Chicago-Style Deep Dish Pizza

Serves 6 180 min Added by Julian

A special from the house of Gaul. Nick's recreation of this dish is a masterpiece of comfort food.

some notes from Nick:

  • Most of the toppings should be under the sauce. But you could put some pepperoni on the top?

Dough Ingredients:

  • 500g bread flour (high-grade is good)
  • 50g corn meal - Polenta (coarse)
  • 150ml olive oil
  • 200ml warm water 43.3c
  • 6g instant yeast
  • 10g salt

Marinara Ingredients:

  • 2 cans San Marzano tomatoes (hand crush)
  • 1/2 white onion
  • 4-6 cloves garlic
  • chilli flakes
  • 2-3 tsp tomato paste
  • 1 tbsp white sugar
  • fresh basil

Filling Ingredients:

  • 1 + 1/2 cups Provalone cheese
  • 1 + 1/2 cups Mozarella cheese
  • Pork and Fennel sausage - get the good shit
  • Parmesan for grating etc

Dough Preparation:

  1. Mix dry ingredients first
  2. Mix in olive oil and mix 
  3. Pour in warm water and mix
  4. Rest for 20 min and wrap 
  5. With a mixer (dough-hook etc) mix for 4 min on medium, let rest for 4 min, and one more 4 min on mixer. 
  6. Round out dough and cover in a bowl for 2 hrs ( tip: add flour till flakey / dry)

Marinara Preparation:

  1. 2 cans of san marzano tomato ( hand crush) into a bowl
  2. Finely chop the white onion and garlic.
  3. Sweat the onion till clear in the frying pan with a little oil.
  4. Add the garlic, a pinch of chilli flakes, some basil/oregano, tomato paste + white sugar. Stir.
  5. Simmer for around 30 mins - but don't let it reduce too much.

Deep Dish Preparation:

  1. Butter the shit outta your cast iron pan and grate some parmesan cheese on it, it'll make a nice flavoured crust
  2. Work your dough into the pan and up the sides, and cut off excess.
  3. Layer the base first with provolone cheese, and mozarella ( ratio is about 50:50 tho i prefer a bit more provolone) maybe 3 cups of cheese total. I eyeball it, usually use 1 small block of provolone from medi food warehouse)
  4. Then take the meat outta the sausages and squash those suckas into discs and layer them over the cheese.
  5. Add the pizza sauce on top and grate some more Parmesan over it too. Maybe pour a little olive oil around the edge of the crust to make sure it doesn't stick to the pan.
  6. Slam that sucker in the oven for 30 mins at 220c
  7. Get it out, let it cool for a while otherwise it'll be a soup.

EAT! ENJOY!