Deep Dish Pizza

I’ve never had deep dish pizza in Chicago, but this homemade pizza pie is nothing short of what I expect from the windy city. This flaky, buttery crust filled with veggies and loaded with cheeses, will leave you and your guests wanting more after every slice. The first time we made this was on Superbowl Sunday and it satisfied all the cheesy, salty, saucy cravings from an intense game night.

This recipe was adopted from Sally’s Baking Addiction. The 9″ pizza should feed about 2-3 people and the 12″ should feed about 4 people!

I highly recommend using a cast iron skillet for the best flavor and texture, but you can also use a cake pan.

What you will need:

For the toppings per pizza:
10-12 slices of pre-cut Provolone cheese
2 oz Mozzarella cheese, freshly grated
2 oz Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
1/2 green bell pepper
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 zucchini
1/4 white onion
1/2 cup black olives
All of the vegetables should be thinly sliced and then pat dried on either a clean towel or paper towel for best texture and taste. Thinly slicing the veggies will allow for them to bake well in the pizza.

Preparing the Crust:

• The following steps are instructions to make the dough by hand:
• Add the flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar, and yeast in a very large bowl and begin combining the ingredients with a wooden spoon.
• Add the warm water and melted butter. Make sure the water is just warm enough to touch, any hotter can kill the yeast.
• Once the ingredients are all combined and the dough hydrated, flip out the dough on a clean countertop and knead by hand for 5-7 minutes.
• Form a ball with the dough, tucking in all the sides towards the bottom.
• Place the dough ball in a large bowl greased with olive oil. Coat the dough in olive oil as well.
• Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise for about 90 minutes in a warm temperature.
• Once the dough has doubled in size, lightly flour a countertop and flip out the dough onto the surface.
• Add Italian Seasoning to the butter at room temperature.
• Roll out the dough into a large rectangle and spread the softened butter.
• Roll the dough into a log, enveloping the butter inside and form a ball.
• Place the dough back into the large bowl greased with olive oil and cover with plastic wrap. Allow for the dough to sit in a warm environment for 1 hour.
• Once the dough is ready, lightly flour a countertop and flip out the dough onto the surface. Roll it into a circle that is 4 inches wider in diameter than the size of pan you are using.(16″ circle if using a 12″ pan or 13″ circle if using a 9″ pan).
• Roll the dough circle onto a rolling pin and place into the lightly greased cast iron skillet.
• Press the dough into the bottom and edges of the skillet.

Preparing the Sauce:

• Heat up 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan on medium low heat. Add in the diced onion, cook until translucent.
• Add in the minced garlic, red crushed pepper, salt, and oregano.
• Add in the crushed tomatoes and turn down the heat to medium low and allow the sauce to simmer until it thickens for 30 minutes minutes. Add in the fresh basil halfway through.

Assembling & Baking the Pizza:

• Preheat oven to 425°F.
• Once the crust has been placed into the pan, place the Provolone cheese as the first layer to cover the base of the crust.
• Layer the Mozzarella cheese evenly.
• Layer the sliced vegetable toppings evenly across the cheese.
• Add the thickened tomato sauce.
• Finally, layer the Parmesan cheese on top.
• Fold over any unfilled crust to make a rim on the pizza.
• Brush the crust with olive oil.
• Bake the pizza for 25-30 minutes, until the crust looks golden brown.

Additional notes:

Start preparing the sauce while the dough is proofing to make sure all components of the pizza are ready to assemble once the dough is in the skillet.

If your pizza is full to the top of the skillet or cake pan, place a baking sheet on the rack below to catch any overflow while baking.

To avoid excess moisture in the pizza, try to thicken up the sauce as much as you can by simmering & make sure the veggies are dried well.

You can opt out of the veggies or add any other vegetables that you prefer.