Meatza!

So I believe I first read about this on freetheanimal.com, which is a paleo blog.  For anyone who has read up on the paleo diet and is a foodie, the thought of giving up all grains and the tasty foods that they are in can be overwhelming.  For me, one of the biggest things I would miss is pizza.  And there have been many attempts to create a paleo-friendly pizza, including ones with cauliflower crust, coconut-flour crust, etc.

But none have really whet my appetite as much as the meatza!  Basically, a meatza is a pizza with a meat crust.  How could it get any better than that??  Let's find out ...

First, I started with not just ground beef, but ground Italian sausage (spicy version, of course).  I love eating this stuff, especially for breakfast.  But it is rather oily ... so I think it's not the best suited for this application.  Spread it out like a crust (rectangular is optional but easiest since most of the packages of ground meat come in a rectangle) and put it in the oven at 350 degrees F for approximately 10 minutes, until browned like this:

Yeah ... a bit too much oil there for my tastes, so I soaked some of it up with some paper towels.

While the ground sausage was cooking, I sauteed some chopped shallots over medium heat with a little butter until they were cooked through.

Then I spread some tomato sauce, grated cheese, and the sauteed shallots on top of the ground (cooked) sausage base.  Back into the oven at 350 for approx 8 minutes!

Fresh out of the oven - mm looks really tasty!

I have to say, this was quite delicious.  I would definitely make this again (and I have!).  It makes me not miss pizza that much.  A couple of variables I have played with:
 - Trying to get the bottom of the "crust" more done
 - Using less fatty meat so that the bottom is more crust-like
 - Adding different cooked and raw toppings