North America · Volume 36, The Fish Fry, the Curd and the Kettle
Chicago Deep-Dish Pizza
Chicago, Illinois
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- Hands on 1 hour · Waiting 2 hours
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
As tradition built it
Chicago Deep-Dish Pizza
Serves 6 to 8 · 1 hour active, plus 2 hours proving
Ingredients
- 500g strong white bread flour
- 60g fine cornmeal
- 60g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for the pan
- 7g fast-action dried yeast
- 10g salt
- 320ml warm water
- 500g low-moisture mozzarella, sliced
- 400g Italian sausage, cooked and crumbled
- 800g tinned whole plum tomatoes, crushed by hand
- to taste dried oregano, salt, grated Parmesan
Method
- Mix the flour, cornmeal, yeast and salt; work in the softened butter, then the water, to a soft, slightly sticky dough. Knead until smooth, then prove covered until doubled, about 1½ hours.
- Press the dough into a well-buttered deep, round pan, pushing it firmly up the sides to form a lip.
- Lay the sliced mozzarella directly onto the dough, right to the edge.
- Scatter over the cooked sausage.
- Spoon the crushed tomatoes over the top, season with oregano and salt, and finish with a scattering of Parmesan.
- Bake at 220°C for 30 to 40 minutes, until the crust is deeply golden and the sauce has reduced and coloured on top. Rest 10 minutes before cutting.
Notes
The best independent archival research, Peter Regas's twelve-year investigation, favours Ric Riccardo as the original recipe's likely author in late 1943, with Rudy Malnati Sr's role beginning years later than his own family's popular telling claims.
What a modern chef changes
A laminated dough built like a croissant, for a crust that can genuinely hold the weight.
Rung 1
Method
- Build the dough with butter folded and rolled through in stages, rather than creamed straight in, giving a flaky, structurally distinct crust strong enough to hold thick cheese, meat and sauce layers without collapsing under its own weight, per Rung 1.
- Dust the pan more heavily with cornmeal than instinct suggests, for real textural insurance against the long bake's moisture, and let the sauce reduce fully uncovered on top rather than mixing it into the dough's construction at any stage.