The Pie

As promised, and I try to be a man of my word, here is a picture of a deep dish pizza I made a few weeks ago. I must modestly report that it was more delicious than it looks. My wife had just returned from a short trip to Chicago, and I was salivating over her description of a Pizzeria Uno deep dish pie. I figured I'd give it a shot because I just had to have me some that night! Here's the recipe:

First of all, my wife made the pizza dough in her Breadman bread maker. It was a basic white flour pizza dough recipe. The hard part was getting the rather thin dough to stick to the sides of the spring form pie pan we used. I decided to put the dough in the pan and roll it around the edges until they were coated. Then I put the pan in the oven which had been preheated to 400 degrees. I cooked the dough for a minute or two and then repeated rolling the liquid dough mixture around the edges until I had a nice layer of dough coating the sides.

Now comes the fun part. I made a homemade marinara sauce beforehand using fresh garlic, homemade jarred tomatoes, Dei Fratelli tomato sauce, precooked Italian sausage which was fresh made on the Hill (the Italian neighborhood in St. Louis), sauteed onion and a dash of salt, black pepper and a quarter cup of sugar. I simmered this sauce on the stove at a low heat for over an hour.

With my marinara sauce made, I placed a layer of thinly sliced provolone cheese in the bottom of the pie pan right on top of the crust. Then I added a healthy layer of the nice, thick marinara sauce with the sausage in it. Another layer of provolone and then a thinner layer of sauce on top of that. I finished the pie with a top crust of grated asiago and parmesan cheeses, and then sprinkled garlic powder and fresh oregano on top.

Last it was time to cook the pie in the 400 degree oven for about an hour or until the cheese crust on top was golden brown. I will be the first to admit that this recipe is not low fat or heart healthy. However, if you are looking for some seriously self indulgent comfort food, baby this is it! This was my first attempt at deep dish pizza, and I must say that I cannot imagine it being better anywhere. I've had several of the best deep dish pies Chicago has to offer and none were better in my unbiased opinion!

Yes, I lucked out, but a few things are necessary to pull off such a fabulous pie. Obviously, as I always say, fresh, high quality ingredients help a lot. Second, cooking the marinara until it is nice and thick helps keep the pie from falling out of the crust when you serve it. Finally, making sure you get a good crust layer on the sides of the spring form pan is paramount. Also, let the pie cool for twenty minutes before serving. Yet another example of if you can imagine it, somebody can cook it.