This week we're heralding the arrival of National Pizza Month (aka every month ever?) with a true Binging with Babish conceptual reach - using Jon Stewart's famous rant against Chi-Town's deep-dish speciality as an excuse to make some ourselves. With cups of sauce and pounds of cheese held at bay by a towering levee of buttery, flaky crust, how could you not like Chicago-style deep-dish pizza? Assuming you've never tried New York-style pizza, of course.

Ingredients

For the crust:

• 8 ¼ ounces room-temperature water

• 1 packet (2 ¼ tsp) active dry yeast

• 1 tsp sugar

• 12 ½ ounces all-purpose flour

• 2 ½ ounces medium grind cornmeal

• 1 ½ tsp kosher salts

• ⅛ tsp cream of tartar 

• ⅓ cup plus 2 Tbsp vegetable oil

For the sauce:

• 28-ounce can of whole San Marzano tomatoes

• ½ white onion

• Few cloves of garlic

• Pinch of crushed red pepper flake

• Shake of oregano

• Shake of basil

• 2-3 Tbsp tomato paste

• 1 Tbsp sugar

• Olive oil

For the pizza toppings:

• Mild Italian sausage, uncooked (optional)

• Deli-style sliced Provolone cheese

• Deli-style low moisture mozzarella cheese

• Pre-grated parmesan

Method

Tomato Sauce

1. Put a 28oz can of whole San Marzano tomatoes into a bowl and crush by hand until the tomatoes are bite-sized pieces.

2. Finely chop half a white onion and smash and peel a few cloves of garlic. Into a high walled sauté plan, put a few tablespoons of olive oil and heat over medium until shimmering.

3. Once shimmering, add chopped onion and sweat for 2-3 minutes or until translucent around the edges, then add crushed garlic and sauté for an additional minute until fragrant. When fragrant, add a pinch of crushed red pepper flake, a shake of oregano, a shake of basil, and 2-3 tablespoons of tomato paste. Cook together for one minute.

4. Add the crushed tomatoes along with a tablespoon of sugar. Simmer for 20-30 minutes over medium heat, stirring regularly to prevent scorching, until the raw tomato flavor has cooked off and the sauce is thick. You know it’s thick enough when you drag a spoon through the sauce, it will part.

Crust and Assembly

1. Into a stand mixer bowl, add 1 packet (2 ¼ teaspoons) of active dry yeast and a teaspoon of sugar to 8 ¼ ounces of room temperature water. Let bloom for 10 minutes until foamy. In a separate bowl, whisk together 12 ½ ounces of all-purpose flour, 2 ½ ounces of medium grind cornmeal, 1 ½ teaspoons of kosher salt, and ⅛ teaspoon of cream of tartar. Pour dry ingredients into yeast mixture. Then add ⅓ cup plus 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. 

2. Using a dough hook, stir the mixture on low speed for 1-2 minutes until dough is off the side of the bowl. Then, put speed to medium for 7-8 minutes to knead until smooth and elastic. If the dough is too hydrated, lightly flour a cooking surface and knead by hand for an additional 1-2 minutes until consistency is soft and tacky, but not sticky.

3. Stretch dough into a ball and put it into a lightly oiled bowl, tossing to make sure it’s fully covered in oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and sit out at room temperature for 60-90 minutes, or until it has doubled in size. 

4. Lubricate a 12-inch cast iron skillet with vegetable oil. Grease your hands and coax the dough out of the bowl and into the pan. Push into the shape of a pizza by stretching and pushing the dough up to the sides of the pan. Let rest under cover of plastic wrap for 20-30 minutes. While this rests, you can start your tomato sauce (see recipe above).

5. Press dough to sides of the pan, and it should easily hold its shape. Optional: Lay down a layer of raw mild Italian sausage into a nice even layer before the cheese.

6. Place a layer of deli-style sliced Provolone cheese on top next, then follow with a thick layer of low moisture mozzarella. More cheese = more cheese stretch!

7. Generously top cheese with tomato sauce until cheese is hidden. Then, sprinkle pre-grated parmesan on the sauce and drizzle olive oil on both the sauce and around the edge of the crust.

8. Put into 425°F oven for 25-35 minutes, rotating once during baking until cooked through. Run a thin spatula around the outside edge to make sure that there’s no sticking. Slide pizza out the pan and wait at least 10 minutes before cutting and serving pizza. Enjoy!