Gino's Way East

I am so happy right now. The deep dish pizzas came out so well, so delicious, so right; this recipe is a keeper.

I could hardly wait to bake them yesterday. After slowly fermenting in the refrigerator for a day, the dough smelled amazing and was full of life. I decided to make a veggie pizza and a sausage patty/mushroom (my favorite). If you haven't been to Gino's East, you probably haven't seen a continuous patty of sausage on top of a pizza, and if you aren't familiar with Chicago deep dish style pizza, you're probably wondering from some of the pictures where the cheese is. Assembly goes like this: crust, mozzarella, mozzarella, more mozzarella, toppings, then sauce, and finally a little grated Romano cheese. As it bakes, some cheese may find its way through the sauce, and the toppings will start peeking through.

My pizza pans are thin gauge stainless steel, 12" round by 2" tall cake pans. It took about 50 minutes at 350 to bake the pizzas through, a pretty long time to wait for pizza. I might try a higher temperature next time, but I'd hate to burn that beautiful crust. The pizza itself brought back a flood of memories, and on this frigid Pittsburgh night I was glad to be inside with a roaring fire, a glass of beer and a slice of the best. Here's the full recipe.

Chicago Deep Dish Pizza

For each 12" deep dish pan:
Crust:
1 cup luke warm water
1 package yeast
1/3 cup corn oil with about 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil mixed in
1 tsp annatto seeds (optional)
1 T sugar
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 lb bread flour

For the golden crust effect, I heated the oil with the annatto seeds over low heat for about 10 minutes. Let it cool before proceeding.

In a bowl, put water, then yeast, oil, cream of tartar, and sugar. Mix with hand until yeast dissolves. Then start adding the flour a little at a time, using one hand as a dough hook to mix the ingredients. Continue adding flour until the dough is still soft, but not sticky. Turn onto a lightly floured surface, sprinkle with a little flour, and knead it for 10 minutes. Ten full minutes of fold, push, turn, repeat. Sprinkle with a little flour if it gets sticky. Do this, and you will have smooth, elastic dough with a fine structure. It's worth the workout.

Oil the surface of your ball of dough lightly, and place it into a clean, lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let it sit out at room temperature for about an hour. It will just about double in volume. You can go two ways with it from here. What I did is probably closer to the way they do it in the high volume restaurant. Punch down the dough and roll it out to about 15" round. Lay it into your lightly oiled pan and pinch the sides up to form a nice thick crust. Sprinkle in about half a pound of mozzarella, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and put it in the fridge for a day. Alternatively, you can put your slightly risen dough, in its plastic wrapped bowl, into the fridge and let it ferment for at least half a day. The extra long, slow fermentation develops a wonderful flavor in the crust that cannot be done in a hurry. If you don't mind sacrificing taste, go ahead and bake it right away.

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Sauce:
1 28 oz can plum tomatoes (San Marzano if ya got'em)
a pinch each of oregano and basil
about a tablespoon of salt (to taste)
fresh ground black pepper
(I'd probably put in a little garlic salt)

Remove about 1/4 c of the sauce from the can of tomatoes, then pour the rest into a bowl and with your fingers or a potato masher, crush the tomatoes into pieces smaller than a quarter. Add your seasoning, beginning with a teaspoon of salt and tasting frequently. It should be pretty salty but not overpowering.

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Toppings:
Sweet Italian sausage
sliced black olives
sliced mushrooms
diced green pepper
grated Pecorino Romano cheese

For patty-style sausage, press one pound of Italian sausage (minus casing) into a 10" skillet and cook it over medium heat until it just starts to brown. Slip it onto a plate, invert the skillet over the plate and flip the patty over into the pan. Cook the other side until it just starts to brown, and slide it onto your pizza (on top of the cheese, of course.)

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Half an hour before baking time, preheat the oven to 350, take the pan (or dough) out of the fridge and get it ready for assembly. Remove the wrap and tidy up the crust if need be. Sprinkle in about a pound more cheese. Add your toppings, sausage first if using, and then ladle on the sauce. Sprinkle on a nice dose of romano and put into the oven for about 45-55 minutes. The cheese should be well melted, the sauce should be bubbling, and the crust should be a deep golden brown.

Enjoy!