Chicago Deep-Dish Pizza 🍕

Method

1. 1

   Mix dough with butter and egg; knead 6 minutes, rest 45 until pillowy. Butter a 23 cm cake pan or deep-dish pan generously.

2. 2

   Press the dough up the walls to the rim with your fingers — no rolling pin; you want it irregular and thick. Prick the base, rest 15 minutes.

3. 3

   Build inverted: first the mozzarella batons packed against the dough (they become the crust-cheese layer), then sausage, then a lid of raw seasoned tomato and parmesan snow.

4. 4

   Oven 205 °C top rack, 30–40 minutes — deep dish is a slow bake, until the cheese layer pulls from the crust edge and the top sauce just trembles.

5. 5

   Rest 10 full minutes before cutting, or the cheese slides out like a rug. Fork-and-knife, straight from the pan, is the correct etiquette.

6. 6

   The pan's butter-basted crust should come out shortcrust-flaky, not chewy NY-style — that difference is the whole identity of Chicago.