Sunday Pizza: 01.16.2011

Deep dish only seemed fitting to celebrate Da Bears win!!  Sadly, they beat the Seahawks and I feel for my Seattle buddies that are Hawks fans.  Ok, I'm really not that sad.  Next week, bring on the cheeseheads!

Pepperoni lips!  Don't you love C's shirt?

We have enjoyed a nice long weekend.  Sunday Papa Howie and Bubbe came over for pizza.  Z was ecstatic to see them!  He played with Papa or Bubbe as we worked on the pizzas.  [Z makes a pizza every week but we ultimately started this whole thing to perfect our pizza.  The dream is to open our own pizzeria someday.]

A word about Chicago style pizza.  [Anyone feel free to comment with your thoughts]  Most people think Chicago style is only stuffed pizza. This is a huge misconception.  There's more to Chicago pizza!  Stuffed pizza is basically a pan pizza with probably a pound of cheese and usually one maybe two toppings.  Then it is topped with sauce and baked.  It can also be topped with another layer of dough then sauce.  One piece of stuffed pizza stays with you for about two weeks, like luggage.  "They get lodged right here!"  Imagine me pointing to my gut like Tommy Boy.

We made deep dish.  Think thick crust.  Normal amounts of cheese and toppings but on thicker crust.  Still an investment to digest but not nearly as glutenous.

We haven't made a deep dish pizza in ages and were a little clunky.  Eventually, it worked out just fine.  We found a technique we like from Cook's Illustrated.  First, stretch dough to larger than the deep dish pan you are using. We use a 10" cast iron skillet which works for 4 adults.

Lightly oil the bottom of pan then add dough, pushing it up the sides.  Cover with tin foil then weight with dried beans to blind bake.  We happen to have a heavy ceramic bowl just smaller than the skillet.  Bake at 450 degrees for about 10 minutes.

C made this lovely bowl

In a large bowl combine toppings for the pizza.  This includes plenty of sauce but NOT the cheese.  Our filling happened to be sauce, sausage, mushrooms, onion, yellow bell pepper, and sauteed spinach.  Yep, the WORKS!  When crust comes out of the oven remove the bowl and tin foil.  Add filling to dough and top with cheese.  Bake for 20 minutes or until cheese is brown to your liking.

We also made our normal thin crust pizza.  I totally loved the deep dish pie but thin crust is my fav!  Here's to a fun-filled short week for everyone.