Hapa Bubble Pizza

Back in May, I made Bubble Up Pizza, where refrigerated biscuit dough and jarred pasta sauce is used to make a delicious pull apart pizza dinner in a trice. Well, like all good recipes, I couldn't resist tinkering it a bit and sharing it with you.

Now I think most hapa things come about by chance. The spam musubi wasn't cleverly designed, but born of a need: to use this weird foreign meat in the most comfortable way Japanese Americans knew how, in a rice ball.

The same goes for this recipe. I wasn't looking for a clever hapa version of a classic, I just didn't have any pepperoni or basil. What I did have were some Japanese market ingredients, so a new twist on bubble pizza was born. Instead of pepperoni and basil, I used Japanese kurobuta sausages and fresh shiso from my patio. More info on kurobuta after the jump:

My sausage says it's kurobuta, but I have my doubts

Kurobuta (黒豚) literally means black pig in Japanese, and refers to the Berkshire breed of pig. It was brought over to Japan as gifts to Japanese diplomats in the 1800's by Europeans. The Japanese fell in love with the Berkshire, whose meat is darker and more well marbled with fat than most pigs.  Pigs here used to also be more fatty, but pork went through a dry spell when it was advertised as "the other white meat" and bred for less fat. In fact, the modern pig has reportedly 50% less fat than in the 1950s.  Kurobuta is bucking this trend, and is bringing back fattier pork, just like wagyu beef with it's intense marbling.

Now, I doubt my little cheap sausages are real kurobuta sausages. It is more likely that they are in the style of kurobuta, and have more fat mixed in compared to an American sausage. Unfortunately, just like "Kobe" beef, kurobuta has become a phrase to use to imply quality, and even in Japan there are not enough purebred berkshire to meet demand. In fact, I found an American dog food that claims to use kurobuta pork in its food.  I giggled pretty hard at that.

Hapa Bubble Pizza

You can see all the chunks of fat in the sausage

1 ~16 ounce cans of refrigerated biscuits, or 2 ~8 ounce cans
1/2 jar of pizza sauce or pasta sauce
1 cup of shredded mozzarella
5 mini sausage links
2 shiso leaves, cut into thin strips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. If you are using the larger biscuits that come in the 16 ounce can, cut the biscuits into quarters. If using the smaller biscuits that come in the 8 ounce cans, halve them. Put in a 9x9 baking pan. Toss with half the cheese and the pizza sauce, as well as half the sausage. Sprinkle with the remainder of cheese and the rest of the sausage. Bake approximately 30-40 minutes, or until the cheese is golden and the biscuits in the middle are no longer doughy. During the last 5 minutes, sprinkle the shiso on top.