Deep Dish Pizza

Back in the days when my husband used to travel to Chicago for work, he would always come home talking about a Deep Dish Pizza from Gino's East.  My husband described it as the best pizza he ever had.  Coming from Connecticut and eating pizzas in different places including NY, that was a big statement.

I have not had the privilege of eating it yet, I will soon as Chicago is one of the places I would love to visit in the near future.  Even thought this deep dish pizza is not Gino's, my husband says, it is delicious and perhaps even better.  After bragging about Gino's, I'm not sure if I believe him, but one thing I do know, my deep dish pizza is really good.

Perfect slice of deep dish pizza.  You can see the sauce and the toppings with the melted cheese, this is perfection.  I can't even explain to you how it tastes, all I can say is that you have to make this one day. 

The Homemade Pizza Sauce is delicious.  Make your own at home, it only takes a few minutes and it tastes so much better than the canned stuff.

You can use shredded mozzarella from the bag too, but I like to use fresh mozzarella if I have it handy, either way the pizza is going to be on point. 

I love raw onions and peppers in my pizza.  

I bought ground sausage meat from the market and I cooked it on a skillet.  Check your supermarket for fresh sausage meat in packages.  If you can't find it, buy the sausage in the casing.  Take the casing off and cook the meat, breaking it apart as you cook it.

Pepperoni is another great topping.  Remember you can add any topping you like.

Top it off with more cheese, the cheesier the better.

Take a look at this crust, is crunchy and super thick and the cheese melted perfectly. 

Now, this is what a deep dish pizza should look like.

Ingredients

 Pizza Dough (makes 2 pizzas)

Homemade Pizza Sauce

favorite toppings

Olive oil 

deep dish pizza pan
1 tbsp of cornmeal

flour

Preheat oven to 400 Degrees F.  Sprinkle a little cornmeal on the pan so that the pizza won't stick when cooked.  Set aside. 

Cut the pizza dough into two pieces.  Working one pizza dough at a time, flatten it with your hands on a slightly floured surface. Starting at the center and working outwards.  Use your fingerprints to press the dough. Turn and stretch the dough until you can't stretch it further. 

Lay the dough inside the baking pan. Let it sit for 5 minutes.  Stretch the dough to the edges until you can't stretch no more. Let it rest a couple of more minutes.  Stretch again to cover bottom of pan and up the sides of the pan about 2 inches.

At this point start adding the sauce, then the cheese, and the toppings.  Drizzle with some olive oil. Bake for about 25 minutes.