French Bread Pizza, the mighty freezer meal that can be ready in mere minutes. A stick of stale bread covered in processed cheese and what might be tomato sauce…or is it something more? I think it’s time we went the homemade route with this cheap, frozen freezer staple. Without further ado…

Ingredients:

– 1 french baguette roll, sliced in half (I only used one half of the baguette instead of making two pizzas. You can easily double the rest of the ingredients to make two.)

– 2 tablespoons of butter

– 2 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped

– 4 small tomatoes, diced

– 1/2 cup of chopped mushrooms

– 1/2 cup of ground sausage and bacon bits

– 1/4 cup of dry red wine

– 1/2 cup of shredded cheese (I used a romano, asiago, and parmesan blend)

– spices (I used salt, pepper, and oregano)

Utensils:

– 1 baking sheet (or just use tin foil to avoid having to clean)

– 1 small sauce pan

Step 1: Pre-heat your oven to 450F, and set your saucepan over low-medium heat.

Step 2: Add your garlic and butter into the pan. Add in a pinch of salt, pepper, and oregano. Cook until the garlic begins to brown.

Step 3: Add in your chopped mushrooms. Add in another pinch of salt and pepper, then stir to combine.

Step 4: After the mushrooms have browned, add in your sausage and bacon crumbles. Stir to combine, and crank the heat up to medium-high. Cook until the sausage begins to brown.

Step 5: Deglaze the pan with your wine. (De-glazing is a technique where you dowse your hot pan with a liquid, which then reduces down and absorbs flavor from the food in the pan.)

Step 6: Add your diced tomatoes into the pan and stir to combine. Let this cook down for a few minutes until the tomatoes have stewed together with the rest of the sauce and until the wine has reduced. At this point, your sauce is done!

Step 7: Spread a layer of sauce over your baguette. Then top with shredded cheese, salt, and pepper.

Step 8: Bake for 10 minutes in your 450F oven.

Step 9: Remove your pizza from the oven, slice, and enjoy!

The tomato-mushroom sauce from this recipe is also good to have on hand for pasta. Just cook pasta as per package instructions, then top it with some sauce and shredded cheese!