Deep Dish Pizza

Today was a very easy day for me. It was a teacher workday, which means no students, and we got to leave at noon. Fortunately, I had all my grades finished and I was planned for the next couple of weeks. So when I got to work I watched CNN for a bit and nested. I wasn't sure if I was going to cook tonight or not because Chad went out of town and wasn't due home until about 9. After taking an early afternoon nap, I started thinking about dinner. I knew that I didn't want to order out, and I wasn't up to going out either. So I started thinking about easy dinner recipes.

Friday nights used to be Pizza night when I was in high school, and because Chad loves pizza that was what I decided to make. I had no frozen Trader Joe's pizza dough, so that meant I needed to and make my own. I've made pizza dough many times before, but I was feeling adventureous and wanted to do something a bit different. I decided to to try my hand at deep dish pizza. I love Chicago style pizza, so this was a challenge and I was excited to take it on. I already Had some homemade marinara in the freezer form a previous meal so no worries about making the sauce. I did add a 1/2 cup of canned diced tomatoes to make the sauce a bit chunkier.

I'm happy to report that the pizza was delicious. My first deep dish, I'm so proud!

Deep Dish Pizza Dough

• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• 2 1/2 cups ap flour sifted
• 1/2 Cup yellow corn meal
• 1 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. salt
• 3 Tbs. plus 2 more olive oil (use other 2 for bowl)

Put water in a big glass bowl and add yeast and mix together. Let sit for a couple of minutes until it starts to have tiny bubbles. Add flour, salt, sugar slowly stirring with a wooden spoon. when it gets to a less sticky consistency start mixing with your hands (remember to take off your rings!). Add cornmeal and olive oil and mix together until all ingredients are combined. Transfer to a lightly floured counter and knead until dough is smooth. Form dough into a ball, lightly oil a glass bowl with the remaining olive oil, and put the ball of dough in. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise to Double its size, this will take about an hour.

Toppings:

• 2 cups mozzarella cheese shredded
• 1/2 cup havarti sliced thin
• 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
• 1 Tbs. dried oregano
• pepperoni slices (as many as you wish)
• 1 1/4 (this is an estimate) marinara sauce with diced tomatoes.
• 2 Tbs. large diced yellow onion
• 2 Tbs. fresh chopped flat leaf parsley
• 1 tsp. red pepper flakes

Assembly:

Grease your cast iron skillet and preheat oven to 450 degrees. Roll dough into a rectangle and using hands make the closest to a circle with the dough as you can using your fists ( Do this off the counter, let gravity do its job). Transfer dough to a large cast iron skillet (I used a 12 "). Spread dough around the skillet and up the sides. Make it as even as possible. Let sit about 10-15 minutes so it can rise a bit. When the dough has risen, add 1 cup of the mozzarella. Top with 1 cup of the mozzarella then with the marinara and red pepper flakes and spread spread evenly with a spoon or spatula. Add pepperoni and then top with the remaining cheese and parsley. Cook on bottom rack for 15 minutes, then transfer to the top rack for about 5-10 minutes so the cheese gets nice and bubbly brown.

Let pizza rest about 10 minutes and cut into slices with a pizza cutter. Eat with a fork and a knife.