Chicago Style Deep Dish Stuffed Pizza Recipe

My wife and I started dating more than forty years ago and one our favorite date stop was Gino's Pizza in Chicago. Gino's is famous for their deep dish stuffed pizza. I started to replicate their recipe almost forty years ago and have been tweaking it ever since.

This is the recipe which started me off on my hobby of cooking and creating recipes. Over the years there have been some interesting failures and some total flops. However, I don't remember throwing anything away.

The basic method of placing the cheese on the dough then the sauce and toppings is the only way to make a stuffed pizza. You can change the toppings and the cheese but not the method. Last night I made a pizza with Farmer Veggie Cheese and an all vegetable topping. The only caution I make is that the fresher your ingredients the better the pizza.

1 cup warm water

1 envelope dry yeast

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 pinch of sugar

½ cup of corn meal

1 tbs. olive oil

1 cup and 2 cups of flour

½ pound ground chuck

1/4 tsp. fennel

1 tbs. Penzeys Pasta Sprinkle

1 can tomatoes

½ stick of butter

Mozzarella or provolone cheese (from Wisconsin)

In the water whisk together yeast, baking soda, salt, sugar, corn meal, olive oil, and one cup of flour until all ingredients are fully blended and you have a consistent slurry. Set aside for five minutes. Add the remaining 2 cups of flour and stir until you have a thoroughly mixed very stiff dough. I use my hands since the dough will become so stiff it is impossible to stir. Cover with towel and let the dough rise for a couple hours.

Preheat Oven to 425 degrees.

Lightly brown meat in a fry pan adding fennel and pasta sprinkle, do not overcook. I use Penzeys spices I think this is the perfect Italian blend but any Italian blend will work.

I have used many different pans from a cast iron skillet to a 9" cake pan. All seem to have their advantages. My favorite is the stoneware pizza pan I am using now.

Liberally coat the inside and sides of pan with butter and do not wash your hands, work butter into dough before placing into pan. Place dough in pan forming the dough up the sides to reach the top. Place a layer of sliced cheese on top of the dough. Pour off a small amount of the tomato juice in the can and then pour the rest with the tomatoes onto the cheese. Spread out tomatoes, breaking them apart. Cover tomatoes with the browned meat. Pour the remainder of the tomato juice over the top of the meat. Place pizza into oven and bake for 35 to 40 minutes until crust is a golden brown I like my crust crispy. Allow to rest for five minutes before slicing.