Illinois · Main
Chicago Deep-Dish Pizza
- Advanced
- 2 h 30 m
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
Leads with richness that coats and comforts, savory depth stacked from the pantry’s bass notes, opening aromatic and staying there.
Ingredients
- For the dough: 400g flour, 60g cornmeal, 7g yeast, 1 tsp salt, 240ml warm water, 60ml oil, 3 tbsp melted butter
- 450g low-moisture mozzarella, sliced
- 400g crushed San Marzano tomatoes, seasoned with garlic, oregano, salt
- 100g Parmesan
- 2 tbsp olive oil
The skills inside
Proofing: the rise before the oven
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · dairy
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Mix the dough with the cornmeal and butter, knead briefly, and rise 1 hour. 60 min
- Press the dough up the sides of an oiled deep 23cm cake pan to form a tall crust.
- Lay the mozzarella slices directly on the dough first: this protects it from the sauce.
- Add any fillings, then top with the crushed tomatoes and a blanket of Parmesan.
- Bake at 220C for 30-35 min until the crust is deep gold and the sauce bubbles. Rest 10 min before cutting. 35 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Proofing: the rise before the oven 78 recipes
- Judged on volume against the container rather than on the clock: visibly grown, and grown by roughly the amount the recipe describes.
- The poke test agrees: a floured fingertip pressed a centimetre in leaves a dent that springs back slowly and only part of the way. Straight back means it is not ready; no spring at all means it has gone.
- The surface is domed, smooth, and slightly sheened: not cratered, wrinkled, or collapsed, and not skinned over and dry from proofing uncovered.
- Handled, it feels alive and airy: light for its size, with bubbles visible under the skin.
- It springs in the oven: the piece lifts in the first minutes and the scores open. A shape that does not move at all was proofed past its point before it went in.
Where it goes wrong It was proofed to the clock in a kitchen colder or warmer than the recipe assumed: overproofed, it collapses as the blade touches it and bakes flat and dense with a sour edge; underproofed, it tears at the side and bakes tight.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Chianti Classico or Barbera d’Alba
- Also Right
- Vermentino for the lighter plates
- From the Taps
- Italian pilsner
- Zero-Proof
- San Pellegrino Sanbittèr
Tomato’s acid demands equal acid: Italian reds evolved beside the sauce, and the regional pairing is the safest law in wine.
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