Talk about easy and fast weeknight meal. 15 minutes hands on time and 20 minutes bake time to the best deep dish pizza you've ever had.
- 32 ounces fresh pizza dough that's typically 2 bags from a grocery bakery
- 1 pound hot Italian sausage or regular, pork or chicken sausage, bulk is best
- 1 pound shredded mozzarella cheese
- 8 ounce fresh spinach or thawed frozen spinach
- 1 1/2 cups spicy or mild tomato sauce pizza, spaghetti or enchilada sauce
- 1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning or dried oregano, basil and/or thyme
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Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Brush some oil in the bottom of a 14" cast iron pan. If you don’t have oil use a paper towel to coat with some butter.
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Press one bag of dough (16 ounces) into the bottom of the pan all the way to the edges and slightly up the sides.
Brush a light coating of oil on the dough.Crumble the raw sausage (yes, I did say raw sausage) and distribute evenly over the dough, half the mozzarella and all of the fresh spinach.
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Press the remaining dough on parchment paper or a cutting board. You can finish by holding the dough vertically with both hands and rotating until you get close to the desired size.
Place the remaining pizza dough over the pizza “toppings” and pull the dough over to the sides, no need to connect with the bottom dough.
Poke the top pizza dough with a fork a few times to allow steam to release while cooking.
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Top with sauce, remaining cheese and Italian seasoning.
Bake at 425 degrees for 20 - 25 minutes
Pan Size: For large homemade deep dish pizza that serves 8 use a 14" cast iron pan. Or make two pizzas using two 8-9" deep cake pans. You can always freeze one of the deep dish pizzas. See post for instructions.
If the pizza dough keeps springing back on you, cover with a clean dish cloth
or paper towels and walk away for about 15 minutes. This will allow the gluten
to rest and the dough should cooperate better.