I’ve been working on the first installment of “Deep Dish 101” , which is coming very soon. In between compiling, revising, adding new information, and catching all the pizza shows they’re showing on The Cooking Channel,
I managed to get in a little hands-on pizza R&D, just for you!
I just saw Tony Gemignani pretend to know how to make Chicago Deep Dish!
You don’t do two layers of cheese and sausage! WTF was THAT, Tony?!?
Dude, just stick to what you know!
– United Tastes of America – Pizza (2010)
Sorry, I got distracted by televised blasphemy. Here’s the Food Porn!
First, I give you : Traditional Italian Sausage Deep Dish with half Pepperoni;
Crushed Garlic pressed into the dough under the sliced mozzarella.
Next, we have what I think I’ll call a Chicago Shallow-Dish; it’s not quite a Chicago style thin crust.
Using the same dough you’d normally use for a 12″ deep dish, I’ve spread it out into a 14″ round pan.
Half Baby Spinach with Garlic (pre-cooked) / Half Pepperoni.
Shredded Parmesan and Romano pressed into the dough, an uncooked tomato sauce seasoned with salt, sugar, basil, and sriracha hot sauce. Topped with shredded Cheddar/Mozzarella cheeses.
Hey buddy unfortunately you don’t know the reason why we made the double sausage and cheese Chicago Pie.
This was a special surprise from the producers for the host because that is the pizza he ordered growing up. He was totaly excited and when he ate it, it brought him back from when he was a kid..Most of our conversations were taken out during editing along with the Spinach pie, and the Mushroom and Pepperoni. The cracker thin was taken out as well in edits.. we used cereaota and KYROL in that part.. We shot for 5 hrs that day and they used about 2 1/2 minutes…Considering that I have worked with Connies, & Giordanos, and my book research with Edwardos and
Lou Malnatis I have some hands on knowledge in Chicago Pizza
Sweet!
Tony G. Just commented on my post!
Hi, Tony! You know I’m just bustin’ your balls, right? I’m a big fan of your skills!
That’s a shame that they edited you down. It would have been nice if they’d put in the Chicago box-cut thin crust.
That would have been a nice bit of info on Chicago pizza for the rest of the pizza eating world to see.
Just for clarification (and you probably already know this), there are two main kinds of Chicago deep dish –
1) Original (single crust – cheese on bottom / sauce on top) which Ike Sewell (soo-uhl) started in the 40’s at Pizzeria Uno, then followed up by Gino’s and Lou Malnati’s. I consider this style ‘true’ deep dish.
2) Stuffed (two crust with a ton of cheese, sausage, etc. between the crusts, and tomato sauce on top), invented in the 70’s which Connies and Nancy’s and Giordano’s does.
Are there variations on these themes? Sure!
Deep dish itself is a variation on other styles of pizza, just like NY style is a variation of the Neapolitan pie.
If you put it together and bake it and it tastes like pizza, it’s all good to me,
but I wonder how you ended up making it like that.
I’d be very interested in knowing which pizzeria in Chicago makes a deep dish the way you made it in that show,
because it seems a bit off the path from the styles we know, especially the part about putting cheese on top of a deep dish pizza.
You’re gonna burn the cheese! (grated romano/parmesan are the exception to that rule)
As I often say,
“It’s very hard to screw up pizza, but very easy to make it wrong.” – Me 🙂