MMMM Pizza

Finally, I made my pizza. I had been craving it all month. So I really wanted to make a deep dish pizza and decided on a cast iron skillet. Julie's crust recipe seemed perfect because it was thick. It really did rise, almost too much. I punched it down and rolled it out to put into the skillet and pulled some off, so there would be a top crust. Within five minutes, while I was creating my assembly line to put the filling in, the dough rose again, almost too much. I'm not very good at kneading dough and stretching it out and did not want to pull it out again to deflate it. So, I tried to push it down as much as I could and then began to fill with the good stuff. 

I made my own tomato sauce. I started by roasting in the oven 10 roma tomatoes. I put the tomatoes on the stove and added red wine, a considerable amount of garlic, red pepper flakes and a little less than a tablespoon of sugar. I thought about adding a dash of cocoa powder to bring richness to the sauce, but somehow forgot. I had it boil down, so that it would be thicker. I mashed the tomatoes and stirred in increments and I almost forgot salt. I tasted it and its so crazy how much a dash of salt brings out the flavor. 

In another skillet (which I'm not sure why I didn't think of using the cast iron skillet to do this, to prevent dirtying up too many dishes) i sauteed spicy Italian chicken sausage, already cooked, red peppers, mushrooms, and garlic. The sausage was already cooked so just kinda wanted the flavor to meld with the veggies. I threw spinach in at the very end as I took it off the stove, because I hate when spinach is over-wilted. 

The assembly: 

I ladled a small layer of sauce. Covered the bottom with basil. Sprinkled mozzarella cheese. Put the filling in, ladled more sauce on top, and covered with cheese. The pie was considerably full, but I thought it would help in not letting the crest puff up too much. I then covered the top with the remaining dough and pinched the edges together. Then covered the top of the pie with a layer of sauce. Popped it in a 400 degree oven and took it out when it smelled like pizza or about 40 minutes.

Here is a picture of the result.

 So, as you can see the crust kinda exploded. It was way too thick, but really good and soft. i just wish it was thick and a little bit more stationary instead of all bubbly. i should have let the sauce thicken more, maybe add some cornstarch or something, because it makes the bottom crust kinda soggy. Everything else was mmm good. I love how the skillet worked and sauce and filling was good, just wanna try a different crust. Hmmmm, so the search is on. i want something thick but not so airy. 

Also for Easter, I made a black forest cake and want to show you the pictures because it was so pretty.