Thursday, November 4, 2010

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. 

34 comments:

  1. Love this! Love it in the cast iron skillet!

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  2. We tried making our own deep dish the other night too and it was amazing! The layering of sauce is definitely key! Yours looks great!

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  3. Oh yum! My salad dinner is looking pretty sad in comparision right now!

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  4. wow, your deep dish pizza looks wonderful, I'll keep in mind the idea and try it next time we have pizza. thanks for sharing

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  5. this pizza looks delicious! may I have a piece??? :P :D

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  6. oh man--why do I look at these blogs first thing in my morning!! I WANT THIS!!

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  7. The pizza was absolutely delicious and can I just say that I couldn't stop laughing for several minutes after reading this post? I still maintain that The South is awesome and I doubt any of you guys could spell California backwards on the fly. We'll miss you guys while we're gone. See you when we get back!!

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  8. ok. I definitely need a slice of that beauties now... I just had my dinner and this pizza will be the perfect dessert... hehe...
    Thank you for the comment at Chef Dennis' blog. :)
    I look forward to reading more of your delicious posts. Have a great weekend. Michael

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  9. Thank you for this recipe! I love pizza and I love my cast iron skillet, I don't know why I never thought to make my own deep dish pizza, now I know how to do it!

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  10. This pizza looks delicious! I've always wanted to make deep dish pizza. Can't wait to try.

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  11. This looks phenomenal!! Nicely done!

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  12. Hi y'all! It was so nice to meet y'all at foodbuzz festival! You two are such a sweet couple, I love reading about your cooking ventures together! :)

    P.S. As a Texan, The South should be capitalized ;)

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  13. Excuse me while I wipe the drool off my screen...

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  14. Hello,

    I'm trying to get in touch with Eric Petruno, with regards to a Flickr mail I sent him last week about a photo of his we saw on Flickr.

    Can you please ask him to respond to the Flickr mail? Or just to send me an email at the email below and I'll re-write him our request?

    Thanks so much,
    Lizzi Weinberg
    eweinberg@nail.cc

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  15. Wow! That photo of your crust rising looks amazing. Plus, the dish is too cute;-) I've never had Chicago deep dish pizza, but this looks wonderful. Bookmarked...

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  16. I have made Chicago deep dish before I love it but I make a cover for it and add spinach lol I gotta sneak in the veggies for my meat eaters!

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  17. That looks amazing! My husband would divorce me if I ever made a deep dish pizza...I might take that chance though :)

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  18. I'm drooling! I too enjoy all pizza that tastes good, regardless of how it's eaten, and yours looks so good! I'm more of a thinner crust, neopolitan, and NY pizza kinda girl, but I make room in my stomach when a nice deep dish rolls around. Yum!

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  19. WOW this pizza look amazing! thanks for stopping by at my blog! gloria

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  20. OMG can't believe I've been missing out on this all these years!!!

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  21. I'm a huge fan of any type of pizza. I think pizza is the ultimate comfort food. Your deep dish pizza looks delicious! I wish I was having that for dinner. Great photos as well.

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  22. That pizza looks divine. Please mail me a slice.
    Suzanne

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  23. @Window on the Prairie - I checked and unfortunately I can't seem to get it to fit in the envelope...

    -Eric
    foodies@home

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  24. Chicago style pizza is my favorite! My husband and I have been looking for a recipe to make on our own and this one is totally it. Thank you!

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  25. This is what I call a dream come true...What more can a pizza lover ask for...Love it...

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  26. oh my goodness! this looks so delicous...

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  27. I never even fathomed the idea of making a deep dish pizza... this looks amazing! I love that you made it in a cast iron skillet. I'm definitely going to have to try this out!

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  28. Now that is what I call a pizza pie ! We would love that in our house, yum ! I've got to try this soon. :o)

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  29. The Pizza was great! Your post was humorous too.

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  30. Had to refer some friends to this page lol:)

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  31. you can tell... That really is in my dreams ;-D
    Giorgia

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