So I made the Del's style deep dish for the first time a few weeks ago (and several times since). It's fantastic, and came out really close to what I remember from back when I lived in U-C.
I'm finding, though, that the dough doesn't take anywhere near the amount of flour called for - I usually wind up at about 25% less than the recipe. Other than that, though, it works great out of the gate. I have a couple of observations, and a few questions mixed in with them.
Costco sells a 'sweet' italian sausage that is as close to my memory of Del's pizza sausage as I've been able to find. Extruding them out of the casing into 1" balls, cooking and draining those, then breaking them in half before putting them on the pizza works perfectly.
I've had mixed results with the cheeses so far. I tried to buy a nice low-moisture mozzarella from a store, and it was not low moisture enough, and I wound up with puddles of water. The low-moisture shredded (processed) stuff I've tried (like sargento or lucerne) have worked well, but the taste wasn't super good. Anyone have any suggestions as to a brand (or brands) of the cheeses?
Run of the mill pepperoni has also worked well, but I'm wondering if anyone has any specific favorites or suggestions there, too.
Mushrooms and Spinach make great toppings for the Del's Deep Dish recipe by the way. Sauteed and drained first.
The Del's deep dish recipe also converted almost flawlessly into my memory of Del's Thin crust pizza too. Just rolled it out super-thin, and used an open 'mesh' pan to cook it on. Cranked the oven to 500 for the thin crust, and worked like a charm.
The sauce has also come out really well each time so far, just using whatever can of crushed tomatoes in puree I happen to grab at the store. I'm curious if anyone has noticed any strong differences in quality or taste from brand to brand of the tomatoes, or if anyone has any experience with using fresh tomatoes?
Doubling the recipe works perfectly for a 14" pan.
Extra dough, re-rolled, and cut, make incredible bread sticks (also cooked at 500). Top them with a garlic/herb butter, and a dusting of parmesan before they go in the oven, and you won't even want to use the leftover pizza sauce for dipping.
