Further Adventures in Pizza

As a displaced Chicago native, one of the things I miss is Chicago-style food. This means hot dogs loaded with toppings, Italian beef sandwiches, and, yes, deep-dish pizza. Transporting a frozen stuffed spinach pizza in my luggage has become a fixture of flying home. But now, with some of the research that resulted in the development of an improved Neapolitan-style pizza, we've begun to develop a proper Chicago-style pie. It's a very different animal indeed.

While my favorite was my hometown hangout, Leonardo's (sadly no longer in business), the other household favorite was a Chicago classic, Lou Malnati's. This pizza was intended to replicate a Lou's pizza.

We started with a heavy, oily, very elastic dough.

Malnati's-Style Chicago Deep Dish

Unlike the looser, wetter Neapolitan dough, this could be rolled out with a rolling pin.

Malnati's-Style Chicago Deep Dish

We built the pizza directly into a 9" cake pan. Next time I think we should put some foil strips into the pan to help lift it out.

Malnati's-Style Chicago Deep Dish

And if you've never had a Chicago pizza this next bit may seem strange. No sauce on the bottom - just lots of mozzarella cheese.

Malnati's-Style Chicago Deep Dish

And if you order a sausage pizza, let me tell you, you get a sausage pizza. Forming two Italian sausages into one large patty assures 100% sausage coverage.

Malnati's-Style Chicago Deep Dish

Finally the sauce comes last, with a dusting of powdered Parmesan. Lots of rich chunky tomatoes, but ours should have been drained more thoroughly.

Malnati's-Style Chicago Deep Dish

After baking for about 25 minutes the pizza looked done, but was actually a bit underdone.

Malnati's-Style Chicago Deep Dish

The very last slice, after it all had a chance to solidify.

Malnati's-Style Chicago Deep Dish

We had a good, but not excellent result. The crust was not too bready, and the overall taste was very good, but the tomatoes were a bit too soupy. But it was well worth the effort and much, much easier and cheaper than having one flown in! We'll try again soon, next time with a stuffed spinach pizza - the true classic.

Comments

Sarah said…
Wow, that's almost like a lasagna without noodles. I like the cheese on the bottom, I'm going to have to try that. I'm going to Chicago in June... so what's the best pizza place there?
9:29 AM
Amanda said…
looks authentic to me... who knew moving 45 mnutes away meant I'd have to make my own pizzas? I'll send you a 'za anytime, toots... I

Oh, Sarah g- Ginoo's East is delightful and touristy but good! Beware of te sausage, it's just too much unless you gre up on it. Or else, Giordano's, Lou Malnotti's, Connie's or Home Run Inn... Skip Uno...
7:08 PM
Amanda said…
man, I gotta proofread...
7:09 PM
Jeremy Preston said…
That made me so hungry.
2:44 PM
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