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[Dan]

Hi,

My favorite pizza in Champaign, Il, is Monicals.  they now have spread out over central Illinois and maybe into the south.  They have a great thin crust pizza that is just heavenly!!!  

The one I always liked was the Monical's Delight, a Supreme style that includes green olives.  I now believe a pizza has to have green olives to be a GREAT pizza, NOT black olives.

Champaign, being a large college town, is full of great pizza places of all different styles.

I would love to see thier exact recipe recreated and posted here.  The thin crust listed on this site is pretty close to theirs but I still need the recipe for the sauce and how to get sausage like they use.  The grease from their sausage would run out across the top of their pizza and make it taste all the better for it.  I'm not talking about a huge amount of grease, just enough that it added to the taste sensation.

If only they would expand down to the St Louis area where we now live, I would be back in pizza heaven instead of this wasteland of provel topped pizzas with tortilla like crusts.  Yuck!!!

Dan...
 

[YoMomma]

Yes, I as well would love to be able to recreated Monical's thin crust.  

I remember watching them apply the sausage topping and being surprised that it was an uncooked ground pork mixture that they pinched of into marble sized pieces.  I always wondered how hot those ovens were to get that raw meat cooked in less than 10 minutes.  I've tried it at home but the sausage isn't cooked enough when it's ready to come out.  I haven't tried it in my commercial convection Blodgett though - maybe I'll give it a try.  Oh, for a brick oven...  

[scj1226]

Dan,

I believe I once heard that Monical's gets their sausage from a butcher in Oakland, Illinois.  (Small town east of CU) Wish I had the recipe for the thin crust pizza, too.  

SCJ

[drew]

They use italian sausage, and the ovens are 600 degrees.  I can't give out the thin crust recipe sorry.  They're thick crust pizza is really good too.  

[Randy]

Is the cheese on bottom on this thin crust?

Randy

[bigriver]

They use italian sausage, and the ovens are 600 degrees.  I can't give out the thin crust recipe sorry.  They're thick crust pizza is really good too.  

hmmm sounds like you work/worked there...
Start simple what flour do they use?  I won't ask you to give everything away...but a goodhint goes a long way

[k3native]

The italian sausage is proprietary. it is their recipe, but they have it made at a butcher. And, a 'qualified" maker can  make and entire large sausage pizza in 1 mintute.

The secret ingredient in the sauce is..... I will wait to see if anyone is still interested before i tell you all.

The crust is sauced, then 1 oz of mozz cheese to keep toppings from sliding off, then toppings applied, then more cheese. sprinkled with dried basil. Cooked on a hearth coated with cornmeal for easy movement. the ovens are at 650, but on busy fridays, it's hotter because the baking stone cools with repeated use, so the extra heat is needed to keep it hot.

I live out of state now, but when my fam came out 2 months ago, I make them bring me one: pepperoni, green olives, premium blend cheese. YUM!

[Pete-zza]

The secret ingredient in the sauce is..... I will wait to see if anyone is still interested before i tell you all.

k3native,

According to Reply 28 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,600.msg53315.html#msg53315, it's anise.

You can see my attempt at a Monical's clone pizza at Replies 22/23 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,600.msg52938.html#msg52938 (with further detail in Reply 27).

Peter