Linus and LuLu: Deep Dish Pizza

Project #2 is my family's new favorite pizza. Let me give you a little background. My husband and I both remember Godfather's Pizza from our childhood. And my husband still talks about how much he LOVED their deep dish pizza. But Godfather's is no more here. And my kids watch a lot of Food Network and Man vs. Food. So, they have been dying to try something that their daddy talks so fondly about. A couple of weeks ago as I was making our menu plan, I was going to add homemade pizza into the rotation. I make this alot. And, I thought, why not make it in a pie pan and make it deep dish? So I did. And they LOVED it. In fact, C's birthday is next week and this is what he has requested for his birthday dinner.
So if you want to give it a try, here are the directions.

Pizza dough

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon white sugar

1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

NOTE: The above is the original recipe. I also add, a tsp or two of garlic powder, a tsp of oregano, and a tsp of basil.

Put all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix together. I find that sometimes this is a little dry, so I usually add an extra TBS or two of water. But wait to add extra moisture, see if you need it first. After you mix everything together, turn it out on to your counter and knead togther until smooth. Put it back in your bowl, and spray the top of the dough with cooking spray. Cover bowl with a dish towel and place in a warm place in your kitchen. The dough won't really rise, but you want it to relax and rest a bit. This dough will make one large pizza (like a 12" cake pan) or two smaller (2 9" cake pans). Give your pan a spray of cooking spray. If you are making two pizzas, cut your dough in half. Roll out your dough.

This is half of the dough, I was making 2 pizzas.

Notice my awesome rolling abilities. Couldn't get a perfect circle if my life depended on it.

Thankfully, it doesn't need to be a perfect circle, but it does need to be large enough to fit your pan.

I buy the ball of fresh mozzarella in the deli. Because we like the gooey, stringy, cheesiness.
Slice this up as thin as you can. This cheese is super soft so you won't be able to slice it super thin. Just do the best you can.

Now, this time, I put the cheese in the bottom of the pan before the crust. C saw something on Food Network about putting the cheese on the bottom is more authentic. That may be, but we tried it and I still prefer my cheese on the top.

Now, this is a jar of homemade bolognese. I have posted the recipe lots of times before. In fact, you can find it on last week's menu list. It has a pound of ground beef and a pound of ground mild italian sausage, so if you use this, you've got your meat covered. I usually make a big pot then I get about three jars of this size that I can put up in the fridge for when I need them. You can freeze this too.