Weeknight Dinner: An Hour's Work Leads To Days Of Flavor (The Secret Is Sausage And A Freezer)

Pizza made with time

All great meals take time to create, and I have learned that I just need to find a way to bank some time so that I can spend it later.

Pizza makes for an easy weeknight dinner, and it can be special when I have planned ahead.

Don't get me wrong.  I buy dough from Harris Teeter, and it's perfectly fine.  We have eaten many a night by breaking open packages of sauce, mozzarella and turkey pepperoni.

But I can do better -- like a pie with spicy sausage, pesto, and caramelized onions -- and the secret is the freezer.  The freezer for chicken sausage from Whole Foods and pesto that I made when basil was bushy and fragrant last summer.  Add another frozen bag of onions that I caramelized weeks ago while I was cooking other food, and some grated Parmesan made everything come together.  The pizza tasted like days of effort, but we pulled it from the oven less than hour after I came home.

I really believe in taking advantage of the work stored up in sausages, sauces, pickles and similar ingredients.  They're the way to get great flavor on a night when I don't have time.  A few jars or frozen bags are the way to avoid takeout.  Sausage is the perfect example.  You can buy it so many places around Howard County, and that butcher's work can become quick sandwiches, pasta sauces, or pizzas for you.