The Deep Dish Pizza Of Our Dreams

We're not huge fans of Chicago style deep dish pizza. The belief is strong in our family that pizza is something that should be eaten with your hands. Actually thats a lie, we like any pizza that tastes good. The biggest issue we have with the Chicago style is having the sauce on top, its just messy and you loose so much of its flavor. We decided to bury the sauce in a few places under some cheese which kept the slice together better. Still needed a knife and fork though. We had Jen of "Dan and Jen" helping out this time around and are looking forward to having them over to make Christmas Candy in a few short weeks. In case you haven't noticed we see a lot of each other on the weekends, especially when its cooking time which stems from Eric and Dan living next door to each other since elementary school. That Jen and Charisse have become such fast friends these last few years has been an added bonus and has kept our families close which has really helped shape our cooking style. See Jen is from The South. That's "The South" with a capitol T and a capitol S. We like to give her a hard time about it, the rest of us being native to San Jose but Jen assures us that they had running water, shoes and paved roads growing up. We don't necessarily believe her but we do know that where she's from they taught her how to spell the state of Mississippi forwards and backwards and when you get right down to it they can cook. There is not a meal that goes by involving the four of us that doesn't bring on a major food coma and for that we forgive the stories where locals went hunting with their raffles. 

The Deep Dish Pizza Of Our DreamsWhat You Will Need

Pizza Crust Dough
Pizza Sauce
mushrooms (thinly sliced)
mozzarella cheese (shredded)
chopped black olives
1 onion (thinly sliced)
salami 
pepperoni
Parmesan cheese 

Pizza Crust Dough

What You Will Need

1 3/4 cups flour
1/4 cup cornmeal 
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 package dry yeast
1/2 cup plus 1 1/2 tb. water 

Combine all dry ingredients and slowly add the water until a ball forms. Knead the dough for 2 minutes. Put dough in a glass bowl and let rise for about 2 hours or until doubled in size. This recipe makes enough dough for 2 pizzas and trust me....you will want to have two pizzas! 

Pizza Sauce

2 Tbs olive oil
6 cloves garlic (minced)
Half of a 28 oz. can of imported San Marzano tomatoes ( or you can you use crushed tomatoes if you can't find San Marzanos)
2 tsp salt
2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp red chile flakes


Saute garlic in the olive oil until golden brown. Add the tomatoes and using a wooden spoon, break up the tomato chunks. Add the rest of the ingredients and let cook down a bit until it thickens. 

To assemble the pizza you will want to think backwards for this one. 

Oil a 10inch cast iron skillet and lightly dust with cornmeal. 

Roll out 1/2 of the dough into a circle that is about 12 inches, a bit bigger than the skillet you will be using. Place on the bottom of the skillet and using your fingers, press dough up the sides of the skillet. 

Coat the bottom with about 1/2 cup of pizza sauce. Next start layering your toppings ending with the sauce. We did, a small layer of cheese, mushrooms, salami, olives, onions, cheese and pepperoni. Once you have all your toppings on, laddle a good amount of sauce over the whole thing. Top with parmesan. 

Place the skillet in a cold oven and turn on the temperature to 500* Once your oven has reached 500* turn down to 400* and bake for about 30 minutes. Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.