Having lived in the Chicago area for 15 years we are big fans of Chicago style pizza!
Known as deep-dish pizza, stuffed pizza or simply Chicago pizza, it is, as you probably are aware, vastly different from that of the many fantastic pizzas found in Italy, NYC, or almost anywhere else in the US of A.
These days the bar is set pretty high where we now find our pizzas being prepared by skilled artisans using quality ingredients and baking in phenomenal pizza ovens.
In fact one our favorite items to eat at our Thursday night farmers market is the personal pizza from our local Giusseppe’s. They bring their pizza oven into the street each week making them to order as the crowd watches with anticipation.
We also love eating at Flour House Pizza Bar and Pastaria who opened their eatery a couple years ago and boast with great pride of their imported Stefano Feraro wood-burning oven!
That being said, Chicago pizza is a delicious creature in its own right.
This is not a pizza to fold over and eat on the run as New Yorkers like to do.
This is a pizza to sit down and eat with a knife and fork, savoring all the goodness stuffed inside the crust which, when you get to the end is actually more like biting into a warm hunk of bread fresh from the oven.
It’s up to you if you want to dunk it into some of that extra thick homemade sauce!
I recently made the Chicago Deep-Dish Pizzas shown above…one with sausage and one without to take to a friend’s Super Bowl party.
It is a recipe I have had from our Chicago days jotted down on scratch paper while working part time at a specialty kitchen shop.
On a slow day it was a favorite activity, perusing all those cookbooks! We had to write quickly though when the boss wasn’t looking.
This particular recipe is unusual in that it makes two pizzas in 9-inch bake pans, instead of one large pizza in a 14-inch deep dish pizza pan.
Most deep dish or stuffed pizzas are covered with a top layer of dough which is then covered with another layer of tomato sauce. In this recipe the filling is simply covered with a layer of cheese.
In many ways I think of this more as pizza bread.
I like to serve it cut in wedges as a hearty appetizer, instead of as a main course as I did here with a recipe for Chicago Style Stuffed Spinach Pizza.
Deep-dish or stuffed, if you’re a pizza lover you, you may want to try one of these recipes, a gift from the windy city of Chicago!
Here’s the recipe…
Chicago Deep-Dish Pizza (source unknown )
Crust
1and ½ cup milk
6 tablespoons butter
2 and ¼ teaspoons yeast
¼ cup lukewarm water (about 105 degrees)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/3 cup cornmeal
3 eggs, beaten
5 cups all-purpose flour (approximately)
Tomato Sauce
2 tablespoons butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, finely chopped
1 and ½ cans -28 ounce plum tomatoes
½ cup tomato sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons chopped fresh basil
¼ cup chopped Italian parsley
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons Kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
For the Final Assembly
Canola or vegetable oil
1 and ½ pounds sweet Italian sausage
¾ pounds mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
¾ pounds mozzarella cheese, coarsely grated
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano cheese
To Make Crust
1. Scald milk. Add butter by bits.When butter melts let cool to lukewarm.
2. Combine yeast, water and sugar in small bowl. Let stand 10 minutes.
3. Pour lukewarm milk into a large bowl. Stir in yeast mixture, salt, cornmeal, eggs, and 3 cups of the flour. Stir till smooth, add enough flour to make a sticky dough, about 1 and ½ cups.
Scrape onto a floured board and knead 15 minutes adding ½ cup more flour if needed. Place in lightly greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap, and then a heavy towel.
Let rise in warm place till doubled 1 and ½ hours.
4. Punch down-recover and let rise again until doubled 1 and ½ hours
To Make Sauce (this can be made several days ahead and refrigerated)
5.Melt butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat. Add garlic and onion. Cook until tender about 5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients for sauce.
Heat to boiling; reduce heat. simmer over medium low until very thick about
1 and ½ hours.
To Prepare Sausage (this can also be made 1 day ahead and kept covered tightly in refrigerator)
6. Rub a heavy skillet with oil and saute sausage until brown on all sides. Cover; cook shaking pan frequently for 5 minutes. Drain on paper toweling. Slice ½ inch thick. Reserve in a covered dish for pizza assembly.
7. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease 2 -9 inch metal cake pans.
Divide the dough in half. Roll each half into 10 and ½ inch circles.
Line each pan, slightly more than halfway up the sides.
8. Place sliced mozzarella cheese over bottom of each crust.
Spread half tomato sauce over the cheese on each pan.
Then place half sausage over each, unless you are making one with just cheese.
Next, sprinkle half grated mozzarella and parmesan over each pie.
Bake until crisp and golden, about 25 minutes.
Deep-Dish Sausage Pizza
Deep-Dish Cheese Pizza with Basil
Let stand 5 minutes before slicing.
