Pi Day

In honor of Pi Day (March 14th...get it?...Pi...3.14) and my mathematician husband, I made a deep dish chicago style Pizza Pie with a cornbread crust like Lou Malnati's in Chicago makes.







Ingredients

Crust:
1 pkg. quick rise yeast
1 cup warm water (110°-120°)
1 Tblsp. honey
½ tsp. coarse salt
2 tbl. olive oil
2½ cups + ¼ cup flour during kneading
1 cup cornmeal

Sauce:
1 large can crushed tomatos
4 cloves garlic
2 Tbsp Italian seasoning
1 Tbsp dried basil
salt to taste

Filling:
Provolone cheese slices
Shredded Mozzarella cheese
Buffalo Mozzarella cheese
Pepperoni
Sweet Italian sausage
Hot Italian sausage
Green pepper
Red pepper
Onion - finely chopped

Directions

To make the crust, stir honey into warm water until mostly dissolved.  Add yeast and let sit.  You'll know the little buggers are alive if it foams.  Beware if it doesn't foam, it means you probably murdered them with too hot of water, or they were already deceased before you got to them.  There is no resurrecting dead yeast.  Stop now and get new yeast or the rest will be a complete failure!

In a mixing bowl combine the flour, cornmeal, and salt.  Make sure you mix it up.  I usually use a whisk to do the job.  Add the water/yeast mixture and the olive oil and mix until it starts to come together.  Don't over-do the mixing here. Use the other 1/4 cup flour now to bring it together.  If you don't need it all, fine.  If you need more, fine.  Just get it into a nice ball that comes together. Dump it out on your clean surface and work it with your hands. Knead it together for a few minutes until it forms a ball nicely.  Lightly coat it with some olive oil and put it in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Let rise for an hour or more until about doubled in size.

Meanwhile, make the sauce.  Heat some olive oil, crush the garlic and let it steep in the oil.  Be careful not to let the oil get too hot or you'll burn the garlic and that's a BIG YUCK if you burn it.  Burned garlic is very bitter.  Add the crushed tomatoes and spices and simmer for 20 minutes.  It's now ready for your pizza.

  

Cook the Sausage.  If you're doing sausage, here's what I did and it works great.  I buy sweet and hot italian sausage. I mix them together by hand - which is the totally fun part because its so gooey and messy!  I then form them into patties and fry them. 

To assemble, roll dough out to fit your pan ensuring there is enough to make it go up the sides. Speaking of pans...let's talk about that.  In my pictures I used my old Pampered Chef stoneware, which is awesome, but I don't like the square shape.  What would be most ideal (and now officially on my wish list) would be a heavy duty pan like this one (ignoring the obvious silly Mickey Mouse layout here).

After you roll the dough out, but BEFORE you put it in the pan, put about 2 Tbsp of vegetable oil in the bottom of the pan.  Olive oil won't crisp up the crust as nicely as the vegetable oil.  One of these times I'm going to try adding a little melted butter too for flavor.  But the idea here is that you want the crust to get nice and crispy on the outside. 

Lay the dough in, cut any excess off the sides and press along the sides firmly.

Now layer the cheese.  I start with the flat provolone slices, then put the shredded mozz and cubed up buffalo mozz down. 

Then layer the meat.  I did pepperoni first, then sausage.  Then I layered the onions and peppers. 

Of course you can change it up and put whatever fillings in you want.  I have one rule in Pizza and that is "No Fish, Fruit, or Fungus!"  I know all you mushroom lovers out there just don't get this, but I warned you that I was picky.  Anyway, the only rule you CAN'T break is cheese is on bottom.  I find it best to put meats next and then veggies, but if you really want to change that...take a risk...be daring...I double dog dare you!

Once you have it all layered, then put the sauce on top.  I like more sauce than other people so be your best judge, but you need to make sure you get enough on so it doesn't dry out.  I usually use all the sauce that the can made.

Bake at 425 F for about 30-45 minutes (depends on how big and deep your pan is).  You'll know it's done when the crust has browned, the filling is bubbling, and the crust usually pulls away from the sides of the pan.

Salute!