Okay, there's a lot more deep dish fans out there than I thought
Here's the recipe, you can scroll way down if you need to ignore it:
SAUCE
The sauce will top the pizza, unlike thin pizzas. Ideally, if you're emulating Gino's, this is a very chunky and somewhat salty, sauce.
1 medium onion, diced
1/2 bell pepper, diced
4 garlic cloves, pressed
Two 14 oz. cans diced tomatoes
1 t. oregano
1 t. basil
2 bay leaves
S & P to taste
Sautee the onion, peppers, and garlic with a bit of olive oil until soft.
Add tomatoes and spices and simmer for at least two hours. Remove from heat and just let it hang.
DOUGH
1 c. warm water
1 package or 2 1/4 t. yeast
3/4 c. yellow cornmeal
1 t. salt
1 t. sugar
1/4 c. olive oil
2 T. melted butter
2-3 c. flour
First, take the cornmeal and grind in a coffee grinder or spice mill as fine as humanly possible. It should not have any grain when you touch it. The crust will have a grainy texture if you don't.
Sift into mixer bowl to Kitchen Aid mixer. Now, using the whisk attachment on the Kitchen Aid mixer and combine all ingredients except flour to the cornmeal and whisk for 10-15 minutes. You really, really want to get this combined very well.
Change out the whisk attachment for the dough hook and add one cup of flour to the bowl and combine well. Continue to add flour a quarter cup at a time until combined. You'll know the dough is ready as your mixer starts to 'rock' and the dough will not stick to your hands. You may not need all three cups, or you may need more. Properly made dough will not need any flour when kneading/rolling.
Now knead for 3-5minutes on your countertop and you'll oil your mixer bowl and return the dough to it to rise. Wet a few paper towels and cover the mixer bowl, and put in your oven with the light on (that's enough heat for the dough to rise). The dough ball should double in size, anywhere from half an hour to 1.5 hours.
Punch the dough down (again, if you won't need much, if any, flour to roll this out if the dough is made right) and divide in half. Roll out and place in two buttered 9" cake pans paying careful attention to drape the dough over the rim of the pan a bit. The dough will fall off the walls of the pan when par-baking otherwise.
Par-bake the crust in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes. You'll then add a LOT of mozzarella cheese, 1-1.5 pounds grated. Press down to condense and make room for more toppings
Gino's sausage pizza uses a solid puck of sausage, which I love, but I've never ventured to attempt that recipe. Instead just brown ~1 pound of Italian sausage removed from the casing and break it up while cooking. Spinach (thawed frozen spinach wrung out) is also a really great topping, but you can add anything you like just save room/press down filling for the chunky tomato sauce topper.
Bake pizzas at 400 for 30-45 minutes until cheese starts to bubble through the top sauce. Remove from oven and let the pizzas rest for 15-20 minutes. Top with Parmigano Reggiano and dig the frick in!!!
