Recently I threw a pizza party with three different kinds of dough; a neo-Neapolitan like you would find in New York City and New Haven, a pizza bianca that is derived from the pizzas found in Rome and for the centerpiece a stuffed Chicago deep dish, filled with 4 kinds of pork. The goal was to make 6 pizzas in one night for 10 guests - and to see if I could make them say "please, no more pizza".
The last time I made a deep dish was Election Night 2008, using a cast iron skillet and my traditional neo-Neapolitan dough with some corn meal added for an "authentic" texture and taste. While that pie was indeed good, it did not turn out like I had planned. This time I spent several evenings reading though my cookbooks and searching the internet to plan a more appropriate outcome for this classic pizza.
In the end, I developed a dough based on the Chicago deep dish pizza dough in Peter Reinhart's book, "American Pie", with some minor changes:
14 oz unbleached bread flour
4 oz semolina flour
2/3 cup yellow corn meal
2 tbs sugar
2 1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
3 tbs vegetable shortening
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 room temp water
Instructions for a standing mixer using a dough hook:
- Mix flours, corm meal, sugar, salt, shortening, oil, yeast and water at low speed for 5 minutes until the mixture forms a ball in your bowl. Rest 20 minutes.
- Mix again on medium to medium high for 5 - 10 minutes depending on your mixer, until dough passes a windowpane test.
- Ball dough, brush with olive oil and reserve to a mixing bowl or large zip lock bag for at least 2 hours at room temp. (Unlike other doughs, a slow rise in the fridge will not help this dough).
- Divide the dough in two after volume doubles and rest for another 20 minutes before assembling your pie.
The dough should roll very easily without tearing. For the first step, I took the first rolled ball and lined the inside of a spring form pan which I had brushed with olive oil. Next I layered on mozzarella cheese, spicy sausage, sweet sausage, bacon and salami. The sausages and bacon were precooked a few hours before building this pie.
Next take the second rolled dough ball and lay it over the first layer. At this point I trimmed the dough with a pair of scissors and folded the outside layer onto itself making a rim for the second layer, pinching the dough back into itself to create a seal. I vented this layer by poking the dough with a fork to let steam escape.
I picked up an interesting fact in my research about the Chicago style pizza - many pizzerias don't make a pizza sauce for their pies, instead they used crushed or diced tomatoes from a can. In this case I used two 14 oz cans of diced tomatoes (with most of the liquid drained off) mixed with several stems worth of chopped fresh oregano. The "sauce" is then layered in over the dough.
The last step is to top the sauce with additional cheese. In this case I used a mixture of parmigiano reggiano, pecorino romano and montasio cheeses. All of these cheeses are rather hard and withstood the long cook time. If you use a softer cheese, I would recommend topping your pie after cooking is half done.
While I had told folks I was aiming for a nine pound pie, I "only" managed 5 pounds, 2 ounces.
This pie cooked at 375 degrees for almost 70 minutes. Halfway though cooking I covered the pie with foil to keep the crust from burning. I let the pie cool on a rack for 15 minutes before removing the spring form.
The end product - a perfect Chicago style stuffed deep dish pizza, the cornerstone pie at a pizza party that included these great pies:
On the left we have a pizza bianca fresh from the oven topped with heirloom tomatoes, mozzarella, parmigiano reggiano, pecorino romano and montasio cheeses. On the right we have the beautiful failure of the night, a New Haven style clam pizza.
Everyone at the party was apprehensive about trying an east coast clam pie, but I assured them that it was fantastic. I even made my own herb oil to top the pie with. Unfortunately I seasoned each layer of this pie with French gray sea salt, turning this anticipated pie into the monster from the salty, briny deep. Oh well, it was beautiful on the outside, even if it tasted like a salt lick on the inside. You learn.
Pies not pictured were a Hawaiian pizza with pineapple and barbecued baby back rib meat and an apple, potato and leek pie. Both were delicious but somehow missed photographs. I can only assume we we were all to drunk off pizza to notice that the photography has stopped.
I hope this inspires you to host your own pizza party, I know I can't wait for my next one.
