Pizza dip! Who ever heard of such a thing? I hadn’t until recently, but apparently it is a thing and it is delicious. Cheese dip meets pizza in this fun and tasty treat! Be all the rage at your next gathering with this fairly simple and easy to make dish. Rage on!
Ingredients
- .5 lbs. Ground Pork Sausage
- 15 oz. Can pizza Sauce
- 2 8 0z. Cream Cheese, Softened
- 1 Cup Mozzarella, Finely Shredded
- 1/2 Cup Parmesan, Finely Shredded
- 7 oz. Pepperoni Slices
- 1 Tbsp. Italian Seasoning
- 1 Tbsp. Granulated Sugar
- 1/2 tsp. Salt
- 1 clove Garlic, Minced
- Vegetable Shortening or Pan Spray
Quick Directions
- Pan fry sausage with garlic and salt and pepper to taste.
- Dice or mince 1/2 of the pepperoni and add to sausage mixture.
- Drain grease and cool.
- Cut softened cream cheese into cubes and whip smooth in mixer or by hand.
- Mix in 1 Tbsp. Italian season, 1/2 tsp. salt, and 1 Tbsp. sugar.
- Grease 2 9 inch pie pan with vegetable oil or pan spray.
- Place half of the cream cheese mixture into each pan.
- Sprinkle mozzarella and parmesan over cream cheese.
- Cover cheese with pizza sauce, half of the can in each.
- Put half the sausage mixture into each pan.
- Cover with remaining mozzarella and parmesan cheese.
- Place pepperoni slices on top.
- Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes or until cheese is golden brown on top.
- Serve with chips, breadsticks, or garlic bread.
- Enjoy!
Detailed Directions
Alright, lets get this tasty treat made! Start by frying the ground sausage. Add in a clove of minced garlic and sprinkle some salt and pepper in there while it is cooking. If you need to, add a small amount of olive oil to keep the meat from sticking to the pan. While that is going, chop up about half of the pepperoni and go ahead and add it in.
While that is cooling, get the cream cheese cut into cubes. Make sure that the cream cheese is softened, or simple put, set on the counter for a bit to slowly warm it up and make it easier to work with.
I used my mixer to mix it smooth and add the seasonings in, but if you don’t have one you can use a hand mixer or use your manual mixer. I did recently use a potato masher to mix cream cheese and sour cream together. Though it wasn’t the best mix, it was a lot easier using the masher over a hand whisk.
Regardless of which route you go, you just want a nice smooth mix with the sugar, salt, and Italian seasoning fairly well mixed in. If you don’t allow the cream cheese to soften, it will make this chore much harder than it needs to be!
Next get your 9 inch pie pans greased up. I just rubbed a little bit of vegetable shortening in there but cooking spray such work fine as well. Just enough to make sure it is all lubed up is all you need here. If you don’t have a pie pan, I think a regular cake pan would work ok but it won’t look as pretty.
Split the cream cheese mixture into each pan. Simpler said then done, but it doesn’t have to be perfect as it will be covered up and nobody will know.
Sprinkle mozzarella and parmesan over the cream cheese. As much or as little as you want. I just went with a nice covering.
Follow that up with pizza sauce…no I didn’t forget to take a picture before putting the sausage mixture on…half of the can on each.
Cover sauce with the sausage mixture. You can of course put in different toppings. Whatever your favorite pizza toppings are would work great here. If you do go that route, I would put about 3/4’s of the toppings on top of the sauce and the rest on the very top.
Put the remainder of the cheese on, or as much as you want to. I again just covered it nicely. Follow that up with the pepperonis, as many or as few as you like! There are a lot of choices it seems!
Next put it into an oven preheated to 375 and wait. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the cheese is melted and turning golden brown.
Serve with tortilla chips, breadsticks, or garlic bread. Really whatever you want! I was low on time so I opted for the chips and it was fantastic. Both pans were gone fairly quick. You may want to have more parties once you taste this treat! Rage on.
