The first thing I did when I moved to Kansas City was go on an endless search for a pizza recipe similar to Lou Malnati’s Pizza in Chicago.  They’re famous for the deep dish but I preferred the thin crust.  Now, Kansas City is known for so many delicious foods among other great things.  Pizza just isn’t one of them when compared to being spoiled with Lou Malnati’s crust and pizza sauce.  If you’re familiar and know a place, please share in the comments or reach out!

I considered ordering it in as they do ship their deep dish pizzas across the country but this doesn’t help me when I’m craving that thin crust they do so well.  It’s on my must-visit restaurants every time we visit the windy city.

Perfecting a recipe is something I enjoy…especially an Italian pizza recipe.  I throw on some Italian dinner music (spotify has a great playlist!), pour a glass of clean-crafted Scout and Cellar, Che Fico red wine, imported from Italy and dance around the kitchen in the midst of the spicy aroma.  It brings me more joy than I should admit.  Perfecting this recipe was a challenge accepted moment.  I made both a deep dish for my kids.  Can you believe they had never tried a deep dish pizza!?  I’m failing as a parent.  And John and I had the thin crust with sausage and giardiniera (you can make your own or Potbelly’s sells a good jar).  The beauty of making both is the pizza recipe is the same.  Only the method changes a bit.

Ingredients for the dough:

• 1 1/4 teaspoon instant dry yeast.  I used the organic from our local Price Chopper.
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 cup lukewarm water
• 2 cups unbleached flour
• 1 1/2 Tablespoon yellow corn meal
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (for greasing the bowl)

Instructions for the dough:

• In a small bowl, combine the active dry yeast, sugar, and lukewarm water together and let sit for one minute. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal, and salt. Add the yeast mixture, melted butter and canola oil into the dry ingredients and stir until dough forms.
• Bring the dough to a floured surface and knead until it forms a smooth ball.  This will take a few minutes.
• Move the dough to large bowl drizzled with olive oil. Coat the dough in oil and cover and let rest for 1 hour.  Meanwhile, make the sauce.
• After one hour, use a floured surface and roll the dough into a circle.  It doesn’t have to be perfect.  You can trim around the edges.  This dough is forgivable and can be patched but it’s best to be careful.  The thin crust will take some work.  It needs to get really thin and will start to look stretched.  That’s when you know the thin is ready.  For the deep dish, it’s not a thick crust still.  But it won’t need rolled as thin as the thin.  (see photos)
• Press the crust into the dish.  For the thin, we used a 9″ cast iron skillet.  For the deep dish, we used a 9″ pie pan.  You want about 2 inches of height for the deep dish.  A cake pan could work too.
• Use your fingers to press the dough into the pan and up the sides.  The thin won’t go up the sides much.
• Take some extra virgin olive oil and coat the top edges.

Ingredients for the Sauce:

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 yellow onion, grated
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 1/2 tablespoon crushed red pepper (optional for kids that don’t like spicy foods)
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 can organic crushed tomatoes with basil (or add 1 tablespoon of dried basil to can of crushed tomatoes)
• 2 teaspoons tomato paste

Instructions for the sauce:

• Heat extra virgin olive oil in a medium saucepan, add the grated onion, salt, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Once the onion has slightly browned, add the garlic, tomato sauce, and tomato paste. Turn the heat down to low-medium and allow to simmer about 30 minutes, or until it’s thickened a bit. For deep dish, it has to thicken.  Not as important for the thin crust.  Remove from heat and set aside until ready to be used.

Ingredients for the toppings:

• 1 package of mozzerella cheese slices (torn into pieces)
• 1 lb ground italian sausage
• 1 teaspoon fennel seed
• 3 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese, shaved
• 1 tablespoon of Parmesan cheese, grated

Instructions for the toppings:

*We went all out and smoked the sausage like little meatballs and it was amazing.  You could, of course, just cook it up right in the skillet but I was going for the real deal.

• Roll sausage into tiny meatball and throw them on the smoker until cooked.  We use a pitboss and it took about 30-45 minutes.  This was going while we were making the dough.  When they’re done, cut them in half and place flat side down.
• For Deep dish – Layer cheese first, mixing between the Mozzarella and Parmesan.  Then layer the toppings.  Ours was sausage and giadiniera.  Then cover with a heavy layer of sauce.  I topped with grated Parmesan.
• For thin crust – Take a ladel and put a ladel full of sauce in the middle and use the bottle to spread the sauce around the dough in a circular pattern, leaving just the edges uncovered.  Spread the toppings around.  Cover with the cheese mixture and finish with grated Parmesan.

To cook the pizzas:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees and cook for 20-30 minutes for the deep dish.  I believe it was more like 15 minutes for the thin crust.  Keep watch.  Just like baking a pie, I covered the crust edges with aluminum foil (they make something special for pies that could be used as well).  Just don’t cover the entire pizza, only the crust that is showing.  This keeps it from burning before the rest of the pizza is finished.

I hope you enjoy this recipe.  It may not be perfect.  You can tweak it how you want.  We doubled it and made two extras for the freezer.  I’ve already taken one out.  It was easy to cook and serve and just as delish!  I preheated to 425 and put the thin crust in for 15-20 minutes, keeping an eye on the crust.  It never needed a cover.If you’re relocating to Kansas City, visit my ReeceNichols site and search for your Kansas City dream home.

Cheers,

Heather Brulez