza at 500 degrees F for 15 minutes. Then repeat these steps with the other portion of pizza dough.