Deep dish is not a New York insult. It is a pan pie from Chicago taverns: a biscuit-adjacent crust, mozzarella on the floor, sauce on the roof so it does not scorch in a long bake.
Give it time. This is not a 90-second Neapolitan.
Ingredients
Pick one dough — homemade or a store-bought ball.
Homemade dough
- 360 g all-purpose flour
- 80 g yellow cornmeal
- 8 g salt
- 6 g instant yeast
- 180 ml warm water
- 80 g melted butter, plus more for the pan
Premade dough
- 450–500 g store-bought pizza dough, pressed up the sides of a deep pan
Sauce and toppings
- Low-moisture mozzarella, sliced
- Italian sausage (optional)
- Chunky crushed tomatoes, cooked with garlic and oregano
- Parmesan
Products & ingredients
What this pie actually wants. Flour, tomatoes, cheese, and tools — Amazon links, so this blog can keep going.
Store-Bought Pizza DoughCheck Amazon.comPremade Dough
Check Amazon.com
Check Amazon.com
Check Amazon.com
Low-Moisture MozzarellaCheck Amazon.comToppings
Parmigiano Reggiano DOPCheck Amazon.comHard Cheese
Check Amazon.com
Ooni Koda 16 Pizza OvenCheck Amazon.comPizza Oven
Ooni Pizza Oven GlovesCheck Amazon.comHeat Gloves
Check Amazon.com
As an Amazon Associate, The Slice Guy earns from qualifying purchases. Prices and stock live on Amazon.
Nutrition
If you buy the kit on this page
- Serving
- 1/4 pizza
- Calories
- 260
- Protein
- 14 g
- Carbohydrates
- 35 g
- Fat
- 7 g
- Sodium
- 610 mg
Pack labels of those brands (or USDA where a brand does not print a panel), times the grams in this recipe. Drain the mozzarella, swap a tin, or skip the oil and they move.
Labels used: Caputo Pizzeria 00, Diamond Crystal kosher salt, Low-moisture mozzarella, Parmigiano Reggiano.
How to make and cook it
Bought dough? Skip “Make the dough.” Let the ball sit out 1 hour, then start at “Cook the pie.”
Make the base
- 01Mix 400 g flour, 240 ml water, 10 g salt, 5 g yeast, 40 g oil, and 10 g melted butter.
- 02Rest 1 hour.
- 03Oil a deep 30 cm (12 in) pan.
- 04Press the dough up the sides.
- 05Rest 30 minutes if it slumps.
Or use premade dough
- 01Let a store-bought ball sit out for 1 hour until it is relaxed.
- 02Flour the bench.
- 03Stretch it to size — from here it is the same as homemade.
Add sauce and toppings
- 01Mozzarella on the dough, then sausage, then a thick lid of seasoned tomatoes.
- 02Parmesan on top.
Cook
Oven
- 01Heat to 220°C (425°F).
- 02Bake 30–35 minutes until the crust is golden and the sauce is set, not soupy.
- 03Rest 10 minutes.
- 04Knife and fork.
Gas pizza oven
- 01A deep dish does not belong on high flame.
- 02Use the kitchen oven.
- 03If you insist, run the gas oven at its lowest setting with the pan, foil on top for 15 minutes, then uncover — and still expect a fight.
- 04Better: bake this pie in the kitchen oven.
Wood-fired oven
- 01Same warning.
- 02Let the fire die back and use a cool zone, foil tent, 25–30 minutes, or just use the kitchen oven.
- 03Deep dish wants time, not a blast.
