Caution, pizza contains sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, peppers, onions & cheese.
Personally, I prefer NY pizza, after all, I am a born and raised New Yorker. However, that's not to say I don't enjoy deep dish pizza, I do. But to me, it's not pizza. I can't just grab a slice of it when I feel like it, I have to sit down with a knife and fork and a lot of napkins. Deep dish is great when you're out with friends, it's perfect to share as you all sit around and talk. When Doug and I were in Chicago visiting our friends Maggie & Tim awhile back, they took us and our other friends out for some Chicago pizza (and hot dogs that were delish!). We ordered a veggie stuffed pie and a meat stuffed pie. Both were amazing. And since then, both Doug and I have reminsced both about our trip and the great food we ate. And it wasn't until our friend Matt (who was in Chicago with us) saw our cast iron pan that a stroke of genius struck. He saw it and immediately asked if we can make deep dish pizza in it. Of course I said yes, and then couldn't believe neither Doug nor myself thought about it before. And with that, we were on a mission!
In my last post, I wrote about how we don't like to go out to dinner on Valentine's Day and prefer staying in and cooking (well, I cook, Doug eats). This year, since Valentine's Day was on a Monday, as we sat in our usual lazy Sunday positions on the couch, Doug suggested that we attempt our pizza (he knows the way to my heart). I was sold! We looked up a few recipes and finally decided to start with one posted on cooks.com. Oh, also, we live-streamed us making the pizza, which was weird, but fun. It took us about 3 hours to make, but it was worth the wait. It came out delicious. It was SO good. And it made so much! We still have more than half of the pizza left and we both ate until we were stuffed. This pizza was not low-fat or diet or healthy in anyway, so I would not suggest eating it too often, but you can definitely treat yourself to a slice. Below is the recipe we used, based off of one we found on cooks.com.
I suggest you take a look at the note about the tomatoes because at our pizza did actually come out a bit runny (for lack of a better word). Not really eating it, but after we took a slice out of the pan, you could see all the juices that cooked out. To remedy this though, we simply tilted the pan and carefully poured the juices out. Having the juices there didn't really impact the pizza too much though, bc the cheese on the bottom was melted and gooey anyway, it just made it a little more difficult to dish out.
Ingredients
Pizza Crust
3 1/2 c. All-purpose flour
1 Packet Active-dry yeast
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/4 c. warm water (120-130 degrees)
3 tbsp. oil
Pizza Filling
1 lb. Sweet Italtian sausage
1 Package pepperoni, sliced (pre-sliced or you can slice yourself)
1 (28 oz.) Can crushed tomatoes, drained **
2 tsp. Sugar
1 tsp. Dried oregano
1 tsp. Dried parsley
1 tsp. Basil leaves
1/2 tsp. Garlic salt
1/2 tsp. Crushed red pepper
1 (10 oz.) Package fresh mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1 lg. Green pepper, quartered, seeded, and thinly sliced
2 Medium onions, thinly sliced
1 (8 oz.) pkg. Sliced mozzarella cheese
1 c. Shredded mozzarella cheese
Grated Parmesan cheese (as desired)
Instructions
Use 14 inch deep-dish pizza pan, 2 inches deep. Oven, 450 degrees. Yield: 6 to 8 generous servings.
Pizza Dough
1. In the large bowl of an electric mixer, combine 1 1/2 cups flour, the dry yeast, and salt. Mix well.
2. Add the very warm water and oil to the flour mixture. Blend at low speed; scrape the bowl and beat at medium speed 3 minutes, continuing to scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula occasionally.
3. Switch to the kneading attachment for the mixer and put the setting on low, gradually stir in enough remaining flour (2 cups) to make a firm dough. Continue to knead until the dough cleans the sides of the bowl. (You can knead by hand of course if you prefer!)
4. Cover dough with plastic wrap, then a towel and let rest 20 minutes.
5. Remove the dough from the bowl and place on a floured surface. Knead the dough to loosen the elasticity of it. Then roll the dough out to a circle slightly larger than your pan. We used a 13 inch pan, so we made sure our dough was as least 15 inches (in diameter).
6. Grease your pan and then pull the dough up and lay it in the pan. Push it down so the dough reaches halfway up the sides. Our dough was actually a bit big, so it came up a bit higher, that's fine.
7. Cover with a towel again and let rise for another 30 minutes (it should be puffy).
Filling
1. Remove the sausage from the casing and brown, stirring to break up the lumps. Remove to a plate with a slotted spoon.
2. Add the sliced mushrooms, green pepper, and sliced onion to the sausage drippings and saute briefly. The vegetables should crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
3. In a bowl, mix the crushed tomatoes with the sugar, spices and herbs.**
4. Now to assemble the pizza! First place the sliced mozzarella in a single layer on top of the pizza dough. Try to cover as much of the dough as possible (you can tear the peices to fit.)
5. Distribute the browned sausage over the cheese, then the pepperoni, followed by the sauteed vegetables mixture (draining off any moisture that has accumulated).
6. Add half of the tomato mixture, distributing it evenly over the vegetables. Sprinkle on the shredded mozzarella and then distribute the remaining tomato mixture. Sprinkle the top generously with grated Parmesan cheese.
7. Bake in a preheated 450 degree oven about 25 minutes (until the edge of the dough is browned and the cheese is melted).
8. Slice into thick wedges to serve.
Cheese layer on the bottom
With all the meats added, next add vegetables
Just before placing in the oven!
We had some left over dough, so using a ramekin, we made a mini pizza!
Mini pizza, fresh out of the oven.
Slice & serve! (here you can see the extra juices I was referring)
A perfect slice!
I paused mid-slice to snap a picture it was so good :)
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