making takeout at home, pizza version

There’s something comforting about a slice of deep dish pizza. Nearly every weekend, we order takeout from one of our local pizzerias. Paired with a good movie and a glass of wine, it makes for a perfect Saturday evening.
it's done

Our town has a few places known for their pizza. Leonardo’s makes a Chicago-style pie, and when we lived on that side of town, we were regulars. Satchel’s is probably the most locally-famous with loyal followers who proudly display Satchel’s bumper stickers on their cars. I’m sad to say that, although we’ve lived here since 2001, we’ve only been to Satchel’s once. We took our then-2 year old daughter, and we made the mistake of arriving about 15 minutes before her regular dinner time. The wait for food was probably 45 minutes. By the time the pizza came, we were so frazzled from dealing with an impatient – and loud – 2 year old that I can’t even remember anything about the meal itself. We haven’t been back. Our new favorite, partly due to location, but mostly due to their quality pizza, is Blue Highway Pizza. Our standby? The Sicilian pepperoni, a rectangular thick-crust pan pizza that always yields enough for leftovers.

Since the weekends are when I can spend time cooking, I decided to use Saturday to make a deep dish pizza from scratch. I’ve never made pizza crust dough, and while it would be really easy to pick up some dough at Publix, the idea of making the dough myself was appealing. I cheated a bit, though. I bought King Arthur Flour’s pizza crust kit. I still got to add yeast, and I was able to use my KitchenAid stand mixer with the dough hook for kneading the dough. I had forgotten how wonderful that yeasty dough smell is.
sauce

For the sauce, I modeled it after Mike’s Pizza Sauce from Last Night’s Dinner. I used a can of crushed San Marzano tomatoes, a couple of cloves of garlic, some olive oil, an onion, and a bit of dried oregano, basil, and kosher salt. I would have loved some larger tomato pieces, but my husband is anti-tomato, so I’ve learned to compromise. Petite diced canned tomatoes are okay, but regular diced tomatoes are not. You get the picture. The sauce was good, but next time I’ll add some red pepper flakes to give some heat.
ready to bake

Toppings are always a compromise when you live with picky eaters (i.e, everyone in this house but me). I went with good-ol’ pepperoni, but on half of the pie I added diced green bell pepper. And, thinking the kids would not be able to tell them apart from the red tomato sauce, I added some chopped red bell pepper. But they could tell. They’re smarter than I gave them credit for, as usual.
slice

The verdict? The husband and I really liked it. My 6 year old daughter liked it, and she even ate some of the red bell pepper (it’s sweet, you know). My 3 year old son refused to eat a single bite. It was fun making our usual Saturday night meal instead of ordering it from the pizzeria. I’m not sure I saved us much money, but it’s always a great feeling to know where your food comes from and how it was prepared.
slice

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9 Responses to “making takeout at home, pizza version”

  1. 1
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    Merry — February 28, 2010 @ 11:19 am

    That dough looks yummy.

    • 1.1
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      merrygourmet — February 28, 2010 @ 12:13 pm

      It was very good, actually. The credit goes to King Arthur Flour’s kit, though. Next time I’ll do it sans-kit.

  2. 2
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    Elisabeth of Just Eat It — February 28, 2010 @ 12:00 pm

    I usually prefer thin crust pizza, but this dough looks great. Very compelling…

    • 2.1
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      merrygourmet — February 28, 2010 @ 12:12 pm

      Thanks! My husband usually prefers thin crust, too, but he lets me win the pizza-crust battle.

  3. 3
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    Bob — March 7, 2010 @ 7:33 pm

    …now, I’m intimidated…

    • 3.1
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      merrygourmet — March 7, 2010 @ 9:56 pm

      Bob – A photograph can make anything look better than it really is, you know. 🙂

  4. 4
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    Erin at The Healthy Apron — March 17, 2010 @ 10:11 am

    I think I will have to try this recipe! I am a huge crust person and have yet to try making my own dough!

    • 4.1
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      merrygourmet — March 17, 2010 @ 10:23 am

      It’s really very easy, Erin. You’ll have fun trying it!

  5. Pingback: how to make fabulous pizza dough | the merry gourmet

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